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Crockpot Garlic Butter Chicken Meatballs with Creamy Orzo. Turning a meatball and pasta dinner into an easy slow cooker meal. We’re using white wine, creamy Dijon mustard, garlic, herbs, parmesan cheese, and orzo. Then adding in some vibrant spinach and sun-dried tomatoes for veggies, flavor, and a pop of color. This slow-cooked chicken meatball dinner is a delicious meal to come home to at the end of the day. And the best part? It’s the easiest, cozy fall-winter dinner to prepare. Directions for the Instant Pot and stove-top are provided!
I know I’ve said something like this before. But when a recipe I’m not sure about works out so well, I get incredibly excited! When I had this idea, at first I didn’t want to make it. I was honestly scared it would end disastrously. But after some pushing from mom, I decided to just go for it.
I kept asking her about the recipe, “should I make this”? I think I asked her 3 days in a row until she finally said, “Tieghan, MAKE THE MEATBALLS”! Finally, I listened and I sent her a text a few hours later to thank her for the encouragement. The recipe turned out better than I’d imagined and more importantly, it was so delicious.
Here are all the easy details
To be honest, I may only want to make meatballs in the crockpot from now on. This was so easy and almost mess-free.
Start with the meatballs. I make mine using ground chicken, Italian seasoning, dijon, and parmesan cheese. Just mix everything together and roll it into meatballs. Then place them in the crockpot with a little olive oil to prevent any sticking.
Next, pour over white wine, add an onion, and a whole head of garlic. Cover and slow cook. Since these are meatballs, they can cook quickly on high for a couple of hours or cook them low and slow all day. Either is great and the meatballs are never dry. The wine will add moisture to them.
When the meatballs are cooked, pull them out along with the garlic, then set them aside on a baking sheet.
Add the orzo to all the yummy broth in the crockpot. Now simply cover and cook a few minutes longer, until the orzo is al dente.
Meanwhile, I love to add butter to the meatballs and garlic and toss on some rosemary. Then place the sheet pan under the broiler for a couple of minutes to crisp them up.
What happens is that the butter browns around the meatballs, garlic, and rosemary. I then chop up the garlic and rosemary and toss them back onto the pan with butter. Then toss the meatballs with the garlicky butter to finish. This step is optional, but I think it really adds flavor.
When the orzo is finished, stir in the spinach and sun-dried tomatoes, then add the cream and parmesan, stirring until the orzo becomes very creamy.
Serve the garlic butter meatballs over the orzo, then drizzle any butter left on the pan over top.
So simple and quick with barely any clean-up and minimal hands-on time too.
What I love most about this recipe is the fact that it’s a complete all-in-one dinner. You have your protein, your carbs, and even your vegetables. You can serve this up on busy weeknights, but it’s equally great for those upcoming holiday dinners with friends and family.
Looking for other slow cooker meals? Here are a few ideas:
Creamy White Bean Noodle Soup with Rosemary Bacon.
Mustard Herb Chicken and Creamy Orzo
Crockpot Crispy Buffalo Chicken Tacos with Jalapeño Ranch
Slow Cooker Saucy Sunday Bolognese Pasta
Slow Cooker Herbed Chicken and Rice Pilaf
Crockpot Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Bolognese
Lastly, if you make this Crockpot Garlic Butter Chicken Meatballs with Creamy Orzo, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Crockpot Garlic Butter Chicken Meatballs with Creamy Orzo
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 878 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds ground chicken, pork, or turkey
- 3 tablespoons Italian seasoning
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
- kosher salt and black pepper
- 1 onion, quartered
- 1 head garlic, top trimmed off to reveal the cloves
- 1 cup dry white wine, such as Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc
- 6 tablespoons salted butter
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 2 cups dry orzo pasta
- 2 cups fresh baby spinach
- 1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
- 1/2 cup heavy cream or canned full fat coconut milk
Instructions
Slow Cooker
- 1. Add the chicken, Italian seasoning, dijon, and 1/2 cup parmesan to a bowl. Season with salt, and pepper. Mix to combine. Coat your hands with oil, and roll the meat into tablespoon-size balls (will make 15-16 meatballs). Add olive oil and place the meatballs in the bowl of your crockpot. 2. Pour over the wine and 1/2 cup water. Add the onion and garlic. Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours or on high for 1-2 hours.2. Preheat the broiler to high. Remove the meatballs and garlic from the slow cooker and place on a baking sheet.3. Crank the heat on the slow cooker to high. Stir in the orzo, and 1 cup water. Cover and cook 20-30 minutes, or until the orzo is al dente. If the orzo needs more liquid, add additional water. Stir in the spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, cream, and 1/2 cup parmesan.4. Arrange the butter and the rosemary around the meatballs and garlic, then broil 1-3 minutes, until crisp. Peel away the garlic skin, then chop and mix with the butter and rosemary on the sheet pan. Toss the meatballs in the butter. 5. Serve the meatballs over the orzo.
