Meatballs with rice in a sweet and tangy sauce, these Slow Cooker Porcupine Meatballs are a blast from the past!
Hi all! Welcome to the Vintage Slow Cooker Recipe of the month. Today I am sharing my recipe for Slow Cooker Porcupine Meatballs. The Porcupine part of the recipe is the rice in the meatballs. No porcupine meat, I promise! Below is a vintage recipe I found on Pinterest. I jazzed up this recipe with a tangy and sweet sauce. You can see my recipe farther down past the photos.
I start with a basic meatball recipe. I don’t add the Minute rice until after I mix these ingredients together first.
The Sauce is a mixture of ketchup, brown sugar and apple cider vinegar, very simple but packs so much flavor. I formed the meat mixture into 20 meatballs. I layered the meat balls and sauce into my slow cooker.
Here is what the porcupine meatballs and sauce look like after being cooked on low for 5 hours.
The sauce is AMAZING, sweet and lots of tang from the cider vinegar.
I do have to say these vintage recipes have been my favorite to do on the blog, never feels like a chore to me. I hope you are enjoying them too! Have a great weekend.
- 1.5 lbs ground beef (I use 10% fat beef)
- ½ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. pepper
- ¼ tsp. garlic powder
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup diced onions
- ⅓ cup barbecue sauce
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 cup crushed crackers (I use Ritz)
- 1 cup Minute Brand rice (don't use standard rice)
- 2 cups ketchup (I use Hunts)
- ½ cup Sweet Baby Rays Barbecue Sauce
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
- 4-quart or larger
- In a large bowl add the meatball ingredients, except the rice. With clean hands mix these ingredients together, add rice and mix in evenly. Form the balls, I made them about the size of 2 tablespoons, I made a total of 20 meatballs.
- Mix the sauce ingredients in a small bowl until combined.
- Spray the slow cooker with non-stick spray. Add a layer of meatballs and drizzle over some sauce. Do this a few times, until all the meatballs and sauce are gone.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 5 hours without opening the lid during the cooking time.
You may also like: Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore {Last month’s vintage slow cooker recipe}
Amazing old recipe, it’s so delicious. I’ll be making this very soon!
my mom made these all the time when we was younger, Now my wife makes them for me. they are good.
These look so delicious and easy, Sarah! I’ve never made porcupine meatballs, but I may have to fix that!
Can I use long grain rice and cook meatballs longer?
I’ve never had luck with regular rice in the slow cooker. It seems the slow temperature rise of the slow cooker doesn’t cook the rice properly and it gets gummy.
I like to use leftover cooked rice when I make this ; I just cook for as long ! Hope that helps a little bit !!
Yes, that works too. Thank you for mentioning that.
Is rice cooked or uncooked when making this?
Thanks
It’s uncooked Minute brand rice.
Printed the meatball and chicken recipe and plan to try them this week. Love your page and appreciate all the great recipes! I am older with health problems which cause me to lose energy during the day so if I can get a slow cooker meal ready in the morning I can enjoy a tasty dinner later. Please keep the recipes coming. Linda from Kansas
Thank you for your kind comment Linda! I add about 2 recipes a week. I’m glad you are enjoying them.
I made this recipe as a meatloaf. Made half of the sauce and used as a glaze on top. Baked at 350 for 70 min. Very good. Thanks for the great recipes.
I will have to try that Mick. And call it porcupine meatloaf!
Can I bake these?
Could you use miracle whip instead of eggs?
I’m unsure how that would work, sorry!
can I make the meatballs and then freeze until ready to cook
I think that would work fine.
Have you made these with ground chicken?
These porcupine meatballs are delish! Just like my mom used to make. The sauce is tangy but sweet, might be nice to use this sauce on ribs or wings.