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Holiday Cranberry Orange Meatballs

You can really make these any time, but the cranberry-orange flavor and aroma marries perfectly with fall and winter celebrations. It’s bright, slightly sweet, and a slow-cooker surprise for your guests. It’s similar to grape jelly meatballs but with a wholly unexpected taste.
You will not need to make homemade meatballs for this recipe unless you want to. Small pre-cooked, frozen ones do fine. This recipe uses traditional Italian meatballs, BUT turkey meatballs make for a clever pairing.
If you want to make them into a meal, simply serve them over rice or noodles and make a side dish. You can freeze them, too. Cover a cooking sheet with parchment. Place the finished meatballs individually on the surface. Slide the sheet into the freezer. Once they’re totally frozen, transfer them to a food storage bag so you can take out a few at a time.
Tip: Size Matters. You can find three sizes of meatballs at the store. One is the size you’d expect on spaghetti, but they don’t work well for this recipe. The middle size is the traditional party meatball. Finally, there are even smaller ones that are fun to use with crackers.

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs frozen meatballs
  • 12 oz chili sauce
  • 14 oz cranberry sauce or jelly (the jelly sticks better)
  • 3 tbsp orange juice
  • ½ tsp orange zest
  • 1 tbsp light brown sugar

Instructions 

  • Put the cranberry sauce in a pan.
  • Warm it up until it melts.
  • Stir in all the other ingredients
  • Pour a little of the mixture into the bottom of your slow cooker
  • Place the meatballs on top
  • Follow with the rest of the cranberry-orange sauce
  • Set the cooker to low for four hours.
  • You can leave these in the cooker on warm and serve out a little at a time as needed.

Notes

If you use turkey meatballs, add about ¼ tsp of poultry seasoning to the mix.