These Crock Pot Sweet and Sour Meatballs are so yummy and easy to make! With homemade meatballs, pineapple chunks, and a tangy sweet sauce, you are gonna love it!
Crock Pot Sweet and Sour Meatballs
This Crock Pot Sweet and Sour Meatballs recipe came from the Williams Family way back when our blog began. Since then I have made it dozens of times! They are super easy! If you are in a rush, you can cook this over the stovetop, but cooking it in the crock pot gives the meatballs time to soak up all the sweet and sour flavors. Also, I doubled the sauce recipe on this because my family loves to eat the sauce over rice.. if you aren’t a big sauce fan, feel free to half the sauce part.
Homemade Meatballs or Store-Bought Meatballs
This recipe includes an actual recipe for meatballs if you want to make your own… but the last few times I have made these I have bought the turkey meatballs at Costco and used those! I have also used the Italian meatballs from Costco and those taste great too (I just feel less guilty eating the turkey meatballs and my kids don’t even know the difference)! I just dump in the meatballs with the sauce (and veggies and pineapple) and dinner is DONE. It is one of those great fix-it and forget-it crock pot meals.
What to Serve on the Side
Of course these delicious sweet and sour meatballs go great with rice on the side, but there are other options to consider. A slightly healthier alternative to white rice is quinoa. While still carrying carbohydrates, quinoa packs high protein and fiber into every bite, while decreasing the calorie count by 40 per cup. If you want to go even healthier, consider cauliflower rice, which has roughly 2.5 grams of carbs per cup (compared to 45 grams of carbs per cup for white rice).
Even more great Hawaiian flavors
Can’t get to the islands as often as you’d like, but still enjoy the flavor of Hawaii? This crock pot sweet and sour meatballs isn’t the only way to go. Check out these great options:
- Hawaiian Style Chicken and Long Rice
- Authentic Hawaiian Macaroni Salad
- How to make a Hawaiian Plate lunch
Or keep your crock pot cooking even more tasty dishes like these:
How to make Crock Pot Sweet and Sour Meatballs
Ingredients
For the Meatballs:
- 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
- 2/3 cup cracker crumbs
- 1/2 red bell pepper finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes or more to taste
- 2/3 cup chopped onion
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons ginger
For the Rest…
- 4 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- 1/3 cup ketchup
- 1 green pepper chopped
- 1 red bell pepper chopped
- 14 ounces pineapple tidbits divided into juice and tidbits
Instructions
- Mix meatball ingredients together and roll into meatballs. Brown and cook over medium heat in large skillet until cooked through (Or you can roll them and bake them in the oven at 425 for 13-14 minutes).
- In a small mixing bowl, mix cornstarch and brown sugar. Drain pineapple juice into brown sugar mixture with soy sauce, vinegar, and ketchup.
- Add meatballs, peppers, and pineapple tidbits to crock pot and pour sauce over.
- Cook on low for 2-4 hours or until sauce is thickened.
- Serve over rice.
Equipment
- Crock Pot Slow Cooker
Noelle Simpson says
These were so delicious, perfect dinner over some rice! Big hit with my family.
Eden says
these turned out amazing, perfectly cooked and the flavor was spot on.
Betsy says
I don’t know what I was expecting, but this definitely exceeded ALL of my expectations! These meatballs are delightfully delicious and we loved the sauce! Definitely a good call to serve it over rice!
kelly L polizzi says
Do you think this would be good with chicken instead of the meatballs? I’m not sure my picky italian family will be able to stomach meatballs any other way besides in spaghetti sauce.
Favorite Family Recipes says
Yes I think it would be delicious!!
Nicole says
Made this for the first time tonight, my family loved it, now I can see how it can be a family staple. Will be saving this one
Annabelle says
What size bag of meatballs should you use for the recipe size sauce?
Favorite Family Recipes says
If you are using frozen, you can use 2 pounds. This will coat the meatballs. If you want extra sauce to put over rice you will probably just want to use 1 pound. Hope this helps!
Valerie says
Made these last year.. They were a big hit!! Couldn’t find cracker crumbs, made crumbs from saltines. Cut down on the ginger, thinking about using the full amount this year. Thanks for a great recipe.
Favorite Family Recipes says
Thanks for the five-star rating!!
Elizabeth Waller says
Can this be done as a stove top recipe instead of in the crock pot?
Favorite Family Recipes says
Yes, you can just bring it all to a simmer until the meatballs are heated through. Hope this helps!
Lahrae says
It’s funny that I see this on here because I have been making the meatballs, doubling the sauce recipe, and then sticking in my crockpot for YEARS! Cheers to adding it to Pinterest!
Freida says
In the ingredients list, it states 1/4 white vinegar. Is that supposed to be 1/4 cup of white vinegar?
Erica says
Yes, white vinegar. 🙂 Sorry, will clarify on the recipe
Samantha says
Hi – question about the cornstarch. It’s still an ingredient I’m not very familiar with … what does it do for this dish? I’d like to cut it out or substitute it for something less carb-y if possible. Thank you!
Erica says
Corn starch thickens liquids. It makes it so the sauce sticks to the chicken better. Hope this helps!
Michelle says
I buy the Italian meatballs at Costco also. Can they go in the crockpot frozen?
Erica says
Yes, they can.. we do it all the time!
Denise R. says
Looks great! What size of can of pineapple do you use? I’m planning on making these tonight!!
Erica says
Just the “typical” size can.. I think it is around 15-20 oz? I don’t have any in my pantry right now so I can’t tell you exactly lol. Sorry I’m not a huge help with this one!
Theresa says
I made these for lunch today. Oh my, are they amazing! Next time I am adding sliced carrots to up the veggies. But these meatballs are absolutely amazing!
Thank you for sharing.
wendy says
Tried these for dinner last night. This is a “do again” recipe! Very easy and very Yummy.
Stacey Doll says
My mom has been making this since I was a child, and now I make them for my kids. Exact same recipe! So delicious. I make a huge pan, and we eat them all!
Rina says
I am retired but I still love ciokong in my CrockPot. recipes are endless and so good. I make a beef roast in mine and use three seasoning packets, Ranch, Peppercorn and Italian. Out of this world taste.
Rochelle Benson says
Do you use fresh ginger or powdered?
Favorite Family Recipes says
I used powdered in this recipe!
J.L Rockey says
I need to make Waikiki Meatballs for approximately 20 people. Any idea how many servings this recipe provides?
Kendra says
I LOVED these. I never eat leftovers, but there’s no way I was going to let these go to waste. This recipe is definitely going in my favorites! And it was easy too 🙂
Dee says
Can I use fresh pineapple in this recipe? I don’t have canned at this time. The pineapples are from my garden.
Favorite Family Recipes says
Sure! That sounds delicious!