Meatballs in Chipotle Sauce(Albondigas Enchipotladas)

Submitted by Chef #928625

"Very spicy meatballs.Paired with rice and a salad they make a very satisfying meal.You can use beef,lamb,pork or any combination.Veal makes exceptionally soft meatballs that are delicious but a little hard to work with because they fall apart so easily.The onion does need to be ve ry ,very fine or the meatballs may fall apart as well."

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 15
• Yields: 1 pound
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• Meatballs

• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds (reserve 1/2 for sauce)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon Mexican oregano
• 5 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1⁄4 medium white onion, peeled
• 1⁄8 cup cooked white rice
• 1 lb ground beef, ground lamb or 1 lb ground pork
• 4 tablespoons olive oil

• Sauce

• 6 roma tomatoes
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
• 1⁄2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
• salt, to taste
• 6 chipotle chiles in adobo
• 2 cups chicken broth, preferably homemade

• To Serve

• 2 cups cooked white rice (optional)

directions

1. Heat a small skillet over medium-low heat.Add cumin seeds and toast,stirring constantly until they begin to pop and remove immediately from heat.Grind cumin seeds to a fine powder in a spice grinder,set aside.
2. Peel all garlic cloves and the onion.Mince 5 of the cloves of garlic and leave 4 whole.Grate the onion very finely or you may mince it,but it must be very very fine or the meatballs will not hold together well.
3. Mix together meat,1 teaspoon of the cumin,the minced garlic,the onion and the rice;form into meatballs using about 2 tablespoons for each meatball;set aside.
4. Now roast the tomatoes.There are several ways to do this:you may roast them in an iron skillet over medium high heat until charred in places on both sides or you may put then under a hot broiler about 15 minutes,turning halfway through until charred and softened.Tomatoes could also be roasted directly over a flame if you have the means to do this.
5. In a blender combine tomatoes,1 teaspoon cumin,1 cup broth, and all remaining ingredients for the sauce.Blend to a smooth sauce.
6. Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet or dutch oven over medium heat until a drop of sauce sizzles in the oil.Add all of the sauce at once and stir for about 5 minutes.Sauce should be simmering.
7. Carefully drop in about 1/3 of the meatballs and reduce heat to medium.cook for about 6 minutes,stirring the sauce occasionally without disturbing the meatballs.Carefully turn all the meatballs and cook another 4-6 minutes until they are cooked through.Remove to a covered dish.
8. Add 1/2 cup broth to the pot,mix well.When sauce returns to a simmer cook a second batch of meatballs in the same manner.
9. Repeat for last batch of meatballs.Add all meatballs back to the pot and warm through.Serve over rice,if desired.

Reviews

[Muffin Goddess]

These were a little spicier than my preference, but DH loved them. They smelled amazing while cooking, too. I used meatball mix for the ground beef, and I served these with Mexican white rice. I grated my onion, so I didn't have any trouble at all with my meatballs falling apart. Oh, and I misread the recipe, so I had chopped up all the garlic and added it to the meatballs (although I didn't see any mention in the instructions of where to put the rest of the garlic had I separated it correctly -- I'm assuming it goes in the sauce at some point). I know that DH will be requesting these again. Thanks for posting! Made for PAC Spring 2013