These Instant Pot BBQ meatballs are made with frozen meatballs, barbecue sauce, and honey for an easy sweet and smoky appetizer. They take just 17 minutes from start to finish, making them a quick option for game day, holidays, summer cookouts, or any time you need party food without much prep.
I love these sweet honey BBQ meatballs because everything goes straight into the pressure cooker and comes together quickly. Serve them with toothpicks as cocktail meatballs, or add them to a barbecue plate with macaroni and cheese, baked beans, mashed potatoes, or green beans.
If you like easy meatball recipes made from frozen meatballs, my Instant Pot frozen meatballs or slow cooker Hawaiian meatballs. For another easy barbecue dinner, try my stovetop BBQ pork chops.
Shortcut Notes
- Frozen meatballs: Fully cooked frozen meatballs mean there is no ground beef to mix, roll, or brown.
- Just three main ingredients: Frozen meatballs, BBQ sauce, and honey make up the recipe, plus water (to help prevent a burn error).
- Under 20 minutes: These Instant Pot meatballs are a fast dump-and-start appetizer with very little hands-on work.
Ingredients
This recipe only calls for three ingredients.
- Frozen meatballs: Use fully cooked frozen meatballs. Homestyle, Italian, pork, turkey meatballs, chicken meatballs, or Swedish-style meatballs can all work, depending on the flavor you want.
- BBQ sauce: I generally use a classic original barbecue sauce. Use your favorite store-bought BBQ sauce for the easiest option.
- Honey: Honey sweetens the barbecue sauce and gives these meatballs their sweet and savory flavor.
- Water: Water gives the Instant Pot the liquid it needs to come to pressure and helps prevent a burn error from the sugar in the honey.
See the recipe card for quantities.
How to Make Instant Pot BBQ Meatballs
First, place a trivet in the bottom of your Instant Pot (see the FAQ below for why a trivet matters).
Place the meatballs, BBQ sauce, water, and honey inside, tossing the ingredients to cover the meatballs.
Set to Pressure Cook on High Pressure for 5 minutes. When the cooking time is complete, do a quick release.
Substitutions
- Frozen meatballs: Turkey meatballs, chicken meatballs, pork meatballs, or beef meatballs can work as long as they are fully cooked and frozen. I recommend frozen rather than thawed meatballs for this Instant Pot recipe.
- BBQ sauce: Most barbecue sauces work well. You can use honey BBQ sauce and leave out the extra honey if you prefer.
- Honey: Maple syrup or agave can work in place of honey. You can also stir the sweetener into the sauce after pressure cooking so you can adjust the sweetness to taste.
- Water: Stick with water for the pressure-cooking liquid so the barbecue sauce does not become too strong or scorch on the bottom of the pot.
If you prefer the classic combination of BBQ sauce and grape jelly, try my Instant Pot grape jelly meatballs. That recipe gives you the sweeter grape jelly BBQ meatballs flavor that is popular for holiday parties and New Year's Eve.
Behind the Recipe
I especially like these meatballs for barbecue AND football season because they can go from freezer to Instant Pot without making homemade meatballs or dirtying another pan.
This is also great when you have a lot of dishes in the works at once. You can have mac & cheese in the oven, green beans on the stove, hash brown casserole in the slow cooker, and these in the Instant Pot.
FAQ
I 100% recommend using a trivet with this recipe. The biggest gripe about the Instant Pot is the dreaded burn notice. Sometimes, no matter how much liquid I use or how short of a cook time I use, I get the error. So, whenever it is appropriate for the recipe, I use a trivet.
A trivet elevates the meat off of the bottom of the Instant Pot liner so there is no risk of meat getting stuck to the bottom of the pan. My Instant Pot came with a trivet, but they are available on Amazon to purchase individually. Just make sure it fits your model.
Luckily for you, these frozen meatballs cook FAST in the Instant Pot. If your pot gets a burn error, hit cancel, do a quick release, and check the meatballs. You may be surprised to find they're ready to go.
📖 Recipe
Instant Pot BBQ Meatballs
Equipment
Ingredients
- 26 oz frozen meatballs fully cooked
- 2 cups BBQ sauce
- ½ cup water
- ¼ cup honey
Instructions
- Place trivet in the bottom of the Instant Pot liner.
- Add frozen meatballs, BBQ sauce, water, and honey, spreading the sauce over the meatballs but do NOT stir.
- Pressure cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. After cooking, do a quick release.
Notes
Nutrition
Food Safety
- Use fully cooked frozen meatballs for this recipe rather than raw meatballs unless you are following a recipe specifically written for cooking raw meat in the pressure cooker.
- Heat the meatballs thoroughly before serving. When reheating leftovers, heat them to 165°F (74°C).
- Refrigerate leftover meatballs within two hours of serving.
- Store leftovers in a covered container in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days.
- Thaw frozen leftovers in the refrigerator rather than on the counter.
Kathy Smith says
Thanks! I used to use a crockpot or roaster! Thanks for figuring out how long to cook! Once finished I did take the trivets (had to use 2 different ones to keep the meatballs up off the bottom) and then stirred and just let them sit for 10 minutes! DELICIOUS! Again thanks!
Kelsey Smith says
Very happy to hear it worked out!
Kelsey says
This is a classic.