bourbon peach bbq meatballs
Are you ready for an all new, totally amazing appetizer that’s sweet, smoky, spicy, and ridiculously easy to prepare? These little cocktail meatballs are a bit like the grape jelly cocktail meatballs that your grandma makes (well, I make them too, to be completely honest.) But these are pumped up about 100 notches. I add sweet, peach jam, tangy barbecue sauce, a couple shots of bourbon to make it fun, and a spicy kick of chipotle! The two shots of bourbon cook with the meatballs and add depth to the flavor, but if you want a more prominent bourbon taste, simply add another shot just before serving and stir them up again. Everyone loves these so double the recipe and put them in a larger Crock Pot for a bigger crowd.
for 2 lb. bourbon peach bbq meatballs:
2 lb.plain, frozen meatballs (not Italian)
19 oz. smoky sweet BBQ sauce (I use Heinz Kentucky Bourbon BBQ)
11 oz. peach jam
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon chipotle powder (depending on how spicy you like it)
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 to 3 shots bourbon (use your favorite)
Place frozen meatballs in the crock of a 4 quart slow cooker.
In a medium bowl, combine: BBQ sauce, jam, brown sugar, chipotle powder, onion powder, garlic powder, and two shots of bourbon. Stir well and pour over meatballs. Stir so that all the meatballs are completely coated with the sauce.
Cover slow cooker and cook meatballs on the HIGH setting for 3 to 4 hours, or on the LOW setting for 6 to 8 hours.
Once meatballs are done, stir them gently and taste one. If you want more of a bourbon flavor, add another shot of bourbon, and stir again.
Enjoy!
~ Melissa
Could you make this with fresh meatballs instead of frozen?
You could, but fresh meatballs tend to be much more fragile than frozen meatballs.
This website was a DELIGHT to print from! I’ll remember that, and toodle around more on here for other recipes. Drives me nuts when there is no way to print a recipe without cutting/pasting/etc. Thanks!
Yay! Glad to hear it. 🙂 Enjoy the recipes!
Just got home from a very crowded grocery store. Not gonna go back out. But didn’t even think about using peach jam. I got cherry preserves. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
I am not a fan of overly sweet. Do you think I could leave the brown sugar out? I assume there’s plenty of sugar in the bbq sauce and peach preserves.
Hi Carla,
Sure, you can leave out the brown sugar 🙂
This recipe sounds so good!! I went to the grocery store to buy the ingredients and came up short!! I cannot find peach JAM; only peach preserves or peach fruit spread. In my thinking jam does not have fruit pieces in it like preserves. Please tell me where to find peach jam or what you would suggest using as a substitute. I also could not find the Heinz Kentucky Bourbon BBQ sauce; where did you find that? Thank you for your time in answering my questions. And thank you for a delicious-sounding recipe!!
Hi Jean! 🙂
Feel free to use any peach jelly, jam, or preserves that you can find. No worries there. And, since there is bourbon in this recipe you don’t need to use the BBQ sauce with the bourbon in it. I found mine at Walmart (of all places)… but lots of stores carry the Heinz sauces. I like them because they’re delicious, inexpensive, and don’t contain high fructose corn syrup. Hope this helps, Lovely! Thanks for stopping by. XO
An extra step but suggest make your own meatballs and freeze them before proceeding with the recipe. Your site is full of scrumptious goodies. Thank you
can I use meatballs from scratch, not frozen?
Sure! I would use a recipe for meatballs that can stand up to hours in the slow cooker and won’t fall apart.
Do you have to use chipolte or bourbon for this recipe?
Nope 🙂
Could younuse.Crown Royal Peach bourban?
I’ve never tried that, so I’m not sure how it would work in this. If it’s sweet, I’d suggest not adding any extra sugar to the meatball recipe. Hope that helps! Enjoy 🙂
Do you use these as a meal or an appetizer? They look amazing!
are these meat balls kid friendly ?
What if all I have is Italian meatballs? Will they taste weird?