how do you keep porcupine meatballs from falling apart

June 14, 2024 by Robby

Porcupine meatballs are a healthy, simple and scrumptious dinner idea. This easy recipe features tender meatballs filled with long grain rice and covered with velvety, rich tomato sauce mixture. Its so effortless to make and something the whole family can enjoy! You cant go wrong with this classic comfort food.

When I was a kid, my mom used to make us a version of this recipe often. I loved it so much and cutely referred to it as “porky pine meatballs.” I loved the little “porcupine quills” sticking out of each sphere.

Moms original recipe for these classic meatballs used Campbells tomato soup, but my rendition is made with a tasty, rich tomato sauce derived from more whole food ingredients.

If you love this recipe, be sure to check out my Ground Turkey Swedish Meatballs! They are equally delicious.

how do you keep porcupine meatballs from falling apart

What To Serve With Porcupine Meatballs

I really appreciate how these delicious meatballs can be flawlessly paired with so many different sides. Try serving your meatballs with:

And of course, I almost always spoon my meatballs over some fluffy brown or white rice. Cauliflower rice is also tasty and in carbs and calories. [feast_advanced_jump_to]

Lean ground beef: ground turkey or chicken can be substituted.
Rice: youll want to use a long grain, white rice.
Egg: including an egg in your meatball mixture will keep them from falling apart or turning out dry and crumbly.
Seasonings: salt, ground black pepper, smoked paprika (regular also works), Italian seasoning and garlic powder.
Tomato sauce: the base for our delicious sauce.
Tomato paste: a little tomato paste makes a big difference.
Heavy cream: half and half will also work, but I definitely prefer to use heavy cream whenever possible.
Worcestershire sauce: adds major flavor!
White wine vinegar: red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar will also work. Ive also made this recipe without vinegar by mistake and it was still delicious, just not QUITE as flavorful.
Chicken broth: or vegetable stock.
Optional toppings: fresh chopped parsley leaves and parmesan cheese!

how do you keep porcupine meatballs from falling apart

How To Make Porcupine Meatballs

Keep scrolling for the full recipe card and measurements. We’ll start here with a quick overview!

Make meatballs:

Measure ground beef, egg, uncooked rice and spices into a large bowl.

how do you keep porcupine meatballs from falling apart

Mix until well incorporated, but dont over-do it! Meatballs can turn out a little bit tough if overworked.

how do you keep porcupine meatballs from falling apart

Portion meatball mixture into 2 tablespoon-sized balls. Its okay if they arent perfectly even in size, you can definitely eyeball it. To keep them perfectly uniform, use a measuring spoon or cookie scoop. A kitchen scale will also do the trick, each meatball will weigh around 35 grams.
Arrange balls in a single layer in your skillet (try to keep them apart, if they touch a little bit, thats okay).

how do you keep porcupine meatballs from falling apart

Make sauce:

Measure all sauce ingredients into a medium bowl and whisk well.

how do you keep porcupine meatballs from falling apart

Cook meatballs in sauce:

Pour sauce over meatballs, if it totally covers them, thats fine! As the sauce cooks it will thicken and reduce.

how do you keep porcupine meatballs from falling apart

Place a lid on your skillet and put it on the stovetop. Turn heat to high and bring ingredients to a boil, then reduce to low heat and simmer about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Test one meatball to see if rice is fully cooked. If its still a bit crunchy, simmer 5 minutes longer.

how do you keep porcupine meatballs from falling apart

Serve:

Serve your meatballs with rice (or cauliflower rice) and a tasty veggie side or some crunchy garlic bread. Enjoy!

how do you keep porcupine meatballs from falling apart

Save extra tomato paste: When purchasing tomato paste at the grocery store, youll notice the smallest can is 8 ounces. This recipe uses only 2 ounces (2 tablespoons) of paste. Scoop extras into a Ziploc bag, then flatten and freeze for later use! I really like using my extra tomato paste to make homemade enchilada sauce.

Ground beef: I always use lean (93/7) ground beef in this recipe. If youve got higher fat content ground beef to use up, I recommend browning your meatballs and draining off excess fat before adding sauce mixture to the pan. When using lean beef, theres no need to brown meatballs first.

SAVING Money Never Tasted So Good: Easy Budget Porcupine Meatballs

FAQ

Why do my porcupine meatballs fall apart?

Meatball recipes can fall apart if they don’t have the proper binders to hold the other ingredients together. Most recipes use bread crumbs and eggs, but our porcupine meatballs recipe uses rice as the binding agent. The meatballs will be soft and difficult to handle when they’re raw.

How do you keep meatballs from crumbling?

5. Roll your meatballs in flour. Roll the finished meatballs in plain flour before frying. This is, hands down, one of the easiest ways I’ve discovered to prevent meatballs from falling apart when cooking.

Why won t my meatballs stay together?

But too much bread crumbs make them too loose, and not enough bread crumbs won’t help them hold together either. Similar issues can be caused by eggs: Too many eggs, and the meatballs will be too soggy. With the bread crumbs, many recipes call for fresh or dry bread crumbs.

What is the best binder for meatballs?

An egg is usually a good start, as that can help with the tenderness and texture, but the king of meatball binders is breadcrumbs soaked in milk (also known as a panade). Soaking the breadcrumbs first makes them pliable and soggy, which allows them to easily and evenly mix into the ground meat.

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