Slow Cooker Sweet and Spicy Buffalo Meatballs

Slow Cooker Sweet and Spicy buffalo meatballs will soon become your new favorite easy appetizer! Spicy Buffalo hot sauce sweetened up to give these meatballs a deliciously tangy glaze! You can also make this appetizer in the Instant Pot for ultimate ease.

With holiday parties in full swing, football playoffs around the corner, and of course Christmas and New Year’s Eve, everyone needs a super easy no fail recipe that is sure to please a crowd. These meatballs are PERFECT!

I whipped these up last weekend and brought to a friends’s house to watch one of our favorite sporting events: Army vs. Navy football game. These were a big hit among the adults and kids!

Anything with buffalo sauce is a brilliant idea when it comes to football food. And although I am about 30% on board with buffalo wings, I am like 120% on board with buffalo meatballs! This easy recipe is such a crowd pleaser, and comes together SOOOOO easily. If you use my shortcut of store bought meatballs, they are especially easy.

How to make Slow Cooker Sweet and Spicy Buffalo Meatballs:

The best part about the meatballs was throwing it all into my slow cooker. Definitely hitting the EASY button with this recipe!

These Spicy and Sweet Meatballs only require a few ingredients:

• Buffalo Hot Sauce
• Coconut Aminos (or soy sauce)
• Dijon Mustard
• Raspberry jam
• honey
• hot water
• Frozen meatballs

All we do is whisk together the coconut aminos, dijon mustard, jam, honey, and pour on top of the meatballs. Set the slow cooker to high, and wait a few hours for your delicious appetizer! As you can tell, I took a shortcut. Instead of making my own meatballs, I used the frozen ones at Trader Joe’s.

I’m all about the shortcuts in December. However, these aren’t the healthiest of options and they are not Paleo or Gluten-Free. If you want to be an overachiever make your own Gluten-Free, Paleo Meatballs, then head to my Slow Cooker Paleo Turkey Meatball recipe and use those meatballs with this sauce!!

Instant Pot Variation:

Yes, these can easily be made in the Instant Pot! The only difference is that we will add in some hot water to the sauce, just to allow the sauce ingredients to blend easily, and to have enough liquid so the meatballs can come to pressure.

I have to mention something about this sauce. It’s really really good. Like you’ll be saving this recipe and making it all the time good. Besides being really good, it’s also on the spicy side. I tend to like things pretty hot. My friend asked me to make some meatballs that would be “kid friendly”. Let’s just say that a few kids really liked these meatballs, and some of them thought they were a tad bit spicy 😉 So if you have a spicy food aversion, I would cut the amount of buffalo sauce to 1/2 cup sauce and go from there! All the adults loved them!

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Slow Cooker Sweet and Spicy Buffalo Meatballs

Prep Time 3 minutes

Cook Time 3 hours

Total Time 3 hours 3 minutes

Servings 10 servings

Author Amy Rains

5 from 2 votes

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Ingredients

• 40 oz frozen meatballs*
• 2/3 cup Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Sauce*
• 1/2 cup raspberry preserves
• 1/3 cup GF Tamari soy sauce or coconut aminos
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• 1/3 cup hot water (for Instant Pot only)

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, mix together hot sauce, honey, preserves, soy sauce, and dijon mustard. Whisk until smooth.
2. Pour half of the sauce along the bottom of your slow cooker. Place frozen meatballs on top of the sauce. Pour remaining sauce on the meatballs.
3. Set your slow cooker to low and cook for 3 hours. Change temperature to warm, and allow your slow cooker to stay at warm while meatballs are being served.

For the Instant Pot:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together buffalo sauce, coconut aminos, honey, dijon mustard, raspberry preserves, and hot water.

2. Place the frozen meatballs in the Instant Pot. Pour the sauce on top and gently toss to coat the meatballs.

3. Secure the lid and make sure it's in the sealed position. Select manual or high pressure and cook for 5 minutes.

4. Serve hot!

Recipe Notes

To use a Paleo or GF version of meatballs, use this recipe in place of frozen meatballs.
2/3 cup buffalo sauce gives this recipe quite a bit of "kick". You can adjust the heat and spiciness by lowering to 1/2 cup buffalo sauce and 1/4 cup water.