Pressure Cooker Porcupine Meatballs and Orange Gravy
Update: Deon is revamping her site and graciously sent me the recipe to include in the post.
Today I’m featuring a pressure cooker recipe from Deon Sagers. Deon has a fun new site, iPinnedIt, where she invites readers to share their Pinterest PROPS! and FLOPS!.
Deon is a veteran pressure cooker cook and an early follower of Pressure Cooking Today. Fortunately for us, she agreed to share one of her all-time favorite pressure cooker recipe with us.
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Howdy-do, Pressure Cooking Today readers! I am Deon Sagers, and I love Pinterest! So much so that I started a website, www.iPinnedIt.com, which provides a forum where Pinteresters can either brag or whine about the pins they have tried. So fun!
I also post my own culinary adventures on the website, and I am thrilled that Barbara has invited me to share one of my all-time favorites with you today!
Having grown up with a mother who used her pressure cooker several times every week, I naturally followed in her footsteps and have been using my own pressure cooker for everything from juicy, tender, fall apart pot roasts to the insanely delicious Porcupine Meatballs and Orange Gravy recipe I am sharing with you today! Boy howdy, there is something so tasty about the flavors in this fairly simple recipe that just linger on the back of your tongue and make you think you’ve died and gone to comfort food heaven! YUH-UM!
My family has officially declared this meatballs and gravy recipe among their top five faves, and I know you will absolutely fall head-over-heels in love with it too! If you happen be a Pinterest junkie like me, you are definitely going to want to pin this recipe to your foodie board, and even if you haven’t succumbed to that great Pinterest abyss, give this recipe a go–you will be so glad you did!
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Thanks Deon for sharing your gorgeous meatballs with us. Visit iPinnedIt for the insanely delicious Porcupine Meatballs and Orange Gravy recipe. Deon uses a a Presto 6 quart aluminum stove top pressure cooker that she’s had for “oh, I don’t know how long . . . ages!”
Update: When making this recipe in a 6 qt. electric pressure cooker, a reader suggests reducing the amount of soup used. See comment below.
Making Porcupine Meatballs and Orange Gravy in an Instant Pot
An Instant Pot is one of the most popular brands of electric pressure cookers. They are easy to use and your Instant Pot can help you create these delicious Porcupine Meatballs and Orange Gravy!
Porcupine Meatballs and Orange Gravy
Ingredients
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 1 cup uncooked white rice (see footnote)
- 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 small white onion, chopped fine
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- 4 cans condensed tomato soup*
- 2 1/2 soup cans of water*
Instructions
Place ground beef into large mixing bowl. Add chopped onion, rice, flour, salt, and pepper. Using your hands, gently mix ingredients together taking care not to overwork the meat. Form meat mixture into walnut-size balls, again not packing the mixture too tightly.
In a pressure cooker pot, add 4 cans of tomato soup and 2 1/2 soup cans of water and bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat. Use a wire whisk to stir soup and water together until no lumps remain. Carefully add meatballs to pot. Seal pressure cooker with lid, increase heat to high, and allow pressure cooker to heat until the steam indicator pops up. Turn heat to medium or medium-low and place the regulator over steam pipe.
Cook meatballs for 25 minutes while maintaining a steady but slow rocking of the regulator. After 25 minutes, remove pressure cooker from heat and allow the pressure to drop on its own before opening lid. This will take approximately 15-20 minutes. (Allowing the pressure to drop slowly allows meatballs to continue to cook while increasing their tenderness.)
Once steam indicator has dropped, carefully remove lid taking care of the steam. Using a slotted spoon, remove meatballs to a large serving bowl and keep warm.
Taste the orange gravy remaining in the pot and season to taste with additional salt and pepper. Stir in a bit of hot water if the gravy is too thick. Pour orange gravy into separate serving bowl.
Notes
FOOTNOTE: I have great success using instant rice in this recipe, but long-grained white rice would work as well.
*EDIT: Since posting this recipe, I have purchased a Cuisinart 6-Quart Electric Pressure Cooker and have found that if making this recipe with my electric pressure cooker rather than my stovetop pressure cooker, the tomato soup should be reduced to 2 cans and the water should be reduced to one can and it should be cooked on low pressure. Everything else in the recipe remains the same.
Recipe by my mom!
I can’t get hold of porcupine meat in the UK 🙁
lol – no porcupine meat, just a silly name because of the texture of the meatballs.
I grew up on these meatballs and they are yummy. When I’m in a hurry I just mix the ground beef with a large box of beef flavored rice a roni and place them in the tomato soup with a splash or two of Worcestershire sauce. They turn out amazing every time.
Looks fab. Barbara! Made tangerine flank last night with chili peppers. Def. going to try this.
Thanks Gary – I haven’t tried that. I’ll have to put it on my list.
Hey, that’s my recipe too! Guess we’ve enjoyed this when we were kids…and still do.
Been making this recipe for ions. My Uncle gave it to me. His recipe has to put quartered russet potatoes on top of the meatballs. Then cook. Love those potatoes. My recipe only has 12 minutes of cooking time & then lt the pressure come down on it’s own.
Hi Joyce – potatoes sound like a delicious addition. Thanks for sharing.
