Why stand over the stove when you can have delicious oven-baked meatballs with rice and gravy right out of your oven?
I have to confess that I haven’t done very well at meal planning this week and instead have been flying by the seat of my pants. That makes it sound a lot more exciting than reality, which in this case means thawing meat and scrounging around for ingredients to make dinner without going to the store. What’s great is that sometimes improvised dinners turn out SO GOOD.
Easy and Quick Dinner with Oven-Backed Meatballs
Take for example these baked meatballs. It took me 15 minutes tops to throw this dinner together, and then I stuck it in the oven while getting the kids to get ready for bed. The house smelled amazing while it was baking, and an hour or so later we were enjoying savory meatballs with creamy rice and gravy.
I can’t say for sure since I haven’t tested it yet, but I think this recipe is born for the slow cooker. I baked it for over an hour until the liquid was absorbed, and I think that would translate well to slow cooking on low all day. I’ll be sure to update you here when I try it in the crockpot soon, and I think I will try brown rice with that version since it can stand up to hours of cooking time.
We enjoyed these oven-baked meatballs with rice and gravy with sliced tomatoes, my favorite side when I’m pinched for time, ingredients, or energy. It would of course be great with green beans, a side salad, English peas, or pretty much any vegetable you like. Let me know what you serve with it!
How to Make Oven-Baked Meatballs with Rice and Gravy
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 60 minutes |
| Servings |
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- 16-20 oz. ground turkey or beef
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp. chili powder
- 1 tsp. onion powder
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- 10 oz. can condensed cream of mushroom soup I used reduced-fat
- 2 c. chicken broth
- 1 c. long grain white rice
Ingredients
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Rate this recipe!
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- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 13" baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large bowl, stir together ground meat, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, chili powder, onion powder, and garlic powder.
- In another bowl (I apologize to whoever is washing the dishes), whisk together cream of mushroom soup and chicken broth. Add rice, and stir. Pour the rice mixture into the prepared baking dish.
- Using a medium disher or a tablespoon, evenly measure meatballs and drop into the rice mixture. Arrange in straight lines to be sure they all fit.
- Cover pan with foil, and bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 15-20 minutes until meatballs are cooked through and most of the liquid is absorbed. (Ground meat should be heated to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.)
Finally, please share with us your oven-baked meatballs with rice and gravy results. Also, feel free to improvise as much as you like. After all, this recipe should be fun to make and satisfy your tastes. So, go wild and tell us all about it in the comments section below!
Last but not least, if you’d like more of my easiest-to-make recipes, here are two of my favorite meatball recipes for you!
Danielle says
(Real commenter here). WOW, I was looking for a low-intensity, low-ingredient way to make some meatballs, one that would make the meat stretch, and this recipe fit the bill! It was SO TASTY, it reminded me of a porkchop casserole my mom made when I was a kid (with the onion soup mix?), only with meatballs, one of my favorite things (and not too salty)! This is a fab recipe, thank you for sharing.
brendarowsey says
Did not tell how to shape meatballs
Shannon says
is the rice cooked when you put it in the pan or uncooked?
Connor Grant says
Is the rice cooked before or put uncooked?
Robert J Chapman says
This is a very informative blog. I am placing this comment so I can go back in case I’ll need this for future reference.
Jen says
Hi! I just found thos tecipe. Yum. Would love to make it but burning up in rhe Arizona heat and now humidity. Could you make this in the crock pot? Have you? How did ypu layer it? Thanks. Can’t wait to look at your other recipes.
Lacey says
Looking for a meatball and rice recipe I stumbled across this and I’m going to make it tonight but I’m going to make it with cream of mushroom and cream of bacon soup and add some sauteed mushrooms and onions to the rice. Thanks for sharing this recipe it sounds amazing and by the looks of the reviews it is.
walter S says
I LOVE TO COOK THESE WONFUL RECIPES FOR MYSELF AND WHEN FAMILY COME OVER TOO EAT.
Sheila says
I just printed your recipe and to copy the picture with the instructions you need to highlight recipe plus picture and copy then paste it in Word Document and print.
Katherine says
How about using minute rice?
Pat Wheeler says
It looks like you posted this recipe about 4 years ago. Did you ever get around to trying it in a crock pot?
J putnam says
I just layered the meath over the rice and then cut it like a cake is cut to serve. Easier than forming idividually.
Andi Gleeson says
Oh that’s a great idea! Thanks for sharing it :)
Tammi Collie says
I have made this twice now.
First time I made my own cream soup base and added beef stock. It was delicious!
