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These Instant Pot Meatballs are the easiest way to make meatballs, EVER. No browning or sautéing. Just throw them in the sauce uncooked and let the Instant Pot do the rest!
Featured with this Recipe
- Instant Pot Meatballs
- Instant Pot Meatball Ingredients
- How to Make Meatballs
- Put them straight in the Pot!
- Any Kind Of Pressure Cooker Will Work
- Avoiding The Burn Notice
- Quick Reference: How Long To Cook Meatballs in the Instant Pot
- Storing, Freezing, and Reheating Meatballs
- Tips for Cooking and Serving
- Frequently Asked Questions About Instant Pot Meatballs
- Want More Instant Pot Recipes?
- How to Make Instant Pot Meatballs
- Instant Pot Meatballs Recipe
Instant Pot Meatballs
Try this Instant Pot Meatballs recipe with some of our favorite side dishes or salads. If it’s bread you are looking for, you can never go wrong with Hot & Cheesy Garlic Bread, Breadtwists, or our Parmesan Pull Apart bread.
Meatballs in the Instant Pot are THE way to go when it comes to meatballs. They really couldn’t be easier! When cooking meatballs in a pan, they can crumble and fall apart. Baking them can dry them out. Cooking them in the Instant Pot is easier AND tastes better. By cooking them in the sauce, the meaty flavor infuses the sauce and makes it so much more flavorful. Instant Pot Meatballs can be shaped, thrown in, and cooked without falling apart AT ALL. The meatballs stay tightly packed and don’t crumble in the sauce!
Instant Pot Meatball Ingredients
- ground beef – You can also use a beef/pork mixture with lean ground beef and Italian sausage, or if you prefer turkey meatballs use ground turkey
- onion – yellow or white will work best, finely chopped or grated
- bread crumbs – seasoned or unseasoned is fine. We like using panko bread crumb
- parmesan cheese
- eggs – the “binder” that holds the meatballs together.
- milk – adds more moisture to the meat while cooking and keeps it from drying out
- seasonings – garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper (feel free to add or sub out other dried or fresh herbs like basil, parsley, or thyme)
- spaghetti sauce – you can use jarred pasta sauce or our recipe for canned spaghetti sauce
How to Make Meatballs
- Combine all ingredients (except spaghetti sauce) in a large bowl until well-mixed. Mixing together with your hands works great.
- Form into 1.5-inch balls using your hands or a small ice cream scoop or cookie scoop. You want them to be slightly smaller than a golf ball. I like to set them on some parchment paper as I roll them.
Put them straight in the Pot!
See? Uncooked! Crazy right? The first time I made these, I was a little worried. I thought that the meatballs wouldn’t keep their shape and I would end up having meat sauce, which happens to me more than I would care to admit when I am sautéing meatballs in a skillet. I don’t know why they don’t fall apart in the Instant Pot. It’s like magic.
Any Kind Of Pressure Cooker Will Work
I also need to mention that this will work great in ANY kind of pressure cooker. No matter what you use, you will get the same results. Just make sure you have enough liquid in the pot so it will actually seal. You also don’t want to get a burn notice. Which brings me to…
Avoiding The Burn Notice
Tomato-based sauces can be tricky in an Instant Pot because tomatoes have a tendency to burn easily. Make sure your sauce is thin enough to create steam and seal the pot. You can thin it out by adding a can of diced tomatoes or even just a little water. If you are worried about it being TOO thin, you can always add tomato paste or tomato sauce to your pasta sauce after the meatballs are done cooking. I like using my homemade canned sauce because the consistency is just right. If it seems too thin afterward, I will add a few tablespoons of tomato paste and that usually does the trick.
Quick Reference: How Long To Cook Meatballs in the Instant Pot
Cooking time (high pressure): 7 minutes
Slow release (natural release): 5 minutes
Storing, Freezing, and Reheating Meatballs
To store your meatballs after cooking, allow them to cool for 10-15 minutes, and then place them in an airtight container or freezer zip-top bag. Store them in the refrigerator for 3-4 days or in the freezer for 3 months. These meatballs are great for meal prep and you can make large batches at one time. To reheat, place frozen meatballs in the fridge overnight to thaw and re-heat over the stove top or in the microwave until meatballs are cooked through and the marinara sauce is hot.
