These Kid Friendly and Budget Friendly Porcupine Meatballs are made with only 5 ingredients. They are common ingredients you will likely have on hand. It only needs ground beef, quick cooking rice, garlic salt, tomato soup and water. That sounds great, right?
They are also budget friendly, kids approved, they are quick and to make, and there is minimal clean up. These porcupine meatballs are a total win!
I made these meatballs for dinner last night for my grandchildren. They were so excited when they found out it was porcupine meatballs. It was a grandma win!
The Ingredients
I use 85% ground beef or higher. Since the meat is not cooked before baking, I want to minimize the amount of fat in it. However, any percent will work for this recipe. It’s a personal choice.
I use Minute Rice or the off-brand version of it to make these meatballs. You can use the white rice or the brown rice.
The tomato soup is not mixed or dilute when making this.
You can use the regular garlic salt. I like to use the course ground garlic salt with parsley in it.
Making the Meatballs
I use an 8×8 inch baking pan. I’ll spray it with cooking spray and mix the rice, and garlic salt right in that pan. Once everything is mixed, I’ll move the meat mixture to one side in the pan, make the meatballs about golf ball size, and place them in the bottom of the pan.
Then I’ll open and pour the undiluted condensed tomato soup over the meatballs. You do not need to spread it or anything. Pour in the half a soup can of water over everything. There is no mixing needed. It’ll mix as it cooks. It’s easy, really easy.
Baking the Meatballs
Cover the meatballs with either aluminum foil or a lid. Bake them at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Remove them from the oven, uncover and let them set for about 15 minutes. And enjoy!
What to Serve with It
We are a meat, potato, and vegetable kind of family. We grew up on this, and our boys grew up this way as well. So we served potatoes and a vegetable with the porcupine meatballs.
Typically, I serve them with baked potatoes, cheesy hash brown potatoes., or mashed potatoes. My first preference is to serve them with baked potatoes since they also bake for an hour. It’s just so convenient. I like the flavors of the porcupine meatballs served with cheesy hash brown potatoes. My husband would prefer mashed potatoes since he likes to put a couple of spoonsful of the tomatoes sauce on top of his potatoes. They will go with about any potato!
For the vegetable, our preferred vegetable is broccoli, but green beans are a close second. I like to steam them or better yet, roast frozen broccoli or the frozen green beans in the oven while everything else is baking.
If you have any questions, please reach out to me. I would love for you to give this a try and rate it.
Happy Cooking!
Porcupine Meatballs
Equipment
- 1 Baking pan
Ingredients
- 1 Lb Ground beef, raw
- ⅓ cup Uncooked Instant Rice
- 1/2 tsp Garlic salt
- 1 can Condensed tomato soup
- ½ can Water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Spray or grease your baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- In your baking pan, mix raw ground beef, rice, and garlic salt. Make into 8 meatballs and place in the bottom of your baking pan.
- Poor tomato soup on top of meatballs. The tomato soup should not be diluted or mixed with anything.
- Fill your empty tomato soup can halfway with water. Pour over top of your meatballs. Do not mix it.
- Cover your pan with a lid or foil and bake for 1 hour or until the meatballs are done.