Tonight, was in a rush and cheated. I had a jar of beef gravy lurking in my pantry, added 1 1/2 cups beef stock and 1/2 milk and it was still fabulous!
I had to hide my daughter and husband’s servings because they were not home for dinner and my boys kept trying to eat it all!
Thanks you for this recipe.
candela says
I don’t like using canned goods, how did you make your own cream soup base?
Monica says
Yes do tell! Please!
Takisha Golden says
I made this on Sunday night and it was delicious. I accidentally added in two cans of cream of mushroom soup, one regular, and one golden mushroom soup. This meal was so easy to put together and very tasty. I appreciate that the rice was not dry and my whole family raved about it. This will go in my family’s meal rotation! Thank you :)
Gloria Gunn says
Andi, did you do the meatballs and rice in the slow cooker. Would like the recipe
Christine says
I’m making this tonight but only had brown rice. I added ten minutes to the initial cook while covered. Hopefully this will cook the rice.
Andi Gleeson says
Hi, Christine! Usually brown rice takes twice as long as white to cook, but hopefully it will work out fine since this is a long cook time anyway. I hope you like it!
Christine says
It turned out ok, the rice did take longer but in the end was done. I used pre made, fresh meatballs. My mistake as they were too salty. Next time I’ll make them myself or use frozen lol. Definitely a keeper. Amazingly I didn’t have to add more liquid and the rice still cooked.
Rachel says
I made this tonight and it was delicious! I added a shredded cheese blend on top also and we really enjoyed it.
Andi Gleeson says
Cheese is always a welcome addition :) Sounds delicious!
Wendy C says
Love your recipes Andi. I print them all out but would be really happy if the picture would print with your recipes. Is there a reason they do not show up on ‘print’ screen?
Andi Gleeson says
Thank you so much, Wendy! I looked into this, and I can’t tell why the images aren’t printing actually. They should be! I’ll keep working on it, so bear with me until I can get it fixed. Thanks for letting me know!
Amanda says
I cooked it as described but my rice is not cooked. What should I do?
Andi Gleeson says
Hi, Amanda. I replied by email and hope your dinner turned out OK. I think you just needed to bake it a bit longer. This recipe does have a long cooking time. I’m going to make a slow cooker version in the next week or so, and I think that will be easier since it can cook all day. Thank you!
Cheryl Gafner says
Here is the meal I was talking about! This is my go to meal when I want comfort food! Ground turkey is fun too!!
Andi - The Weary Chef says
Thank you again, Cheryl! This made my day :)
Jay says
Thanks Andi for giving us the option of going straight to the recipe. I appreciate the camera skills of our wonderful bloggers but it gets wearisome plodding through repetitious pictures to get to the main objective.And I love this recipe. I keep a list of “kee0ers” – might not even need it after a while but it serves as a reminder to keep a more varied rotation.
Andi @ The Weary Chef says
Hi, Jay! Thanks for noticing about the skipping to the recipe :) It’s a pretty new feature that took me a bit to get working right. You are the first person to mention it! I’m so happy to hear that this recipe is one of your favorites. I somehow missed this message sooner, but it just made my night! :)
joe says
Don’t worry about having to do dishes, that comes with the territory working in the kitchen. Have deviated from the recipe just a bit, but keep everything as you have told us.
The only really change made to this, have added Hot Italian Sausage, 1-Cup of Bread Crumbs, & 2 Eggs to the Meat mixture.
Andi Gleeson says
That all sounds great, Joe. Cooking is all about making it your own and having fun in the kitchen. Thank you!
Ed says
Wise to use sausage and egg otherwise the meatballs are dry. I Followed the receipe and it was tasteless
Ryan BADISH says
Looks good!
Andi Gleeson says
Thanks, Ryan!
TAMMY says
How would I make this using egg noodles?
Andi Gleeson says
Hi, Tammy! I can’t say for sure because I haven’t tried. I’m afraid it wouldn’t work quite right because the noodles might take less time to cook than the meat. Also, I’m not sure how much liquid you would need for the noodles. If you want meatballs and gravy over noodles, I would recommend this easy recipe instead. Thanks!
Jaime says
I want to make this today, but in the crockpot! What temp and for how long do you think?
Andi Gleeson says
Oh that’s a great idea, Jaime! I think cooking it on low for 6 hours will do the trick. Let me know how it turns out!
elisa says
This recipe is so easy and tasty. I was tempted to add salt to the meatballs because I didn’t see it as an ingredient, so i did. Mine came out a bit too salty my advise would be that no added salt is needed, the recipe is perfect they way it is written. I will definitely make this recipe again. I can see this working for any ground meat.
