Slow Cooker Porcupine Meatballs in Tangy Sauce
36 Comments Oct 14, 2016
Updated Mar 19, 2025
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Meatballs with rice in a sweet and tangy sauce, these Slow Cooker Porcupine Meatballs are a blast from the past!
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 meatballs 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.
Try these other great meatball recipes too!
Saucy and cheesy, Slow Cooker Meatball Subs are a hearty, crowd-pleasing meal made with tender meatballs slow-cooked to perfection.
Slow Cooker Barbecue Meatballs and Baby Shower Meatballs both bring bold, sweet, and savory flavors, making them perfect for parties or weeknight dinners.
For a tangy twist, Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Meatballs and Grape Jelly Meatballs offer a balance of sweetness and zest, ideal for appetizers or over rice.
Rich and comforting, Slow Cooker Swedish Meatballs are coated in a creamy, savory sauce that pairs perfectly with noodles or mashed potatoes.
I do have to say these vintage recipeshave 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.
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Slow Cooker Porcupine Meatballs in a Tangy Sauce
Ingredients
Meatballs!
- 1 1/2 lbs ground beef, I use 10% fat beef
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup diced onions
- 1/3 cup barbecue sauce
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 cup crushed crackers, I use Ritz
- 1 cup Minute Brand rice, don’t use standard rice
Sauce
- 2 cups ketchup, I use Hunts
- 1/2 cup Sweet Baby Rays Barbecue Sauce
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- 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.
Nutrition
Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.
I want to make these for a crowd, would it work to double everything?
Yes, doubling will work fine.