Tips for Cooking and Serving
- For this recipe, I used our own Homemade Canned Spaghetti Sauce, but you can use your own recipe or just store-bought spaghetti sauce. No matter what you use, it is going to be awesome. Even store-bought spaghetti sauce will be kicked up a notch because the meatballs will be cooked in it, giving it an incredible flavor.
- Not a huge fan of ground beef? Feel free to try ground pork, ground turkey, or ground chicken meatballs too! We will often do a mixture of both ground beef and pork to make them more tender.
- These meatballs can easily be made gluten-free if you want to switch out the Panko breadcrumbs for gluten-free breadcrumbs. You can also use gluten-free oats if you don’t have breadcrumbs on hand.
- Of course, you will want to serve these meatballs over gluten-free pasta if you have an intolerance to gluten. If GF pasta isn’t your thing, you can also use zoodles (spiralized zucchini), or you can use spaghetti squash.
- Have leftovers? These meatballs make incredible meatball subs! Give them a try!
Read Next: 27 BEST Instant Pot Recipes
Frequently Asked Questions About Instant Pot Meatballs
It’s not the time as much as it is the temperature. The internal temperature should be 160 degrees. By following this recipe you will have perfectly cooked meatballs in 20 minutes.
Yes! The meat will heat up quickly in the Instant Pot, making it a safe cooking method.
If cooking pre-cooked meatballs and they are frozen, you can cook them on high pressure for 5 minutes and do a 5-minute slow release.
Definitely, these are great used for a meatball sub sandwich, with toothpicks as an appetizer, or even as a main dish with a side of mashed potatoes and vegetables for a more low-carb option.
Read Next: Pym Test Kitchen Impossible Spoonful
Want More Instant Pot Recipes?
Strapped for time? We have dozens of delicious dinners that come together in no time! Check out some of our Instant Pot favorites:
How to Make Instant Pot Meatballs
Instant Pot Meatballs
Video
Equipment
- Instant Pot Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds ground beef lean
- 1/2 cup onion grated
- 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese grated
- 2 eggs
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 cups spaghetti sauce (see notes above)
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients (except spaghetti sauce) until well mixed. Mixing together with your hands works great.Form into balls using hands or small ice cream scoop. You want them to be slightly smaller than a golf ball.
- Spray bottom of Instant Pot with cooking spray and add spaghetti sauce. Place meatballs over the sauce, layering them if necessary. It's OK if they touch, just don't squish them too much.
- Place lid on Instant Pot and switch valve to “sealing”. Press “Manual” and set to high pressure for 7 minutes.
- After you hear the timer go off, allow to slow release for another 5 minutes and then do the quick release (you do this by carefully switching the tab to "venting"). Remove lid from Instant Pot, stir, and serve over cooked pasta noodles.
Just made these meatballs. So So Good!! This is the recipe I’ll be using now. Thanks so much
I have two different Instant pot brand pots. (One older, one newer), Sometimes when I put the same recipe in both the newer one will show the ‘burn’ message, while the older Instant pot does just fine. Not sure why this happens as I have the same recipe in both! Perhaps this may be happening with some of your people trying this recipe?
The newer ones are more sensitive to the bottom of the pot burning. If you are getting the burn message try adding extra liquid to your recipes!
Hubby requested meatballs last night – (I’ve never really liked meatballs), but looked for a recipe for my new favourite appliance and found yours. I followed it exactly and we both loved them.
We are GF and DF so I made these with GF Panko Flakes instead of bread crumbs and subbed coconut milk. They were SO good! This will definitely be put into our rotation. Thanks!
So glad you were able to make these GF so you could enjoy them! Glad you liked them!
great addition to my insta pot recipe collection. only meatball recipe that i have found making “small” meatballs, for the insta pot. my grandkids (5 of them) couldn’t get enough of them. Used my own sauce recipe, from scratch. used a combination of 85/15 beef and ground turkey, 2 to 1 turkey to beef.
no oil slick on the top of the finished product.
So glad you and your grandkids liked this recipe! Thanks for sharing how you combined the different meats and found success 🙂 Thanks for the 5-stars!
