A sweet and spicy glaze makes these sweet heat meatballs a great appetizer for holiday parties, game nights, or just about any time you feel like having meatballs on a stick. We use frozen homestyle meatballs to make things easy so you can focus more on the eating part of this delicious appetizer.
Let me just say something here off the bat. I love meatballs. If there’s any kind of food in the world that causes someone’s brain to malfunction and start chanting its name in a frenzied mantra, it’s meatballs for me.
It started a very long time ago. Let’s fairy tale this. Once upon a time, I happened across a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that served spaghetti and meatballs. I ate it and I fell in love. And we lived hungrily ever after. The end.
Probably not the best of fairy tales but I started off making Parmesan meatballs which I put in subs and gradually recreated the dish that started this all.
Then came the invasion of the evil Ikea Swedish meatballs. Can I say yum? Now when I see meatball recipes all over Pinterest, it takes a huge amount of restraint not to start a meatball posting crusade and throw in the towel by renaming my blog to The Meatball Inc.
But today I yield. Because these meatballs are so glaze happy they wouldn’t take no for an answer. So here we have sweet heat meatballs. It has this background heat to it that’s just right. And it’s sweet. It’s meat-shaped balls on a stick. Hooray for great inventions!
And while you can opt to make your own meatballs, you can also get frozen ones to work with here. How easy is that? That gives you more time to work on that glaze.
Serve these babies at dinner parties, cookouts, or whatever function you have. It’s great for party food or just plain snacks!
MORE MEATBALL RECIPES TO TRY
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Sweet Heat Meatballs
- Total Time: 15 mins
- Yield: 25 servings 1x
Description
A spicy and sweet glaze makes these sweet heat meatballs great for parties. Meatballs on a stick for meatball lovers!
Ingredients
- 1 bag (32 oz.) frozen, pre-cooked homestyle meatballs
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon ginger, minced
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 can (8 oz.) crushed pineapple
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Over medium-high heat, bring the water to a boil.
- Add molasses, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, chili powder, cayenne, crushed pineapple and Worcestershire sauce and stir to combine.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Add in meatballs and stir to coat evenly.
- Reduce heat to medium and simmer until the sauce reduces, about 10 minutes.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Makes about 50 meatballs.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
Nutritional based on 25 servings (2 meatballs each)
Comments & Reviews
These look amazing! I am going to make these for a holiday party this weekend. What kind of molasses did you use? Light/dark/blackstrap? Thank you!
You know, it only said molasses on the bottle I bought. Sorry I can’t be more help!
I found the regular molasses, thanks!! Made these for a party and they were a hit!! This will be my go-to party meatball recipe, thanks so much!!
★★★★★
Can you freeze these?
I don’t see why not!
I have to say these are favorites for us! I found your recipe years ago for an appetizer and have used them ever since. Whenever I make them for parties they are the first to go and everyone requests them now. We even have these as a meal with some rice and broccoli. It’s a family favorite for sure and so yummy!
I’m thinking of making them for a party coming up soon. A friend’s party who tells me 125 people are coming. That’s a lot of meatballs! I’m thinking maybe 2 meatballs per person for half the amount of people coming, assuming not everyone eats it. And thanks for letting me know a year later how it’s a favorite 🙂
You said you make your own meatballs. What recipe do you follow for that?
★★★★★
Heya Peggy. I use this recipe to make my own. I would halve the ingredients in that recipe to cater to this one:
http://thecookingjar.com/parmesan-meatballs/
Can you mix up the sauce and add sauce and meatballs to crock pot and cook for 6 hours?
Yes, I think that will work on the low setting with frozen meatballs. If you decide to make your own meatballs, you will need to broil the meatballs first in the oven to melt away any fat from the ground beef so the fat does not dilute the sauce in the slow cooker. Ground beef is a huge culprit of diluting sauces in the slow cooker unless fat is rendered first!
Can you use turkey balls in ace of beef?
You absolutely can, Kelly. Use whatever meatballs you like!
I made these for dinner tonight. Excellent! They’re were so delicious. Thanks!
★★★★★
You’re welcome, Jill! I thought they would be more of a party food kinda thing, but I’m glad they weren’t too sweet for dinner!
Hope the substitute works out well, Joelle! Good luck.
Wow looks so good,I will make these.Thanks
Very welcome, Dana!
Can you freeze these?
Sounds awesome, minus the pineapple! I’m not a big pineapple fan.
Thanks, Holly! The pineapple balances out the strong taste of molasses, but if you don’t mind that, win win!
Wow these look amazing 🙂 I’m totally in love with meatballs too. Your pics are so stunning too, major food porn xx
thenoblefoodie.com
Thanks Bridget! Can you believe these were gone in a day? 😉
OMG, the Ikea meatballs!! I have seen them all my life but never even THOUGHT of trying them!! ha ha! I never think of making meatballs, now you’ve got me having a hankering for them. I mean, how could I not want “Sweet Heat” ones??
★★★★★
It’s sweet at first but after awhile the heat kicks in. It’s a nice and mellow heat, not the kind to make you tear up and pant for water 🙂
I love meatballs too 🙂 Whenever my grandma would make them, each batch would disappear when she turned around 🙂 These look delish, and would be perfect for entertaining!
I love making meatballs from scratch but this is a great option to whip some up for company in a hurry!
Does anyone have reccomendations which brand of pre-cooked meatballs to get?
Thanks
I usually make my meatballs from scratch but I tried the Target brand of meatballs for this and it was pretty decent. Maybe someone else can chime in with their preferred brand?