This slow cooker 5-ingredient Amish porcupine meatball recipe is the kind of no-fuss, hearty family dinner that quietly becomes “the one everyone asks for.” The name “porcupine” comes from the way the uncooked rice swells and sticks out of the meatballs as they cook, mimicking little quills.

Versions of this dish have circulated through Amish and Midwestern church cookbooks for decades because it uses pantry staples, stretches a pound or two of ground beef into a generous meal, and lets the slow cooker do all the work. Here we mix uncooked rice directly into the raw ground beef, add three savory supporting ingredients, and tuck everything into the slow cooker for an easy, comforting supper.