Made these this morning, I added 1/4 cup beef broth to the meatball mixture and about 1/4 cup beef broth to the canned hunts tomato sauce and they came out perfectly and had so much flavor! Will definitely use this recipe again. Thank you!!
We are so glad you liked this recipe! Thanks for the 5-star rating!!
I also added two extra minutes to the Insta Pot cook time but not sure it needed it. Regardless these turned out amazing. Seasoning was perfect. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Mike- so glad you liked the meatballs! Thanks for the nice comment and the 5-stars!
This was the first recipe I tried in my brand new IP. I added some beer to thin out the sauce a bit, for fear of getting the food burn warning. So much for that, since I still got it. LOL! I figured it would be fine, so I held the pressure cook button down until it resumed. Preheat finished a minute later. Seven minutes later, the meatballs turned out stellar! No food was burnt in the process. Thanks for guiding this rookie in the right direction. Onto my next adventure!
Thank you so much for this nice comment, Dave! So happy to hear your first recipe in the IP was a success. Glad nothing came of the burn notice and that it still turned out well 😉 Thanks for the 5 stars!
I got an Instant Pot for Christmas 2017 and had no idea how to use it.
Great directions, made recipe as is 1st time then added my husband’s favorite seasonings the next batch.
I have made this recipe at least 6 times over the last year. It is fabulous.
Thanks so much Pam! So glad you have enjoyed this recipe so many times! Thanks for the 5-stars!
Thank you so much for this. I plan to try it with my tomato soup gravy. To be served with mashed potatoes.
If I use frozen RAW meatballs in a marinara sauce, how long should I pressure?
I haven’t used raw frozen meatballs before, so I’m not sure! If I were making it, I would probably try increasing the cook time by 50%. Let me know how it comes out if you try it!
I’ll throw in some chunks of Italian sausage … then I’ll put some garlic butter on rolls and toast them for the ultimate sub sandwich. 😉
Oh man Marla, that sounds DELICIOUS!!!! I have got to try that! Thanks for sharing your great idea!
I have been making this recipe twice a month for the last year! My family has never ever liked spaghetti ! Until l found this recipe. It’s so good thank you!
I made this last night for the first time. It can out good. But Durning the cooking I kept getting the burn food signal.
It cook everything and the meatballs were great and together. But then bottom of the pot had stuck on spaghetti sauce.
If you’re using a thicker sauce or store-bought sauce, don’t add that to the Instant Pot. Instead, put the meatballs in a container such as a glass pyrex dish. (I coat the dish with olive oil spray before putting the meat in but you don’t have to.)
Place the metal steamer rack/trivet that come with the Instant Pot in the pot and pour in 1C liquid (beef stock, water, etc.). Put the glass pyrex dish on the rack/trivet and cook as above.
Heat the sauce separately while the noodles are cooking.
This technique works great for lots of other meat dishes where you want the meat separate from the liquid.
Absolutely divine and husband approved! Can’t wait to make it again! Cuz I made a double batch and put half in the freezer cuz I knew they’d be tasty!
So glad it was a hit!
Made this just now. Hubby is fussy and he loved it
So glad your fussy hubby liked it! Any time we can win over a picky eater, we consider it a win 😉
Followed these instructions exactly. BURN notice appeared. When I opened my instant pot to give the meatballs a stir, they were complete mush and were longer balls at all. What a waste of time. Will not make this recipe again.
You are honestly the first person that I have seen this happen to. What kind of sauce were you using? Was it a really thick sauce?
Did you add some
Water to your sauce? I always cut it with water and have never had an issue 😞
I only add water if my sauce is pretty thick. I usually use my homemade sauce and I haven’t had any problems and typically don’t need additional water. If you use a sauce like Ragu or prig, you may want to add some water so you can get enough steam to seal the IP. Hope this helps!
My meatballs stayed in shape and tasted good but the bottom of the sauce started to burn. Not enough to give a burn flavor throughout thank God but definitely required some scrubbing. I coated the bottom with olive oil before I put the sauce in. Maybe that was the problem? Love my instant pot and your recipes, but probably wont do these again.
It’s possible the olive oil got too hot on the bottom, causing it to burn. Tomato sauces can be tricky in the instant pot if they are too think as well. I would try adding in a little water or chicken broth next time!
