Mexican Style Meatballs in Chipotle Sauce – Albondigas

Mexican Style Meatballs in Chipotle Sauce – Albondigas

For meatballs:

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1½  cups Progresso Italian style bread crumbs
• 2 eggs
• ½  cup chopped parsley, or roughly 2 Tablespoons dried parsley flakes
• ½  cup chopped onion

For sauce:

• 2 cloves garlic
• ¼ cup chopped onion
• 2 large (29 oz cans) tomatoes with juice*
• 1 small (3.5 oz) can chipotle peppers in adobe sauce**
• 2 teaspoons chicken flavored bouillon
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil

In a large bowl mix ground beef, ground pork, bread crumbs, eggs, ½  cup chopped onion and parsley.  Form into 1-2 inch meatballs.  Place in refrigerator until ready to cook.  In a large blender, puree the garlic, ¼ cup chopped onion, canned tomatoes, chipotle peppers, and bouillon.  Use all the juice from the canned tomatoes and all the juice from the can of chipotle peppers.  Heat olive oil in a large stock pot.  Pour the sauce through a strainer and into the stock pot.  This will remove unwanted seeds and skin.  Bring to a gentle boil.  Add meatballs directly into the sauce and cook, maintaining a gentle boil for 15-20 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through and the temperature reaches 160 F.  Serve with a bit of Mexican sour cream over white rice, with black beans and corn tortillas.  *This can be made using about 6-8 fresh tomatoes.  Another tomato variation is to use can fire roasted, for even more flavor.  **We like this dish very spicy, so we use one 7 oz. can of chipotle peppers.  I would definitely start with 3.5 oz and tasting the sauce.  More heat can be added at the end.

Keep reading for tips on using this as a freezer meal…

This meal freezes beautifully!  From the recipe above I can usually stretch the meatballs and sauce into four meals.  Simply place the portion that will not be eaten immediately into quart sized freezer bags.  When ready to use, defrost over night in the refrigerator, then place on the stove-top to heat.  You could also freezer portions of black beans to go with this freezer meal.

The kids like to roll a bit of the meat with rice and beans for chipotle flavored tacos.

Mil gracias a Adriana Mendoza Jimenez who taught me so much about Mexican cooking.  She always used rice as the filler for the meatballs instead of breadcrumbs.  Her sauce was always done with fresh roma tomatoes.  This is now a family favorite.