Gutsy Cooks Club: 32 Spanish Meatballs/Albondigas in Chipotle Sauce

Well beings I did Cinco de Mayo cooking pretty much all week to prepare my staff luncheon when I saw these Spanish Meatballs on our Gutsy Cooks Club menu I thought great I can make these fit into my staff lunch I'm sure.

I love meatballs as tapas in just about any variety; bbq, Asian style or even the way I learned to make them from my sister in law with grape jelly & chile sauce..who knew.

But this week I went with the Mexican style version and made a Chipotle Sauce.

Yes, we love both Mexican and Chipotle we can't deny that. But given this was for my staff G reminded me over and over again to go light on the Chipotle...he knows and has lived through my heavy handed chipotle adventures first hand obviously.

I adapted the The Illustrated Kitchen Bible version of Spanish meatballs quite a bit.

To make my meatballs I used ground pork & beef and used masa harina as the binder. Spiced them with onion, garlic, oregano, salt/pepper & cumin. Then I browned them on the stove top before finishing them off in the oven to fully bake.

For the sauce I used the crock pot for the staff luncheon and added to it chicken broth, tomato sauce and 2 canned chopped chipotle pepper with added adobo sauce.

chipotle out of the can ready for chopping

I used a little chopped cilantro for garnish and voila'. Yumminess in the tummy.

We loved them. Of course we had to have a few as an appetizer the night before just to make sure they were worthy for the staff luncheon. And luckily they were. My staff enjoyed them and nobody complained that they were too spicy. They said that the spice was just right.

 Whew!