This is the second time we have made this recipe and even though it is delicious, we have also gotten the burn notice each time. My sauce is much thinner than I usually make it for spaghetti but it didn’t seem to make a difference
Hi, this happened to me as well. I’m not sure what went wrong… The meatballs also didn’t really looked entirely cooked, so I set it again for a couple more minutes. I’m hoping for the best.
How many minutes for turkey?
It should be the same!
I had the same thing happen. Was using a traditional sauce and followed exact directions. Total mush.
Mine burned too 🙁 I was just using Hunt’s sauce. I guess next time I’ll try cutting it with water but I didn’t think it was that thick to begin with. Bummer.
I’m about to make these with a can marinara sauce. How much water do you think I should add, so that we do not get the burn signal? Thanks!
I dunno, I was using Prague and added about a fourth of a jar and still got burn
Same happened to me except the meatballs were still intact so I had to switch to slow cook. I added water to the sauce also.
I am wondering if LIndsey might live at a higher altitude like I do (I live at 6000 ft)? I’ve only had my Instant Pot for about a year. Many of the recipes I tried early on yielded the BURN notice – so frustrating. I contacted Instant Pot Support, and this is the response I received:
“Altitude on your Instant Pot will need to be calibrated if you are 2,000 feet above sea level. At 3,000 feet, please add 5% cooking time, and for every 1000 feet add an additional 5% cooking time.
As an example, if your recipe details 20 minutes cooking time, then for 3000 feet add 1 minute (5%). At 4000 feet add 2 minutes (10%). At 6000 feet add 4 minutes (20%), etc. An easy calculation for 6000 feet is to multiply the time by 1.2 (e.g. 20 * 1.2 = 24). Please see the following link for an Altitude Cooking Timetable:
https://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/pressure-cooker-high-altitude-cooking-time/
Looking at the recipes that you provided that had given you a BURN message,, it seems to be low on thin liquid. We recommend roughly 18 fl oz., or 2 cups, of watery liquid so that the IP can created the necessary steam to bring the pot to pressure. Try increasing the water content by adding water, broth, or another thin liquid. You can use the steam rack to elevate the food and allow the liquid to move freely underneath it.
When using the Saute function, please be sure to deglaze the inner pot by adding some water and scraping any stuck on bits on food before switching to pressure cook. You can also remove the inner pot from the cooker base to allow the Instant Pot to cool for a few minutes before starting a pressure cooking function.”
Since implementing these suggestions I’ve not had BURN messages. Hope this helps!!
Thanks a lot”
Wow, great info…. thanks! I live at 4800’ and was wondering why most of the recipe times were not enough to cook the food properly for me. I was questioning if my InstaPot was defective! But now I know what to do. You’d think InstaPot would have this info in their manual & recipe book, but this is the first I’ve heard of this.
Consider another try with the trivet in the IP to keep the meatballs off the bottom of the cooking vessel.
I used Ragu traditional sauce with a pinch of sugar for the acidity and I used 1Ibs ground beef and the other half pound I subbed ground sausage and omg so scrumptious!
This is exactly what happened to me! I used a regular jarred marinara and did thin it out a little bit. Ended up with meat sauce, which I could’ve made on the stove in less than half the time and it would’ve been better. I won’t be making this again either.
I made this and like so many others the burn signal came on and bottom of pot and sauce was burned. Had to take the meatballs out and finish on the stove. Very disappointing. Meatballs were delicious though. Might try again with beef stock instead of sauce.
Are the nutrition facts for the whole batch? Or a single serving? And if they are for a serving, what is the serving size? Thank you and can’t wait to try the recipe
The nutrition facts are for a single serving – which is about 6 meatballs per serving. Hope you like the recipe!
This recipe is nothing short of amazing! My two fussy kids (5 and 3) loved them! It was the first time I’ve been able to get them to eat spaghetti with sauce. With this recipe, I’m saying goodbye to butter noodles… Unless of course that’s the plan.