Andi Gleeson says
Hi, Elisa! Thank you so much! The soy sauce, chicken broth, and canned soup are all salty. In fact, I might should change the canned ingredients to be reduced sodium! I did the same as you when I made a beef and gravy recipe that I’ll be sharing tomorrow. I added salt to the gravy without tasting it first, but I didn’t realize how much salt was already in the broth and meat I used. Live and learn! At least this time I was the one with a too salty meal so I can help you to avoid it :) Hope to hear from you again soon!
Bob Lorance says
My wife does not eat rice. Do you believe this could be made using sliced potatoes? If so, how would you prepare it with potatoes?
Andi says
Hi, Bob! I think it should work well with potatoes too, but I haven’t actually tried it. I would make it as described except reduce the chicken broth to about a half cup. All that liquid is needed to cook the rice, but the potatoes don’t really need liquid to bake up nice and tender. Let me know how it goes. Thank you!
Amy Young says
This looks great and I’m definitely going to try it. Just wondering how I might do this with frozen meatballs? I usually buy a big bag of meatballs from Sam’s and this would be a great way to use them.
Andi says
Hi, Amy! I think the baking time is so long that you could just put them in frozen and cook as directed. Hope you like it! Thanks :)
Courtney says
Hi! Looks like a delicious recipe and I’m planning on making it tomorrow for dinner. Do you think I could make the dish in the morning, including the rice in the sauce, and then pop it in the oven when I get home from work? Would the rice become soggy?
Thank you!
Andi says
I can’t say for sure since I haven’t tried it, but I think it should work fine and maybe reduce the cooking time a bit. Sorry if my answer comes to late. Let me know how it goes!
Orea says
I made this a couple of nights ago. The concept is brilliant, and we really enjoyed the dish as written. It couldn’t be much simpler or quicker. I think next time, which will be really soon, I’ll fiddle a bit with the meatballs a bit, adding gluten free bread crumbs and some seasonings borrowed from a favorite meatball recipe. My husband mentioned they were a little dry for his taste. In all fairness, he did forget to set the timer when he put the dish in the oven for me, so that might not be the recipe’s fault! I, too, love to add vegetables to saucy rice dishes like this, so I plan to do so here, too. I cook for both my husband and myself, as well as a family we know and love who, for health and financial reasons, can use our help. This kind of inexpensive, quick, and tasty recipe is just the kind of thing I need to keep the food interesting and affordable. It’s going into my “Favorites” file. Thank you!
Andi says
Thank you so much, Orea! You can definitely customize the meatballs to suit your tastes I just made them pretty basic. I’m very happy to hear you guys liked it. Thanks for taking the time to let me know!
Amanda says
Made this tonight with my 16 y/o daughter. We added a 1/2 C bread crumbs, 1/2 C onions and 1 egg to the meatballs. Served with a simple green salad. We loved it! Will be making again.
Andi says
Thank you so much, Amanda! I’m so happy you liked it, and your additions sound perfect.
Linde says
Made this last night. I added chopped onions, about 1/2 a cup. Think I’ll double that next time. Oh, a quick recommendtion….I mixed the rice ingredients first then put them in the baking dish, then just reused the same bowl to mix up meatbll ingredients. One less bowl to wash….I’m lazy that way ;;-) I had to bake this for about 1 1/2 hours for the rice to cook completely, which dried out the meatballs. I think I’ll cook the rice by itself for a while first next time. Then add the meatballs. The rice was really delicious! I’ll be making this great tasting recipe again. Thanks!!!
Linde says
Oops. Forgot to say that I added the chopped onions to the rice, not the meatloaf, although I may do that too next time!
Andi says
Thank you for the feedback, Linde and for the good idea about using one bowl! The onions sound like a nice addition too. Glad you liked it overall.
Shals says
Hey I did follow this recipe…..had a question when you say chilli powder r u referring to chilli as in red pepper powder as we in india know only one kind of chilli powder as ur dish does not look red like it would had I put chilli powder…so I avoided it…hope is turns out as good as ur pic looks
Andi says
Hi, Shals! I hope you liked the recipe. Chili powder in the US and India area are probably different things. Yours might be more like cayenne pepper here, which is very spicy! In the US, chili powder is a spice blend with garlic powder, paprika, cumin, and more. Do you have anything like that? I’m sure it still tasted good if you had the other ingredients and just left that out. Thanks for your comment!
Jennifer says
Fantastic!! Made this tonight and we loved it! I made my own turkey meatballs and used a brown and wild rice combo. I had to cook it longer because the rice wasn’t done but that was probably due to the change in rice. Definitely going to make this again! Thanks for sharing!
