Instant Pot Meatball Parmesan–homemade meatballs with 2 kinds of cheese and rich marinara sauce. This is a winning dinner that both kids and adults love! Make it in the Instant Pot or the slow cooker.
Note: the SLOW COOKER instructions are listed in the recipe card below

Instant Pot Meatball Parmesan
These delicious cheesy marinara meatballs are a classic dinner that never gets old! All the meatballs were consumed in just a few minutes at my house! I think that means my family thought they were a winner 😉 I hope that you and your family love this dinner as much as we did!
- The combination of ground pork and ground beef makes a perfect meatball in taste and texture. If desired you can make the meatballs 100% out of beef. Just make sure to use a lean ground beef so there is not a lot of grease.
- I like keeping kitchen gloves* around for recipes like this. I mix and form the meatballs with gloved hands.
- The meatballs and sauce taste great served over pasta, spaghetti squash or with a side of garlic bread. There is a lot of sauce to sop up!
- This recipe can easily be double. Double all meatball ingredients to make twice as many meatballs. I wouldn’t double the broth or sauce ingredients. There is plenty of sauce.
- Use your favorite brand of marinara sauce…I like Classico.
- I like shredding my cheese straight off the block instead of buying pre-shredded cheese. It melts better and doesn’t have additives in it.
- I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. Make this in your 3 or 8 quart pot with no changes.
More Meatball Recipes You’ll Love…
Instant Pot Tortellini Meatball Soup–a dump and go FAST soup recipe (only 1 minute under pressure!)
Instant Pot Ikea Meatballs–They taste just like what you can order at Ikea!
Instant Pot Mountain Meatballs–tennis ball sized meatballs stuffed with cheese and brushed with a delicious tomato-vinegar glaze.

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Instant Pot Meatball Parmesan
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes (plus 5 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
Homemade meatballs with 2 kinds of cheese and rich marinara sauce. This is a winning dinner that both kids and adults love! Make it in the Instant Pot or the slow cooker.
Ingredients
- 1 cup beef or chicken broth
- 1/2 pound ground pork
- 1/2 pound lean ground beef
- 2 Tbsp heavy cream
- 1 egg
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 1/2 tsp dried onion
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, divided
- 1 jar marinara sauce
- 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
- Pinch of kosher salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions:
- Pour broth into Instant Pot.
- Add the pork, beef, cream, egg, salt, pepper, onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, and half of the parmesan to a mixing bowl. Mix or work with your hands until completely incorporated. Form into about 10 meatballs (ping pong ball size). Drop the meatballs into the Instant Pot.
- Dump the marinara sauce over the meatballs, dump in the vinegar, salt and garlic powder. Don’t stir.
- Cover the Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 5 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 5-10 minutes and then move the valve to venting and remove the lid.
- Sprinkle the mozzarella and the parmesan over the meatballs and let melt. Serve meatballs and sauce and enjoy!
Slow Cooker Instructions:
- Add the marinara sauce, vinegar, salt and garlic powder to the slow cooker and stir.
- Add the pork, beef, cream, egg, onion, salt, pepper, garlic, Italian seasoning, and half of the parmesan to a mixing bowl. Mix or work with your hands until completely incorporated. Form into about 10 meatballs (ping pong ball size). Drop the meatballs into the slow cooker
- Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours.
- Sprinkle the mozzarella and the parmesan over the meatballs and let melt. Serve meatballs and sauce and enjoy!
Notes
The meatballs and sauce taste great served over pasta, spaghetti squash or with a side of garlic bread.
This recipe can easily be double. Double all meatball ingredients to make twice as many meatballs. I wouldn’t double the broth or sauce ingredients.
- Category: Beef/Pork
- Method: Instant Pot or Slow Cooker

*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Could you add a pasta in while cooking the meatballs and sauce?
Yes I think that would work. I would add in an additional 1 ½ cups of broth and 8 ounces of pasta (spaghetti, penne, elbow etc). I would put the broth and pasta in first with the meatballs and red sauce on top.
This turned out really good. I made meatball subs and added hot peppers.
★★★★★
Meatball subs! Genius!
I was wondering if you can try this with Alfredo sauce? Because I am allergic to tomatoes. Meatball Alfredo sauce, could you give it a try? Probably works fine.
Sure I don’t see why not!
When do you add the broth?
THE broth goes into the pot first before any other ingredients.
Can you use ground turkey instead of ground port?
I’m thinking the same too…
You could do that!