Get the holiday party started with these festive and fun Cranberry Meatballs! Made in the slow cooker or crockpot, these cranberry meatballs calls for four ingredients only and are so easy you won’t believe it! Warning: these crockpot cranberry meatballs are addictive!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of BRIANNAS Fine Salad Dressings. All opinions and texts are mine.

A bowl of meatballs covered with cranberry sauce

Table of Contents

Crockpot or Slow Cooker Cranberry Meatballs

Even though it’s 2020 and holiday parties are on the down low this year, I am still making a big bowl of these cranberry meatballs because it’s so delicious and it’s a nice festive touch to a slightly different holiday season.

Not to mention, it seriously takes minimal efforts. So why not?

Why crockpot cranberry meatballs are the way to go:

Four ingredients
five minutes of prep time
the slow cooker does the rest of the work!

These slow cooker cranberry meatballs always fly off the table whenever I serve them. They are that popular.

There’s something about that sweet and tangy flavor combination that makes it so hard to stop at one. Or two. Or three…

Closeup on a lots of meatballs coated with sticky cranberry sauce

Ingredients

“How do you make this delicious crockpot cranberry meatballs with just four ingredients?”, you may ask.

Here’s how: using quality ingredients that are jammed packed with incredible flavors.

Here are the ingredients you will need to make slow cooker / crockpot cranberry meatballs:

Cranberry sauce – HERE is my tried and true homemade version for the ultimate cranberry sauce experience. You can use store-bought, or use up leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving! P/S: this is a great way to use leftover cranberry sauce as well!
BRIANNAS’s Organic Apple Cider Vinaigrette Dressing
Brown sugar
Frozen meatballs – I get a bag of already cooked frozen meatballs from the store. Any meatballs work: beef, pork, chicken, turkey, or a mixture.

The cranberry sauce brings a little tartness and sweetness, along with flavor-bursting fruity cranberry flavors that shine in this saucy crockpot cranberry meatballs.

The Organic Apple Cider Vinaigrette Dressing by BRIANNAS provides the tangy and the sour to offset the sweet.

That’s right, this dressing is not just great on salads!

I seriously think it’s made for these cranberry meatballs.

Both of that combined with the brown sugar bring about this one-of-a-kind, incredibly unique and tasty flavor to the savory slow cooker meatballs.

If you are looking for BRIANNAS Organic Apple Cider Vinaigrette Dressing, they are widely available all over the nation…so locate them using the BRIANNAS’ store locator!

Meatballs with a bottle of BRIANNAS dressing in the background

Another option is to have them ship to directly your door by ordering them HERE!

How to make Cranberry Meatballs

There’s no need to over complicate this because all you need to make this deliciousness happen is to bring all the sauces into the crockpot or slow cooker, give it a good stir to combine, then add frozen cooked meatballs to it.

Stir again to coat meatballs in the sauce, then cook on low for 4 hours or high for 2 hours.

In summary, it takes about five minutes to prep your crockpot cranberry meatballs and you can walk away and do all the things you need to do while the meatballs marinade in the amazing flavors in the slow cooker.

Cranberry meatballs with sticky sauce in the slow cooker — Cranberry meatballs in slow cooker

The only thing that makes it slightly more complicated, should you choose to take on this challenge, is to make homemade cranberry sauce instead of using the canned ones.

And while it is slightly more work, making the cranberry sauce takes only 4 ingredients and 10 minutes. And it’s so worth the effort, because the canned ones can’t hold a candle to my homemade cranberry sauce.

Oh yes, I am one of those cranberry sauce snobs…

If you ever have leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving this is totally a bomb way to repurpose it!

But if you want super easy, sure, grab a canned cranberry sauce and you’ll still find that these slow cooker cranberry meatballs are incredible. Sometimes we need easy and I get it. 🙂

Serving Suggestions

I love a dish with much versatility, and this crockpot cranberry meatballs is no doubt one of those super versatile dishes.

A bowl of meatballs with sticky sauce and toothpicks on a few of them

Here are all the ways you can serve slow cooker cranberry meatballs:

as party food / finger food. Serve with toothpicks so it’s easy to pick up! Great for holiday parties, showers, picnics etc.
as a main dish with potatoes or rice and veggies. Good potato and veggie options includes Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Lemon Garlic Broccoli, Garlic Parmesan Asparagus, Cheesy Potato Wedges.
by itself as a snack
in lunch boxes for kids or adults

So even if you are not having a big Christmas or New Years Eve party this year, there’s nothing like a little cranberry and a fun finger food to bring on the festive cheer.

I hope you have as much fun making and eating these cranberry meatballs as we did! ❤️

DID YOU ENJOY THIS RECIPE? Please comment below and give us a 5-star rating! This will help others find this recipe on Google and Pinterest. We very much appreciate your help! 🤍

Other Cranberry Recipes

Here are other yummy cranberry recipes! (Yes, I kinda like cranberries!)

No Knead Cranberry Bread
Turkey Salad with Cranberries
Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Broccoli Kale Apple and Cranberry Slaw
Cranberry Baked Brie
Cranberry Apple Pecan Salad (by Lemon Tree Dwelling)