Instant Pot
- 1. Add the chicken, Italian seasoning, dijon, and 1/2 cup parmesan to a bowl. Season with salt, and pepper. Mix to combine. Coat your hands with oil, and roll the meat into tablespoon-size balls (will make 15-16 meatballs).2. Set the instant pot to sauté. Add olive oil, then add the meatballs to the instant pot and sear until browned, about 5 minutes, Pour in the wine and 1/2 cup water. Add 1 chopped onion. Cook 5 minutes, then add the butter, garlic and rosemary. Let the butter butter, another 2-3 minutes. Cover and cook on high pressure for 6 minutes.3. Once done cooking, release the steam. Set the Instant pot to sauté. Remove the garlic. Stir in the orzo and 1 cup water. Cook 6-8 minutes, until the orzo is al dente. Stir in the spinach, tomatoes, cream, and parmesan.4. Serve the meatballs over the orzo.
Stove-Top
- 1. Add the chicken, Italian seasoning, dijon, and 1/2 cup parmesan to a bowl. Season with salt, and pepper. Mix to combine. Coat your hands with oil, and roll the meat into tablespoon-size balls (will make 15-16 meatballs).2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil, then add the meatballs and sear until browned, about 5 minutes. Add 1 chopped onion. Cook 5 minutes, then add the butter, garlic and rosemary. Let the butter butter, another 2-3 minutes. 3. Reduce the heat to medium. Pour in the wine. Stir in the orzo and 1 1/2 cups water. Cook, stirring often, another 6-8 minutes, until the orzo is al dente. Stir in the spinach, tomatoes, cream, and 1/2 cup parmesan.4. Serve the chicken over the orzo. Enjoy!
I’m not gonna lie…. I was nervous to make this because of some of the reviews. Although, there’s no such thing as too much garlic so that’s when I was like… screw it I’m going for it! So glad I did! It came out perfect!
I had no issues at all and also closely watched your IG video on this one was well. For the Italian seasoning in the meatballs I used my Italian herb grinder from Sam’s club since it has a little extra kick in there just regular Italian seasoning. I did notice that the recipe never says to take out the onion and I’m about to serve it and there likes these huge blobs of onion lol. So I took that all out, no biggie. I also just added the meatballs with the garlic and butter just back into the crock pot and stirred it together. My family loved it! Can’t wait to make it again!
Thank you so much for the feedback! I appreciate it! xT
Stove top recipe is a hot mess – someone needs to come in and edit it. An entire head of garlic is way too much. The cooking liquid needed to be doubled, there’s still a typo for “let the butter butter” – rather than “brown” and the orzo needed to be covered as it simmered. The meatballs desperately needed salt to keep them from being bland. “season with salt and pepper”, when you clearly can’t taste raw chicken mixture is insufficient.
That said, the components for this recipe are all there, and with alterations, it was delicious.
*Add 3/4 tsp salt, an egg, and 1/4 cup panko to the chicken – prior to forming into balls. I used 2 lbs of ground chicken, as it’s sold in lbs and I didn’t want to waste the extra half pound. I got 28 meatballs.
