In a large mixing bowl combine the rice, water, soup mix, garlic powder, ground beef and ground pork. Mix together well (I always just use my hands since I have to form meatballs anyways) and form into 1 1/2 inch meatballs, around 22-25. They will be loose because of the water, but you need the moisture in there for the rice, trust me they will cook up nicely!
Heat a large lidded saute pan and then fry all of the meatballs until golden brown on all sides. When starting, fry them for a long time on the first side, cooking them until they are really browned so that when you flip them they don't fall apart.
When all of the meatballs are done , drain the excess fat off, then combine the last four ingredients together and pour over top of the meatballs.
Place a lid on top of the saute pan and simmer on medium-low heat for another 20-30 minutes, until the rice in the meatballs is cooked, stirring every 10 minutes or so. I actually just shake the lidded pan back and forth to move things around.
Serve and enjoy! We make rice and serve these and the sauce over top.
Notes
You can double the sauce if you want a lot of sauce in this recipe easily, it will fit in the large saute pan.
The only thing that I sometimes change in the traditional recipe is to use half ground beef and half ground pork. I find that the ground pork makes for juicier meatballs. You can use all ground beef if you like, but I suggest trying them with ground pork, they are so delicious!
You can definitely double this recipe (I did) you simply need a larger skillet for the meatballs.
I also use two pounds of ground meat in the basic recipe, if you are going to go to all that effort then you should make enough for a few leftovers as well! This meatball recipe yields around 24-25 large meatballs.