I don’t know if it’s available everywhere, but because I detest garlic, but do recognize its health benefits and the flavor it adds to foods, I use it. There is now a product that is squeezable garlic, comes in a plastic tube, in the produce section of all the stores I shop in. Brands vary, but all of them are the same–garlic that’s been mashed, or minced, or crushed, or whatever, and squeezes out easily. There is also already-minced garlic in jars, so that’s another way to go if someone (like me) doesn’t like handling the stuff, or just wants garlic “quick and easy,” no work involved.
Also, if anyone doesn’t like to, or cannot, use wine in their sauce to thin it out, a little beef broth or vegetable broth works very well.
These are great tips! Thank you!
YUM! This was so good! I used my “cookie scoop” to make the meatballs all the same size. I wasn’t sure if I would have to roll them by hand, so rolled half and didn’t roll the other half – and then couldn’t tell them apart once they were cooked (and I was careful to put them on different sides of the pot, so I knew which ones were which!)
I like spaghetti, but I LOOOOOVED it this way. SO GOOD.
Thank you so much for the nice comment and the 5-stars!! So happy that these meatballs turned out so well for you. We almost always use a scoop to roll these (much faster). Thanks for sharing your results!
Recipe sounded great. Followed it exactly but after the sevond burn notice I gave up and simmered them in a saucepan on the stove! Any ideas what I did wrong?
There probably wasn’t enough water in the sauce. You may want to add water to the bottom of the pan and also a little over the top. That should make it nice and steamy so it seals. Hope this helps!
I found spraying the pot with nonstick spray before adding the sauce kept it from burning but you must ensure you have enough liquid/sauce.
That is a great tip! I usually forget to spray the pot. I need to be better at that!
If I double it, do I double the time? I saw someone added just two minutes for a few more meatballs. Is that enough if I double it? Thanks!
You could maybe add 2-3 minutes if you are doubling it. Since it is pressure cooked and all the meatballs are roughly the same size, you shouldn’t have to double the time. You should be just fine adding a few minutes onto the timer. Hope this helps!
Does the water boat in foil sit on the top of the meatballs? (I don’t want the foil to stick to the tops and burn them.) If not, do we wrap the foil edges over the edge of the pot?
We have actually had better success just adding more water to the sauce if it is a thick sauce. If you decide to go the foil route, you don’t want it going over the edge of the pot. It just sits on top of the meatballs. It won’t burn and stick to them. Hope this helps!
Love the ingredients. But, “burned” came on as pot came to full temperature. Meatballs are now in oven. Must have been problem with pasta sauce.
Your sauce was probably too thick– it’s totally ok to add some water to it. I hope this helps!
This is an easy straight-forward recipe for meatballs. I followed your ingredients and added more when I knew it was something I especially like (garlic and oregano) with a dash of red pepper flakes for my guys. These were so easy to prepare, (despite tearful onion grating)! Used a small cookie scoop to portion and rolled gently, dropped right on top of sauce in the inner pot of the pressure cooker. I used Barillo jarred sauce from the grocery store, so measured the 4 cups and it came up a tad short, which was perfect, rinsed the jar with a little water and used that to complete the 4 cups. Results were beautiful after following your instructions exactly. Tender, juicy, flavorful meatballs and kicked up store bought sauce for sure! My 3 year old, 19 year old and husband all enjoyed dinner. Thank you!
Thank you so much for sharing how you made this a success! Great idea rinsing the bottle out with some water. So glad you and your family enjoyed this recipe!
The instant pot kept saying burn and wouldn’t get up to pressure – We looked up to and so we turned it off added a tad of liquid and started it back up – not feeling optimistic – still isn’t up to pressure- This is a brand new pot , used 3 times. It’s like the sauce was burning . It wont start the 7 minute countdown
Oh no- I saw you posted this a few days ago. Did you ever get it to work?
Can this meatball recipe be made in the 3 quart Instant Pot? If so, is there a better chance of burn?
I don’t see why not. You may not be able to fit as much in the 3 quart one though– perhaps half the recipe? You can definitely add more liquid if you are worried about it burning. Hope this helps!
This recipe was great! I did add some fresh basil to the meatballs (I always do), I was worried about the burn notice so I hollowed out a tomato and filled it with water and centered it on top of the meatballs. Hope that helps!! Buon Apetito!
So glad you liked it! Great idea using a hollowed out tomato! Thanks for sharing your tip!