*Sear the meatballs, and then remove while cooking the onion and garlic, so they don’t get overcooked.
*I minced the onion to keep the texture of the orzo
*I used a TB of minced garlic, rather than an entire head.
*I added the meatballs to finish cooking after the butter had browned and the wine had cooked off just a bit.
*Double the water to cook the orzo and cover it with a lid or you will end up with crunchy pieces of pasta
I do really adore nearly every HBH recipe, but more care needs to be taken with recipe print prior to publishing. The amount of reviews with issues usually means there’s an error somewhere.
Thanks for the recipe! I’ve tried it twice now, using the slow cooker and the stove top directions. In the slow cooker, the meatballs turned out like hockey pucks. Do not recommend using that method. I tried the stove top method, opting to add an egg and breadcrumbs to the meat mix to tenderize, and I cooked them in the oven. Awesome flavor, kids kept asking for more. Unfortunately, the directions in the recipe for the orzo on the stove top didn’t work. The 2.5 cups of liquid (1 c. wine, 1.5 c. water) was nowhere near enough to cook the orzo, and it has to cook for a minimum of 9 minutes to be the right consistency. I added more than a cup of extra water, and had to increase the cook time to get it right.
Overall, great flavor, but I had to make a lot of tweaks to get the recipe to actually work.
Hi there,
Thanks so much for making this recipe and sharing your feedback! I’m sorry to hear that a few components didn’t work very well for you! Please let me know if there is anything that I can help with! xT
After reading many sad reviews about the meatballs being to dry when cooked in a crockpot, I studied all the photos carefully and decided to use my large oval black crockpot even though I only had 1 lb of ground chicken. I put a lot of olive oil at the bottom of my crockpot, oiled my hands between every two meatballs, and added a large egg to the ground meat. Then I put the same amount of wine but just a couple tbsp of water over meatballs after inserting into my pot. I put large qtr’d sweet onion, garlic head and 2 Rosemary sprigs on top. Cooked for just under 3 hrs, coming by and gently tilting the crockpot a bit so the meatballs would rotate in the liquid. When done, I took all out and placed on a baking sheet including the onions, and added the butter slices. I poured a cup of liquid out of the crockpot and turned on high. I cooked my orzo on the STOVE exactly according to package directions-7 mins. Then drained, rinsed in cold water and set aside while waiting for crockpot to heat to high a few minutes. Then I placed the orzo in the pot, added the spinach and sun dried tomatoes and stirred a couple minutes until soft. Then stirred in the Parmesan cheese and heavy cream and quickly stirred til creamy, turned off crockpot and put the pan of meatballs, onions, garlic head and rosemary in broiler for 3 minutes. Took out promptly, discarded the onions, skinned and chopped the garlic head, and plucked rosemary leaves. Rolled the meatballs in the buttery stuff and served over the orzo-in deep bowls, pouring the extra butter from pan over each bowl. Came out moist and yummy!
Hi Melissa,
Thanks so much for making this recipe and your comment! So glad to hear that it turned out well for you:) Thank you for sharing such detailed feedback and what worked best for you, hopefully this is helpful for others! xT
Thanks for such a tasty recipe!! 😀
Hi Melissa,
Happy Friday!!🍉🥭 I love to hear that this recipe was a winner, thanks for making it and sharing your comment! xT
What do you do with the onion in the slow cooker version once you start broiling the meatballs and garlic?
Hi Joslyn,
You can leave the onions in the slow cooker, they will continue to flavor the dish. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions! xT
Another 5 star dish! Crockpot is a game changer. I love cooking but saving time is always a plus. Love it! Thank you again young lady, you are a celebrity at our house! 😊❤️
Would add a picture if I knew how! 🤪
Hi Leena,
Wonderful!! I love to hear that you have been enjoying this recipe and appreciate your notes and feedback! xT
Made this in the crockpot tonight and it was awful. Not one of the 4 of us liked it. I used ground chicken and followed the directions exactly. The meatballs were dry as hell and the orzo was definitely not done in the time the recipe says it should be. The orzo was very gluey. I absolutely HATE wasting food and I ended up just throwing out all of the leftovers (which was most of it).
