Paula Deen’s Porcupine Meatballs

I love a little Paula Deen every now and then. This recipe was a good starting point, but I had to make some adjustments along the way. The original recipe has just meat & rice as the meatballs. I added a few things to the meatballs to increase the flavor. The other, big adjustment is the baking time on this recipe. I followed the recipe at first and after an hour, the rice was still crunchy. Keep everything covered and plan on an hour and 1/2 of bake time. Just keep your eye on things... Everyone’s ovens are different.

Paula Deen’s Porcupine Meatballs

1 pound lean ground beef
1 1/2 cups uncooked white rice, divided
1 teaspoon dried onion
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
1 (14-ounce) can beef broth

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Put the ground beef into a mixing bowl. Measure 1/2 cup of the rice and put it in with the meat.
** Before combining everything I added about 1 Tbsp of worcestershire sauce, 1 Teaspoon of minced garlic, salt & pepper, and about a Tbsp of Italian seasoning. This will give a more flavor to your meatballs **
Mix it all together with your clean hands. Form the mixture into 8 or 9 golf ball-size balls.

In a large casserole dish, add the remaining rice, dried onion, salt, Italian seasoning, diced tomatoes and beef broth. Stir together with the spoon and top with the meatballs.

Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake for about 1 hour. The rice in the meatballs will have puffed up all around the meat, and your meatballs will look like little porcupines!