Andi says
I’m so happy to hear that it was a hit, Jennifer! Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know. I can imagine that the brown rice took a while to bake since even white rice took about 40 minutes. I hope it was worth the wait :) Thanks again!
Stephanie says
Going to try this with golden mushroom soup instead of cream of mushroom since my son has a milk allergy. He’s a big meatball fan so I think he’ll love it!
Andi says
I hope you are happy with how it turns out! I think the golden mushroom soup will work great too. Thanks for stopping by, Stephanie!
Jennifer says
Does the rice need to be cooked first?
Andi says
Hi, Jennifer. Nope, there is enough liquid to cook the rice while it bakes! Thanks for stopping by :)
Stephanie says
Just found your recipe while looking up ‘meatballs and rice’ and have to say it was very tasty and so simple to prepare. My husband even liked it! The only thing I did different was add half a chopped onion to the rice mixture, delicious. Had peas as a side dish. Definitely a keeper!
Thank you
Andi says
Thank you, Stephanie! I’m so glad you liked it and am excited to have you as a new reader :)
angela says
My family loved this, it’s a keeper in our rotation. I did add about a quarter cup breadcrumbs to the meatballs and used cream of celery instead of mushroom(not a mushroom fan) It was delicious!
Andi says
Hi, Angela. I’m so glad you liked it! Thanks a lot for taking the time to come back to let me know :)
CatfishRecipes says
I love these all in one meals and its meatballs which is one of my favorites. Going to give this one a try this week and see how it goes , saw mention of soggy rice above so i will try and watch the cook time closely.
Andi says
I’m not sure what to tell you about the soggy rice because it turned out well for me. Since it’s supposed to be like rice and gravy, I guess it could have been what some might call soggy and that’s what I was going for! ;) I hope you like it. Thanks so much for your comment!
Crockpot cook says
This sounds great esp with some low sodium options mixed in. And i agree it seems like something that would go great in the crockpot, which i would love even more. Going to give it a go in the oven first and then may try and adapt it to crockpot myself.
Andi says
I think you could pretty much make it as written but with brown rice cooked on low with your slow cooker with good results. I can’t promise it though since I haven’t tried it yet! I did try slow cooker meatballs with marinara recently that turned out well. Here’s the recipe if you are interested:
Thanks so much for your visit and comment! Have a great week :)
Liz says
I love this recipe. Thank you.
Krista Kapp says
I made this for supper tonight!!! It was so easy and good! Thanks!
Krista Kapp says
Oh and we had it with green beans!
Andi says
I’m so happy to hear that you liked it, Krista! Thanks so much for coming back to let me know. Have a great week :)
Catherine vail says
Recipe sounded great for a quickie dinner . I added fresh mushrooms and Italian parsley, and grated onion. Would not make this again. Rice came out very soggy
Andi says
I’m really sorry that you weren’t happy with it, Catherine! We liked this dish a lot, but I’ll make it again to be sure I get the same result. Thanks for letting me know how it went for you.
Wendy says
It might be faster if you used minute rice instead of the regular. Haven’t tried it yet but am going to soon! Sounds WONDERFUL! Thanks for sharing!
Andi says
Hi, Wendy! Thanks so much for stopping by. I don’t usually have minute rice on hand, but you are right that it would make it a lot faster. I think the liquid amount would have to change because I believe instant rice is 1:1 water to rice instead of 2:1, but otherwise I think it would work great. Let me know if you give it a try that way. I’m going to try it in the slow cooker very soon. Merry Christmas!
Mrs Z says
I will need to reduce all that sodium by making my own cream of mushroom soup, using low-salt chicken broth, and so on. Otherwise this recipe sounds great!
Andi says
Hi, and thanks for your comment! Sorry it has taken me a few days to response, but this week has been a bit crazy. I don’t use canned soups in recipes that often but was looking for shortcuts last week. I use the reduced sodium cream of mushroom, but I know it’s still pretty loaded with salt! I hope you like your revised version. Merry Christmas!
tanya says
There really is nothing like homemade meatballs! And since this doesn’t have a tomato sauce, my kids would probably eat second and third helpings! Great dinner Andi!
Andi says
Thank you, Tanya! I’m going to be making this one pretty regularly I think :)
Kelly says
I have been feeling the same way about meals lately too. These meatballs sound great and love how easy and fast they took to throw together – oh great idea, I think they would be fabulous in the slow cooker too :) Thanks for sharing Andi and hope you enjoy the rest of your week!
Andi says
Thanks, Kelly! I’m going to try them in the slow cooker soon and will let you know how it goes! Thanks for coming over :)