Hi Hayley,
So sorry to hear you had some issues with this recipe! Please let me know if you have any questions or if there was anything that I can help with! Thanks for giving it a try! xx
I’m trying this tonight in the stovetop version – since the garlic isn’t roasting, do you just recommend chopping it? And also how much?
Hi there,
Nope, you are going to follow the recipe as written and just add the whole garlic head to the recipe, it’s going to infuse the dish while cooking:) Please let me know if you have any other questions! xT
My family and I liked this dish! I used the stove top recipe and added more broth as the orzo cooked, to keep it from getting too thick. I have a batch of the meatballs in the freezer for when I need a quick prep dinner night. Thanks!
Hi Loni,
Fantastic!! I appreciate you making this dish and sharing your feedback, so glad to hear it was enjoyed! xT
Pretty disappointing recipe. Followed the instructions exactly for the crock pot version and the meatballs were super dry, the wine taste never cooks down, there’s too much cream and there’s WAY too much garlic. Unfortunately not I’m not even looking forward to leftovers and wouldn’t recommend this one. This felt like a waste of money. Maybe the stovetop version turns out better?
Hi Chantal,
Thanks so much for trying this dish and sharing your feedback, so sorry to hear it wasn’t enjoyed! Please let me know if I can help in anyway, I know this recipe has turned out well for so many others! Let me know if you try the stove top version! xx
For the stovetop directions, am I removing the meatballs before cooking the orzo?
Hi Michelle,
No need to remove the meatballs for the method:) Let me know if you give this dish a try, I hope you love it! xT
Just divine! Your recipe are out of this world girl.
I did change it up a bit as I like my meatballs with more veggies. So I added finely chopped carrots chopped spinach eggs chopped fresh basil chopped onion and seasoned bread crumbs.
I topped with avocado oil and baked in oven at 400 until crisp on the outside. I then add to the rest of the recipe.
I also make extra meatballs and freeze them in bags of 4. I add them to all kinds of recipes.
This recipe is a 5 STAR!!!
Thank you!
Hey Tamera,
Wonderful!! I love to hear that this recipe turned out well for you, thanks so much for making it! Thanks for sharing what worked well for you! xx
I haven’t made this recipe yet, but I will soon. I have a question about the slow cooker method. For step 3 do you remove the meatballs as well as the garlic?
Hey Kat,
Yes, that is correct:) Please let me know if you have any other questions, I hope you love this recipe! xx
These meatballs are super dry. Flavors are good but don’t care for the chewy consistency. Next time I’ll add an egg for moisture.
Hey Gloria,
Thanks so much for making this recipe, so sorry to hear your meatballs were dry! I definitely think adding an egg next time will help! xx
Most of the HBH recipes are huge hits with myself and my family, but this one was not wonderful. The meatballs were dry, and I read the reviews after I submersed them in the crockpot. I ended up cooking pasta separately and added cornstarch to the ingredients in the crockpot to create a sauce. I added the cooked pasta back in. But the dish was bland… no one went back for seconds. However we had the sheet pan honey garlic chicken the night before, and we were fighting over the last remnants on the pan–so so so good!
Hi Melody,
Thanks for giving this recipe a try and sharing your feedback, sorry to hear it was not enjoyed! xx
This recipe was amazing! Followed the stovetop directions and it could not have gone better. Loved the flavorful meatballs and delicious sauce. Added a dash of red pepper flakes at the end and we could not get enough! Thanks for another fantastic addition to our dinner rotation.
Hey Sydney,
Wonderful!!😃 I appreciate you making this dish and sharing your comment, so glad it was a winner! xx
Did you add the entire head of garlic on step 2 of the stove top version of the recipe?
Hi Nancy,
Yes, that is correct:) Please let me know if you have any other questions! xT