Crockpot Bourbon BBQ Meatballs

Memorial Day weekend. Terrence had the idea to do a cookout at the apartment complex's shared grill — the sad little charcoal grill next to the parking lot that no one ever uses because it's caked in the residue of ten years of forgotten cookouts. We cleaned it (well, Terrence cleaned it while I supervised and Jayden "helped" by hitting it with a stick). We invited Mama, Oliver and Danielle, and a couple from my dental office — Brian, the other hygienist, and his wife Keisha (not Terrence's future wife Keisha, a different Keisha, Nashville has many Keishas).

The cookout was perfect in the way that only imperfect things can be. The grill was uneven — one side hot, one side warm — so the burgers cooked at different speeds and we ate in waves. Terrence manned the grill with the confidence of a man who has watched exactly one YouTube grilling tutorial. Jayden ran circles around the parking lot in his fire helmet until he tripped and skinned his knee and screamed for exactly ninety seconds and then went back to running. Chloe sat in a lawn chair reading and refused to socialize, which at seven is "shy" and at seventeen will be "an introvert" and at twenty-seven will be "me." She's my daughter. We read at parties. It's a genetic condition.

Mama brought potato salad. The potato salad. The Lorraine Mitchell potato salad that has been to every cookout, every potluck, every church function since 1989 and has never once been modified because it is PERFECT and modification would be BLASPHEMY. Hard-boiled eggs, dill pickles (NOT sweet pickles — Lorraine will leave your cookout if she sees sweet pickles in a potato salad), mustard, mayo, celery, and paprika on top. The recipe is in Earline's box. The recipe is in my memory. The recipe is in my hands when I'm eighty and can't remember my own name — I will still make this potato salad. It is the most important side dish in American history and I will not be taking questions.

Oliver asked about the Atlanta trip. I told him about Gloria and the cornbread and the jollof rice. He said, "So you're serious about this one, huh?" I said, "His toothbrush is in my bathroom." Oliver said, "That's serious." It is. Four toothbrushes is serious. Four toothbrushes is a statement. Four toothbrushes is a woman who spent three years with three toothbrushes finally adding a fourth and not being afraid of what that means. It means he's staying. It means I'm letting him stay. It means the cycle — Danny leaving, Marcus leaving — might end in my kitchen with a fourth toothbrush in a cup next to the sink.

I made my own contribution: pulled pork sandwiches. Slow cooker, ten hours, Dr Pepper in the liquid (secret weapon), served on grocery store buns with coleslaw on top. Brian's wife said, "You should do this for a living." I laughed. People keep saying that. The dental hygienist who should cater. The Waffle House waitress who should open a restaurant. The Mitchell woman who should feed people for money. I keep laughing. But the laugh is getting quieter, and the idea is getting louder.

The pulled pork got the compliment, but honestly the whole day ran on slow-cooker faith — the belief that if you put the right things together and give them enough time and low heat, something worth sharing comes out the other side. That’s exactly what these Crockpot Bourbon BBQ Meatballs are: the kind of recipe you set up before the kids are awake, forget about while you’re cleaning a decade of grill grime, and pull out to a parking lot full of people who suddenly look at you like you’ve been hiding something. Keisha’s voice was still in my head when I made these the following weekend, and I’m starting to think she might be right.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 3 hrs | Total Time: 3 hrs 10 min | Servings: 10

Ingredients

2 lbs frozen fully cooked meatballs (about 40 meatballs)
1 1/2 cups BBQ sauce
1/4 cup bourbon
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Sliced green onions, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Make the sauce. In a medium bowl, whisk together the BBQ sauce, bourbon, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, garlic powder, smoked paprika, and black pepper until fully combined.
Load the crockpot. Place the frozen meatballs in the bottom of a 4-quart or larger slow cooker in a single layer as much as possible. Pour the bourbon BBQ sauce over the top and stir gently to coat all the meatballs.
Slow cook. Cover and cook on LOW for 3 to 4 hours or HIGH for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring once halfway through, until the sauce is thickened and the meatballs are heated through.
Finish and serve. Give everything one final stir to coat the meatballs evenly. Switch the slow cooker to the WARM setting for serving. Garnish with sliced green onions if desired. Serve with toothpicks as an appetizer or pile onto slider buns for a sandwich version.

Nutrition (per serving)

Crockpot Bourbon BBQ Meatballs — The Cookout Contribution That Started a Dream