Slow Cooker Apple Butter Meatballs

Oct 13, 2021Updated Jul 30, 2025

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These slow cooker apple butter meatballs are smothered in a delicious sweet and savory sauce made by combining tangy chili sauce, warmly spiced apple butter, and maple syrup. Whether it’s game day or a holiday, this easy-to-make appetizer will surely win your guests over.

done cooking apple butter meatballs in slow cooker.

Whether you need a fall or winter appetizer, crockpot apple butter meatballs are the ticket! The classic grape jelly meatball recipe gets a facelift with apple butter.

The reason meatballs work so well with jam or jelly is because of the sweet and savory aspect. The meatballs are pretty large, so when you take a bite, you are only getting a bit of the sweet with the salty, juicy meatball, and it’s a match made in heaven.

ingredients for apple butter meatballs on table.

Key Ingredients

Meatballs – Use precooked frozen meatballs. Shockingly these are AMAZING, we love the texture and flavor of these.
Apple Butter – You can use homemade apple butter or store bought. You can even use pumpkin butter if you have it!
Chili Sauce – This is similar to ketchup and found near the ketchup at the store. It is NOT spicy. Do no use sriracha hot chili sauce or thai sweet chili sauce, these are spicy and not the correct chili sauce.
Maple Syrup – Plenty of this is needed for the chili sauce and apple butter aren’t terribly sweet.
Flavorings – Molasses, cloves and cinnamon add a fall flavor to this appetizer. You can use allspice instead of cinnamon if you have it.

maple syrup, apple butter and chili sauce in a slow cooker.

apple butter sauce mixed in a slow cooker.

How to Make Apple Butter Meatballs

Make a sweet and tangy sauce right in your slow cooker.
Add frozen meatballs and gently stir to coat.
Let the slow cooker do the work—cook until everything’s warm and saucy.

How to serve apple butter meatballs

As an appetizer – These apple meatballs make a great appetizer. Serve these with toothpicks for a great party!
Mashed potatoes – For a hearty fall dinner, try over mashed potatoes.
Steamed rice – Serve over steamed white rice, the rice will soak up the yummy sauce.
If you have extra apple butter use it up in apple butter little smokies or apple butter pork chops.

Variations

We rarely can make something the same way twice, mix up this recipe with one of these variations!

Pumpkin Butter Meatballs – Use 1 1/2 cups of pumpkin butter in place of the apple butter.
Cranberry Meatballs – A can of jellied cranberry sauce is wonderful in this reicpe instead of the apple butter.
Red Current Jelly – Red current jelly has such a tart and wonderful flavor and is great in this recipe. Use 1/2 cups red current jelly instead of the apple butter.
Apple jelly – You can use apple jelly instead of apple butter, though it will be sweeter and you will need to add clove and cinnamon.

Where to Find Chili Sauce at the Store:

You can find chili sauce at the grocery store near the ketchup, and the brand is usually Heinz. Do not buy sriracha hot chili sauce or Thai sweet chili sauce.

Where to Find Apple Butter

Apple butter is found in the grocery store near the jams and jellies.