OLD FASHIONED PORCUPINE MEATBALLS
This Old Fashioned Recipe is one your family will love. Porcupine meatballs are so easy and super versatile, served over pasta, rice or perfect for a meatball sub.
Why You Will Love This Old-Fashioned Recipe
This recipe is really good and also super versatile! We love simple recipes, and we find that the old-fashioned ones are usually the easiest to make. There is a reason why they have stood the test of time and still work. These Porcupine Meatballs are a family favorite and we absolutely think the secret ingredient is the tomato soup. It just adds a wonderful flavor.
Swaps and Additions For These Porcupine Meatballs
You can easily swap out the ground beef for ground turkey or even ground chicken. You can use regular rice instead of instant, but you will need to cook the rice first and use the cooked rice in the meatballs. You can add any seasonings your family likes, such as basil and oregano. We like the recipe as it’s written and have it enjoyed this for many years. We love it served over pasta, rice or just as meatballs with a salad and baked potato. These also make a wonderful meatball sub, add them to a sub roll and top with cheese!
What Is Our Secret Ingredient?
Well, if you look at many recipes for porcupine meatballs, they use only tomato sauce, but we are firm believers that tomato soup makes this dish! It just gives the sauce a wonderful creamy flavor and have always gotten compliments on this easy dish!
Serve This With:
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Old Fashioned Porcupine Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1/2 cup instant quick-cooking rice uncooked
- 1/3 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
Sauce Ingredients
- 1 10.5 ounce can tomato soup (do not dilute)
- 1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
- 3/4 cup water
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a large bowl except cooking oil.
- Mix with spoon and make into meatballs about the size of a golf ball. I just use my hands to form the meatballs. You can make them a little smaller if you want. I make 12 meatballs from 1 pound of hamburger.
- Heat oil and brown meatballs in a skillet. Remove meatballs and drain. Add the meatballs back to the skillet and cover with sauce below.
Sauce Directions:
- Whisk together the soup, tomato sauce and water. Pour over meatballs in skillet. Cover and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes.
Notes
© The Southern Lady Cooks photos and text – All rights reserved. No copying, posting on other sites, or other uses allowed without written permission of the copyright holder.
My sister gave me this recipe many years ago and I somehow lost it in a move. So very glad to see this here! These are so, so good! I love them with mashed potatoes and green beans. Thanks for sharing!!
You’re very welcome! So glad you have the recipe again! Such a good one!
One of my aunts used to make porcupine meatballs and bring to holiday dinners, they were my favorite! I have her recipe and it’s mostly the same as yours along with the tomato soup. We never brown the meatballs, they just cook in the sauce. My family likes them served with wide egg noodles.
I love the ingredients you ladies use in this recipe, as well as the 7 layered salad. It’s how I always made them both “back in the day”! Thanks so much for sharing the salad and the porcupine meatballs. I really appreciate them a lot!
Have a wonderful day!
You’re very welcome Debbie! Have a wonderful day!
I recognized the ‘porcupine’ right away, but from a few decades ago in Seattle. Now, I would like to substitute riced cauliflower for the rice. Would this be alright, and should I use fresh or frozen cauliflower rice?
Thanks for the memory.
I think frozen would work just fine!
Thank you so much. Just printed the recipe.
eating this sent me down memory lane! thank you
When I was a kid (I’m 76 now) my mom used this porcupine meatball mixture to stuff green peppers, the sauce was pretty much the same. I loved the flavor, but the peppers tended to ‘steam’ the meat, making it somewhat tough. When I got married 56 years ago I began to make them as meatballs with peppers cut in strips in the sauce. My family loves them with lots of mashed potatoes. Thanks, for reminding me to make these for the bunch next weekend!
Question: can you use 1/2 cup crushed pork rinds in place of 1/2 cup rice in porcupine meatball skillet? I do not eat rice, bread, noodles. The recipe sounds great with salad and carrots. PS I’m a grandma now with picky eater grandkids. This sounds kid friendly.
We’ve have never made this dish with pork rinds so I can’t adivse. You can certainly try it! Thanks!
My mom has made a very similar recipe for years. Just plain meatballs with no rice but stirs in a cup of sour cream to the sauce right before serving. We always has it with egg noodles!
Love all your receipes! I am going try these too! Thank you
I made these meatballs on Monday.. They were delicious.. I did add some Oregano and Italian herbs to the mixture, but very little. I added, just a little, Worcestershire sauce and herbs to the sauce. I was concerned my husband wouldn’t enjoy this meal , but he truly did. It was so tasty.. I will definitely make again and it is just so easy.. I prepared ahead of time and put everything together when ready to get our dinner ready.. Thank you for this recipe.. Even over here in Australia, we can enjoy Southern Cooking.. (I’m originally from NYS so never a Southerner. Well, now that I live in the Southern Hemisphere, I sort of am.. ha ha )
My granma and then my mother used to make ‘porkypine’ balls for us as we were growing up. But I remember the rice sticking out all over the balls, hence the name. My little brothers and I really liked them plain, with potatoes and salad on the side, instead of in a sauce. But I don’t see any ‘porkypines’ sticking out of these.
Granma and Mother are both gone now and I can’t ask them, so I’m asking you. Hope you know the answer!
Thank you so much for all your GREAT recipes. They not only bring back many memories but are also creating new ones with my great grandchildren!
No stars as I haven’t tried them yet. It just slays me how people make so many changes that the dish (whatever it might be) is completely different and then rate it, though they didn’t end up making the recipe they are supposedly rating. They end up rating their own recipe. Oh well, ‘life goes on, whether we want it to, or not’.
Hi Cheryl, your mother probably used more rice in her recipe, which is why you could see it more. Hope that helps. Thanks so much!!
I have never made these but definitely will. How do you serve them. Over rice or just as they are with other veggies. Thanks, G
From the recipe “You can serve this skillet meal just as it is or over more rice or pasta”
This is one of my new favorite recipes!! Absolutely delicious! My family loved it. I always come to this website for great recipes. Your magazine is wonderful too. ❤️❤️
I’ve never had this before and I cooked it tonight for the first time. It was so good my husband really enjoyed it for sure I will be making this again.
All your recipes are so good (and I’ve tried a lot of them)! This is the basic recipe I’ve used for Porcupine Meatballs for years. My only changes are adding a bit of oregano to the meat and a scant tablespoon of sugar to the sauce. Your site is my very favorite for when I’m looking for good down-home comfort meals. Many of them are just what my maternal grandmother made and now I can reproduce them! Thank you!!!