Mini Chipotle Meatballs
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inspiration: One of our favorite restaurants for Mexican food serves almost everything alongside their Chipotle Sauce. We love it so much that we did many trial runs of the sauce till we discovered that it's even more simple than we realized - the recipe is below.
Just a few weeks ago, for our Holiday Party, we were toying with the idea of doing meatballs because we wanted to do something with meat and we liked that they were bite sized and easy to make and store. When we thought about combining our favorite traditionally Mexican-styled sauce with the tiny meatballs, we discovered that we were on to something. They were very easy to make, very easy to store, very easy to bake off, and so tasty that we had to keep refilling the platter before we had time to bake off another round. They were definitely the hit of the party and someone even commented that these had "restored their faith in a killer meatball!" That was the best complement we could get and these will go in our entertaining repertoire permanently.
ingredients:
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp. garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp. chipotles canned in adobo, finely chopped and seeded (plus 3 tbsp. of the adobo sauce)
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- 1 tsp. dried oregano
- 1 lb. ground pork
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 2 cups sour cream
- 2 tbsp. mayonnaise
- salt and pepper
method: In a large bowl, combine milk and breadcrumbs and allow to fully soak for at least 20 minutes.
In a medium saucepan, add the olive oil and cook the onion, garlic, chipotles, cumin, and oregano and cook till everything is light brown and sweated, about 7 minutes. Add some water to deglaze and let cool slightly. Stir onion mixture into the milk and panko. Add to the bowl the ground meats, egg, parsley, 1 teaspoon salt and mix well.
Preheat oven to 450 (convect if possible). Form about 3/4 inch balls of meat mixture and lay out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Cook in the oven for about 20-25 minutes (do not turn) until browned and cooked through.
Note: Meatballs can be formed, but not cooked, 2 day ahead and chilled.
Chipotle sauce: In a medium bowl, combine sour cream, mayonnaise, the 3 tbsp. of the chipotle adobo sauce, and salt and pepper. Combine till all smooth and plate in a bowl to accompany the meatballs. Note: Chipotle sauce can be made up to 5 days in advance and chilled.
Yields approximately 60-70 meatballs
