Slow Cooker Apple Kielbasa Bites – sliced kielbasa in a delicious sweet and spicy sauce. Only 5 ingredients and cooked in the crockpot! Perfect for a weeknight dinner or an party snack.
This recipe originally posted on August 7, 2014. Updated on March 14, 2019.
It’s that time of year!
Time to transition from Thursday margarita posts to Thursday football snack posts! Wooo! I know we have a few weeks left before football actually starts but I cannot wait any longer!
I have decided, after months of deliberation, that I am going to become the world’s biggest Broncos fan. I know, that sounds crazy.
But since I’ve also decided that I’m never leaving Colorado, I might as well be one of those people walking around in a Broncos jersey every Sunday. Yeah, I already bought one. I bought one for all the kids, too. And I guarantee the dogs will both have one before the season starts. We are all in.
As much as I love the games, my number one favorite thing about football will always be the food. Why is food such an important part of football? Who knows. But for whatever reason, football season gives you an excuse to snack from Thursday night to Monday night.
And I like any excuse to have snacks for every meal.
Slow Cooker Apple Kielbasa Bites!
I really like to make things like these Slow Cooker Apple Kielbasa Bites for games because you can just leave them in the slow cooker (on warm) and set some toothpicks next to it. People can eat whenever they want!
This recipe is also incredibly easy to make. It is just the sliced kielbasa tossed in the slow cooker with brown sugar, applesauce, garlic, and crushed red pepper. You let it cook all day and the kielbasa gets coated with a thick sweet and spicy sauce that no one will guess started with applesauce.
If you are looking to make this into a really easy weeknight dinner, the kielbasa is delicious on top of mashed potatoes (or even rice or cauliflower rice!) with some of the sauce drizzled over everything. It is total comfort food and I think even the pickiest eaters will enjoy it.
More Kielbasa Recipes:
Slow Cooker Beer and Browm Sugar Kielbasa – kielbasa and sauerkraut cooked all day in beer and brown sugar. I know it sounds like a weird combination but the sourness of the sauerkraut and then sweetness from the brown sugar just work together amazing. I serve these on a bun but you could serve them with mashed potatoes to soak up all the delicious juice.
Cheesy Potato and Kielbasa Casserole – serious comfort food! Diced potatoes with thinly sliced kielbasa in a creamy cheese sauce. The casserole is topped with even more cheese and then baked until bubbly and delicious.
Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Kielbasa – sliced kielbasa in a homemade sweet and sour sauce that gets slow cooked until the sauce becomes thick and delicious and really coats the kielbasa. I like to serve this over rice so the rice can soak up with sweet and sour sauce but you can also put toothpicks next to the slow cooker for a party snack!
from Belly Full
- 2 pounds fully cooked polska kielbasa sausage cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
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Put all ingredients in the slow cooker and give it a good stir. Cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3 hours.
I was just about to tell you my funny football story and these kielbasa bites…and then realized you already read it. Obvi. So glad you like them! Now that soccer/dance/school are all overlapping again (a.k.a. “Fall” or “3 months where I have no life”), they’ll be making a regular appearance at the house.
I am not much of a football fan, but when my husband does have a game on, I am a fair weather fan/ aka snacker. Lol. Love the idea of setting out this slow-cooker recipe for a crowd.
Haha! Football jerseys are the best! I can’t wait for football season – I like watching football, but for me it’s the food – appetizers like this that I get excited about!!
Instead of toothpicks, I serve them on pretzel sticks….eat the whole appetizer..
Love that idea!