Instant Pot Frozen Meatballs: A quick and easy way (Only takes 4 minutes!) to make the most delicious Italian meatballs. Serve them on your favorite homemade bolognese recipe or simply have them as an easy meal!
When we make Italian dishes with a red sauce, we usually try to use a quick, favorite marinara sauce using tomato sauce and Italian seasoning (the dressing mix). It is so easy and one of our favorite flavors.
We use it in our venison spaghetti (then of course it’s a given that it’s used in our fried spaghetti recipe) but you can use any of your favorite jar of sauce for these meatballs instead, if you prefer. But it’s our favorite pasta sauce for this Instant Pot meatball recipe.
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Why This Recipe Works
- Quick: Using the Instant Pot, makes this one of the quickest, and easy Instant Pot recipes, with 4 minutes of cook time.
- Busy Weeknights: They’re quick for a busy weeknight or any night of the week! The kids love them by themselves for a one-pot meal, or you can make meatball subs, stuff meatballs in bell peppers, or quickly cook your favorite noodle, and an easy dinner is served!
- Frozen Meatballs: Since the meatballs are frozen, they’re great to keep in the freezer for those last-minute meal ideas or as an appetizer like these slow cooker BBQ meatballs!
Ingredients Needed
I’ve highlighted a couple of ingredients with some relevant notes. Aside from this, the ingredients needed are pretty basic.
- Meatballs – Since we’re using a spaghetti sauce to coat these meatballs in, we chose to use frozen Italian-style meatballs.
- Italian seasoning – The seasoning we use for the sauce, is the Italian dressing seasoning packet. You can usually find this at your local grocery store but it’s different than Italian seasoning in the spice aisle. You want the packet that you can make the salad dressing out of – although you’ll just be using the seasoning.
- Water – ½ cup of water is added to create a liquid substance for the pressure cooking, to help prevent getting a burn notice, so don’t skip this ingredient.
Substitutions
Sometimes substitutions are necessary because of ingredients that are unavailable or needed for dietary restrictions. Here are some suggestions that can help:
- Meatballs – I know you may love homemade meatballs more than frozen, and that’s absolutely ok! If you make your own meatballs (like we do with our easy Swedish meatballs) and freeze them for later, this should also work just fine! Fresh meatballs, however, may cook a bit differently since frozen meatballs tend to be fully cooked and only frozen… so that’s important to keep in mind. You may also choose to make turkey meatballs, ground beef meatballs, or even a different flavor of meatballs, and that’s just fine too.
- Water – if you’d rather use a broth, such as my homemade chicken broth or beef broth instead of water, you absolutely can! Keep in mind, that if you use a regular broth, instead of low-sodium broth, this could make the meatballs very salty, with the salt that’s already in the Italian seasoning packet.
- Pasta sauce – we think using the recipe we use for the sauce in the recipe card below is better than most sauces, but you can use your favorite brand or recipe. Just make sure you’re using enough, especially if you plan to serve any excess sauce over pasta.
Equipment
We make this Instant Pot meatballs recipe, using an electric pressure cooker or what you may call an “Instant Pot.” But any brand will do, to make these pressure cooker meatballs. (Do note, that different brands can vary for cooking time.)
Some may use a steamer basket for easy removal of the cooked meatballs from the bottom of the pot, but I don’t feel there’s a need for this. However, it won’t hurt anything if you do decide to use this.
How to Make Frozen Instant Pot Meatballs
Cooking these meatballs at high pressure means that they only have to cook for 4 minutes. It’s a great way to serve juicy meatballs as, or as part of a delicious dinner.
*Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full ingredients list & instructions!*
STEP 1. Make sauce. In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the 2 cans of tomato sauce and 2 packets of Italian dressing seasoning mixes until combined.
Tip: If making the meatballs to serve over pasta, now is a good time to start boiling your pasta, so it can be cooking while the meatballs are pressuring.
STEP 2. Water and meatballs. Pour ½ cup water and frozen meatballs in to the Instant Pot metal insert (Image 1).
STEP 3. Add sauce. Next, pour the seasoned tomato sauce in, over the meatballs (Image 2).
STEP 4. Stir and Secure. Stir to combine the sauce and meatballs. Secure the lid on the Instant Pot, turn the steam valve to “seal” and set the timer for 4 minutes (Image 3).
STEP 5. Remove lid. When the timer ends, quick-release the steam valve and when the float valve goes down, remove the lid (Image 4).
STEP 6. Serve! Finally, serve and enjoy. If desired, sprinkle on grated parmesan cheese, fresh basil, and/or fresh parsley.
Recipe Pro Tips
- Make ahead. Even though these cook quickly, you can also make a big batch to eat on for a few days, or even freeze again for a quick spaghetti and meatballs recipe when you need something hearty and fast.
- Stock up on ingredients. Since all of the ingredients can be stored for quite a while, this is a great recipe to stock up on so you can make them when you’re not sure what to have for a main dish!
Recipe FAQs
When cooking meatballs in the Instant Pot, it only takes 4 minutes to cook. Then, you’ll quick-release and allow the float valve to go down before removing the lid. (This could take a few extra minutes.)
Allow the meatballs to cool off, and then place them in an airtight container and in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
Absolutely. The best way to freeze cooked meatballs is to let them cool completely, and then place them in a single layer, without touching, either on a cookie sheet or in an airtight container. When they’ve become frozen, you can place them together in a freezer bag or freezer container to store easier. (Freezing them separately at first, keeps them from sticking together when freezing.)
More Italian Recipes
If you love easy Italian recipes like this one, then you’ll also love these:
Did you make this? I’d be so grateful if you left a “star” rating below to let me know what you thought! Then, the next time you need a quick and easy recipe, come back to Fantabulosity to browse all of my easy recipes!
Recipe
Instant Pot Frozen Meatballs
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker such as an Instant Pot
Ingredients
- ½ cup water
- 32 ounce bag of frozen Italian meatballs
- 30 ounces tomato sauce 2 – 15 ounce cans
- 2 – .7 ounce packets Italian dressing seasoning mix
- grated parmesan cheese and fresh parsley if desired
Instructions
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the 2 cans of tomato sauce and 2 packets of Italian dressing seasoning mixes until combined.
- Pour ½ cup water and frozen meatballs in to the Instant Pot metal insert.
- Next, pour the seasoned tomato sauce in, over the meatballs and stir to combine.
- Secure the lid on the Instant Pot, turn the steam valve to "seal" and set the timer for 4 minutes.
- When the timer ends, quick-release the steam valve and when the float valve goes down, remove the lid.
- Serve the meatballs! If desired, sprinkle on grated parmesan cheese and fresh parsley.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Val says
This was such an easy, yet delicious recipe! Thank you so much for sharing!
Melissa says
Great recipe – I love how quick these cook up, great recipe for the family.
Julia says
This is my absolute favorite meal on those crazy weeknights. So easy and super simple to follow!! Always a win in our family.
April says
Never making meatballs any other way again – so quick and so easy and so much flavor!