Where can I find your rotisserie chicken enchilada recipe?
My chicken enchilada pasta? https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/chicken-enchilada-pasta/
Barbara, What are your thoughts on using ground deer meat in place of the beef?
Hi Denise – I think deer meat would work fine in this recipe as long as there’s enough fat in the meat to bind the meatball together.
I have a multicooker so will follow your note about the electric pressure cooker. Do you still just cook for 25 mins though?
Michelle
Hi Michelle – yes, the cook time will be the same.
Ok, so the cook time remains the same when using an IP, but at what setting? Low? High? Manual? A combination of both (high, then low)? Do you recommend a 10-minute Natural Release? Thanks so much, Barbara!
Generally, all electric/ Instant Pot pressure cooker recipes will use High Pressure unless it specifically mentions Low Pressure, which is rare. You can use the Manual button to cook on Low or High pressure – it basically means pressure cook and you set the time manually. Yes, a 10-minute natural release should be plenty on this recipe.
I will hang on to this recipe because they are so easy to make and the tomato soup for sauce is a nice change of pace. We liked the texture but they were bland. I served them over rice since I had the rice out. I think next time I will add some taco seasoning to them and serve with corn and Spanish rice. You could also add some chopped green pepper, they would be a lot like stuffed green peppers. I am glad I found the recipe I think I can switch it up for my family!!
This is one of my familys favorites. I don’t use flour & only use 1 can of water to 1lb of ground meat. I also add a couple of quarted or halved potatoes on top of the meatballs before I close the lid. The potaoes are great this way.
I won’t be negative, I’ll simply offer fixes to this recipe. With changes it could be delicious!
NEVER add flour to the meat mixture – breadcrumbs, yes, but flour makes the meatballs tough. Try substituting 2 eggs with a cup of breadcrumbs. Store bought is just fine. This will vastly improve the texture and flavor making them light & with an improved mouth feel. Also I would add more seasonings to them. A little Season Salt and some Italian Herbs will help quite a bit. That’s up to you.
Try using a jar pasta sauce for the tomato soup. I would recommend a jar of “Classico 4 Cheeses” sauce with a can of regular tomato sauce mixed together. The flavor will be improved dramatically! Stay away from sugary sauces like Prego.
These two very simple and easy adjustments will take this recipe from ‘Ho Hum’ to ‘YUM!’ without changing the basic recipe! Other than that use the recipe as it stands. It does work well. It’s simple, quick and easy. Now make it flavorful.
Barbara, thanks for all your great recipes…have enjoyed them so. Question…why do you call this meatballs with ORANGE gravy when there is no orange in it? I think I’m missing something!
dahh…I assume it’s because the gravy is orange color!?!
I would love to try this recipe. Just bought an instant pot. But I can’t find the recipe. The links take me no where. Would appreciate it if you would email me the recipe or tell me how to find it on this page. Thanks in advance. Carol
Her website is probably just down right now. Just try it again later. I’ve never printed the recipe. You could also try messaging her on Facebook.
Hi Carol – Deon took her website down for a while. She sent me the recipe to include with her post. Enjoy!
Made these last night for a party. They were delicious. But beware if you have an electric PC with all the safety bells and whistles. My 6qt Cuisinart wouldn’t do it. It would try, but then give up and go to “keep warm” mode. I suspect it was overfilled. I transferred everything to my 10qt stove top and that worked. I definitely plan on making them again. Will just either reduce the amount of soup or use my 10qt stove top. Very yummy!
Hi Andrea – thanks for the feedback. So glad they were a delicious party of your NYE celebration. I’ll make a note in the post about reducing the amount for the 6 qt electric pressure cooker.
Barbara, thank you for the awesome opportunity to share this recipe with your readers! I hope that people enjoy these meatballs as much as our family does, because I am not lying when I say that this is one of the most requested dinners at our house! An added bonus when making these: The kitchen smells wonderful too! Thanks again, Barbara!!!
I love porcupine meatballs. Can’t wait to try these. My mom made those for the filling of her stuffed cabbages. A little different but the same concept. Can’t wait to try these!
What an interesting recipe. I’ve never heard of porcupine meatballs.
I downloaded this recipe to my paprika app awhile ago to try. I’ve never heard of porcupine meatballs before Instant Pot. I made tonight in 3-qt, 1/4 recipe to get it to 1/2# ground meat. OH. MY. GOSH. Fantastic & now my favorite! I sauteed chopped onions in olive oil before adding the soup & put the meatballs in the freezer for about 15 minutes before adding to the boiling soup. After cooking, browned the meatballs with the CrispLid. I couldn’t stop eating these & the orange gravy is sooooo good, recipe came out perfect! Barbara, what to do to make more gravy? I used 1/2 can soup + 1/4 can water. Can I double soup, keeping ground meat to 1/2#? Would cook time change? Thanks so much to you & Deon for sharing this recipe!
Thanks for sharing Jan! You could easily double the sauce ingredients. I would use the same cook time.
Thanks so much Barbara! Meatballs were half submerged so wondered if submerging them by adding more soup would break up the meat or change cook time. You’re the best!
It shouldn’t but please let me know if that’s your experience.