Crockpot Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Hearty meatballs, sweet pineapple, and colorful bell peppers are tossed with your favorite barbecue sauce and simmered in the slow cooker to make these sweet and sour meatballs that the whole family craves.

Served over rice, or simply on its own, this is a meal that makes regular appearances on our meal plan.

Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Meatballs

You know those days when you simply don’t have the energy to think about dinner? This is the meal for those days.

This recipe starts by simply adding frozen meatballs to your slow-cooker. Could you use homemade meatballs for this recipe? You bet.

For me though, the beauty of these slow cooker sweet and sour meatballs is in the fact the recipes requires almost zero effort. So, the frozen meatballs are my friend here.

Pour barbecue sauce over them and stir to coat. Cover with a lid and walk away for a few hours.

If your family enjoys things a little spicy, I highly recommend using a spicy barbecue sauce. This will work nicely with any barbecue sauce you like.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs in the Crockpot

Half an hour to an hour before you’re ready to eat, toss in the peppers and pineapple, give it a stir and cover again.

Start some rice and you’ll have dinner on the table with almost no effort at all. You’ll spend more time slicing the bell pepper than anything else for this meal!

You can cook the meatballs in the crockpot on HIGH for a couple of hours or on LOW for four hours, it works nicely each way, I just adjust the heat and time according to when I want to have dinner ready that day.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs with Pineapple

This five-ingredient recipe adds up to slow cooker sweet and sour meatballs that you can throw together in just a few minutes.

As much as I love cooking and baking from scratch most of the time, there are days when nothing beats a dinner that I can get on the table with about 5 minutes of effort.

For a couple more EASY dinner ideas, I recommend trying a bowl of Hearty Taco Soup or this Stuffed Pepper Skillet.

This One Pot Sausage and Rice Dinner is another one that my kids love. (They eat ridiculous amounts of it every time we make it.)

And this Smoked Barbecue Beef Brisket is another crock-pot dinner that’s terrific for a busy day.

Sticky Asian Meatballs are sweet and a little bit spicy. I typically serve these meatballs over rice, with some steamed or roasted vegetables on the side. However, they work great as a party appetizer too.

This sweet and spicy chicken stir fry is filled with broccoli and peppers and tossed in a terrific barbecue sauce for a savory sweet meal we all love.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs Recipe

1. Add the meatballs and barbecue sauce to the crock-pot. Stir to coat. Cook on low for 4 hours, or on high for 2 hours.
2. When the meatballs are warm, add the peppers and pineapple to the crock-pot. Stir to combine. Cook an additional 30-60 minutes until the peppers are tender.
3. Serve over rice and sprinkle with green onions.

Cooking Tip: To answer the question in advance, yes, you can combine all of the ingredients in the crock-pot at the beginning of the cooking process.

However, my preference is to add the peppers and pineapple at the end, so they retain their color and crispness.

Slow cookers or crockpots are an appliance of which I have more than one. If you are an avid slow cooker user like I am, you might understand the need for more than one. So, let’s talk about my favorites:

First up is this 6-quart slow cooker that has a locking lid. These crockpots are fantastic for transporting foods. Mine has gone everywhere from church potlucks to barbecues, game nights to Thanksgiving dinner. However, fair warning, these slow cookers run crazy hot. Low is closer to a boil than a simmer, the warm setting actually simmers. So trust me when I say HIGH is high.

My everyday slow cooker is this 8-quart Crockpot. It’s my go-to appliance for cooking large roasts and big batches of chili. Fun fact: did you know that a full 4-quart cooker, actually cooks more slowly than a half-full 8-quart cooker?

For just cooking a few pounds of chicken to shred for enchiladas or other smaller recipes, this 3-quart version is perfect.

If you aren’t a fan of the idea of keeping more than one slow cooker in the house, these CrockPockets are a game-changer when it comes to preparing and holding multiple dishes at the same time. They slide into a standard 6-quart crockpot, dividing it into two sections that are perfect for serving different side dishes or keeping taco fillings warm for parties.

{originally published 1/27/21 – recipe notes and photos updated 3/12/24}