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The Magical Slow Cooker » Recipes » Vintage » Slow Cooker Porcupine Meatballs in Tangy Sauce

Slow Cooker Porcupine Meatballs in Tangy Sauce

by Sarah Olson on October 14, 2016 | Updated July 25, 2022 36 Comments

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Meatballs with rice in a sweet and tangy sauce, these Slow Cooker Porcupine Meatballs are a blast from the past!

close up of porcupine meatballs

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.

vintage recipe of porcupine meatballs.

I start with a basic meatball recipe. I don’t add the Minute rice until after I mix these ingredients together first.

ground beef, bread crumbs, barbecue sauce, eggs and onion in a bowl.

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.

raw meatballs one a plate. Barbecue sauce mixture in a bowl.

Here is what the porcupine meatballs and sauce look like after being cooked on low for 5 hours.

porcupine meatballs in a slow cooker.

The sauce is AMAZING, sweet and lots of tang from the cider vinegar.

porcupine meatballs on a plate served with a bowl of green beans

Try these other great meatball recipes too!

  • Slow Cooker Meatball Subs
  • Slow Cooker Barbecue Meatballs
  • Slow Cooker Honey Buffalo Meatballs
  • Slow Cooker Chipotle Chicken Meatballs
  • Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Meatballs
  • Slow Cooker Grape Jelly Meatballs
small video of fork slicing into a meatball

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.

Want to make more magic in your crockpot? Stay up to date and subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube.

close up of porcupine meatballs

Slow Cooker Porcupine Meatballs in a Tangy Sauce

5 from 9 votes
Homemade meatballs with rice that makes them into "porcupine" meatballs.
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Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 5 hours
Total Time: 5 hours 20 minutes
Servings: 6
Calories: 628kcal
Author: Sarah Olson

Equipment Needed:

  • Slow Cooker – 5 quart or larger

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
US Customary – Metric

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.
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Nutrition Information:

Calories: 628kcal | Carbohydrates: 89g | Protein: 29g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 129mg | Sodium: 1524mg | Potassium: 852mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 51g | Vitamin A: 595IU | Vitamin C: 5mg | Calcium: 105mg | Iron: 4mg

Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.

Made this recipe?I want to see your photos! Tag me on Instagram @themagicalslowcooker

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    6381 shares
    • 3115

    Filed Under: Beef, Dinner, Ground Beef, Vintage

    Comments

    1. Min says

      April 30, 2022 at 5:08 am

      I want to make these for a crowd, would it work to double everything?

      Reply
      • Sarah Olson says

        April 30, 2022 at 6:24 am

        Yes, doubling will work fine.

        Reply
    2. Ruth Ann says

      April 29, 2022 at 11:08 pm

      In my family we made close to the original porcupine meatball recipe..We just used the spices we liked to our own tastes..We then took frozen well thawed baby brussel sprouts and formed the meat and rice mixture around it to make a ball..We browned the meatballs in olive oil in a skillet and then added the tomato sauce and simmered them until the brussel sprout in the middle was done..We called them inside out mini cabbage rolls..

      Reply
    3. Jsleep says

      March 13, 2022 at 10:09 am

      5 stars
      This recipe is 100% certified badass

      Reply
    4. Maureen McCabe says

      December 26, 2021 at 11:38 am

      I think I had Porcupine Meatballs to eat at a friend’s house when I was a kid and wanted them at home so made my mom make them or we made them together? Would have been from the era of the Hunts ad… guessing that is 1960s. I know we used regular rice not Minute Rice though your recipe sounds a lot more flavorful than the Hunts Tomato Sauce version.

      Reply
    5. Jim says

      December 5, 2021 at 12:27 pm

      With that mixture you could make stuffed
      Peppers.

      Reply
      • Sarah Olson says

        December 5, 2021 at 12:41 pm

        Yes, that would work great.

        Reply
    6. Margi says

      August 2, 2021 at 1:02 pm

      So I’m coming over from Stacey’s blog. Yesterday I made stuffed cabbage and have way too much meat mixture left and it’s got rice in it. TaDa here’s this recipe that I’ll have tomorrow night. My mixture was pretty plain so with just some additions it’ll be in the crock pot in the morning. So thanks for the idea.

      Reply
      • Sarah Olson says

        August 2, 2021 at 3:32 pm

        Great idea!

        Reply
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