Slow Cooker Chicken Apple Butter Meatballs

This cozy slow-cooker dish pairs tender chicken meatballs with a rich, warmly-spiced apple butter sauce to create the perfect fall dinner or crowd-pleasing appetizer. Best of all, it’s incredibly easy to make—just mix, shape, and let the slow cooker do all the work for a delicious, low-effort meal.

Ingredients

  • Granny Smith apple (0.17 units)
  • ground chicken (1 pound)
  • panko (0.5 cup)
  • egg (1 units)
  • kosher salt (1.5 teaspoon)
  • fresh thyme (1 teaspoon)
  • poultry seasoning (0.75 teaspoon)
  • black pepper (0.5 teaspoon)
  • apple butter (1.5 cups)
  • chicken stock (1 cup)
  • Worcestershire sauce (1 teaspoon)
  • chicken bouillon granules (0.75 teaspoon)
  • unsalted butter (2 tablespoons)
  • decorative toothpicks (0 units)

Instructions

  1. Gather all ingredients.
  2. Peel apple; discard peels. Grate apple on the largest holes of a box grater to yield 2/3 cup. Place grated apple in a large bowl.
  3. Add chicken, panko, egg, salt, thyme, poultry seasoning, and black pepper to bowl with grated apples. Mix until just combined. Shape into 18 balls (about 2 tablespoons each).
  4. Stir together apple butter, chicken stock, Worcestershire, and chicken bouillon in a 6-quart slow cooker bowl. Place meatballs in sauce mixture.
  5. Cover and cook until meatballs are cooked through and sauce thickens enough to coat the meatballs, about 2 hours on HIGH or 4 hours on LOW, stirring halfway through. Stir in butter until melted and season with additional salt to taste.
  6. Transfer meatballs and sauce to a platter; insert each meatball with a toothpick and garnish with chopped thyme.

Nutrition

(*Nutrition data is approximate and may vary depending on the brand and type of ingredients used.)

  • kcal: 566
  • fat: 21 g
  • sats: 8 g
  • carbs: 62 g
  • fibre: 3 g
  • protein: 32 g
  • salt: 0 g