Mexican Porcupine Meatballs

You use uncooked rice in these meatballs, so when they cook up, there are little sticks of rice poking out. They actually kind of look like porcupines 🙂 … I thought they were so cute!

I made these meatballs because my mom and dad were going hunting and they needed to make room in their freezer for the “new” meat, so they brought me a cooler-full of meat: venison, antelope and elk. Meatballs suddenly popped into my mind and I thought it would be nice to try something different this time: instead of breadcrumbs, how about rice? I loved the idea of having rice IN my meatballs.

I cooked these meatballs in my Swiss Diamond 5.8 qt saute pan. This is a super BIG pan … probably a bit overkill for this recipe, but it seemed like the right one to use to cook my meatballs in because I could set all of the meatballs in a single layer on the bottom of the pan, add the sauce and water, cover and let them cook and voila! In just a bit, I had some yummy meatballs for dinner.  I put a few meatballs on a bed of cooked basmati rice, poured a little sauce over top, and gobbled them up.

Mexican Porcupine Meatballs

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 40 minutes
• Total Time: 55 minutes

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• A splash of wine
• 1 pound of ground lean meat (I used venison, but you could use beef, turkey, lamb, chicken, pork … whatever suits your fancy)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Red Robin Seasoning (or your favorite seasoned salt)
• 1/3 cup UNCOOKED basmati rice
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
• 1 egg

For cooking the meatballs:

• 1/2 cup of Fire Roasted Enchilada Sauce (or your favorite enchilada sauce)
• 1/2 cup of water

For serving:

• Hot cooked basmati rice, marinara sauce, enchilada sauce, fresh cilantro

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Instructions

1. Heat a small pan over medium heat, spray with cooking spray (if needed, I didn’t because I was using my Swiss Diamond pan) and saute for a few minutes, adding a splash of wine if the pan is too dry.
2. In a bowl, mix the sauteed onions and garlic with the meat, seasoning, rice, milk, cilantro and egg. You can use a spoon if you like, but you’re going to want to use your hands towards the end to get everything well mixed.
3. Form the meat mixture into balls of the desired size and set them in your saute pan as you make them … my meatballs were about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.
4. Pour the enchilada sauce and water into the pan, cover and bring the liquid to boiling over medium to medium high heat, then reduce the heat to medium low and let cook for about 30 – 40 minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through and the rice is tender.
5. To serve, I made a sauce by mixing equal parts of my favorite marinara and enchilada sauce. Then I made a bed of hot basmati rice on the plate, poured the hot sauce over the rice, topped with meatballs, drizzled just a bit of sauce on top of the meatballs (so as not to disturb the pokey porcupine “quills”) and garnished with fresh cilantro leaves

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This recipe was shared at Wicked Good Wednesday, Thursday’s Treasures, Foodie Friends Friday, Weekend Potluck, Katherine Martinelli’s Rice Bloghop and Everyday Mom’s Meals.