Albondigas meatball tacos

Votes: 1

Time: 2 hours.
Complexity: average
Servings: 10 - 12

Tired of regular meatballs? Try making tacos with albondigas. Albondigas is a Spanish-Mexican dish made with meatballs in a thick, spicy, and slightly hot vegetable sauce. Tacos are a traditional Mexican dish. Tacos are made with a corn or wheat tortilla filled with a variety of fillings—beef, pork, chicken, seafood, refried beans, vegetables, and even stewed Mexican cactus pulp. Tacos are eaten without utensils, folding the tortilla in half. The dish predates the arrival of Europeans in Mexico. As a result, tacos with albondigas are very filling and delicious. This dish is very appropriate not only in hot Mexico but also in temperate climates, especially during the colder months.

The recipes use measuring containers with the following volumes:
1 glass (st.) - 250 ml.
3/4 cup (st.) - 180 ml.
2/3 cup (st.) - 160 ml.
1/2 cup (st.) - 125 ml.
1/3 cup (st.) - 80 ml.
1/4 cup (st.) - 60 ml.
1 tablespoon (tbsp) - 15 ml.
1 teaspoon (tsp) - 5 ml.
1/5 teaspoon (tsp) - 1 ml.

Ingredients for the recipe:

20 small tortillas
1.1 kg ground beef
2 heads of garlic
3 plum tomatoes
2 tbsp. l. olive oil
2 medium onions, cut into quarters
2 small poblano chili peppers
2 tablespoons crushed chipotle, preserved in adobo sauce
2 tbsp. lard or margarine
2 tbsp. chicken broth
4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
2 tsp. adobo sauce from a jar of peppers plus 1 tbsp. l. for meatballs
1 medium carrot, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons chipotle puree (mashed chipotles in adobo sauce)
1 tbsp hot sauce
2 large eggs
1/2 cup shredded cotija cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
4 cups bread crumbs (more if needed)
0.5 cup masa harina corn flour

Ingredient Substitution Suggestions

We recommend

Cooking the dish according to the recipe:

Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 230°C.

Make the sauceCut off the tops of each head of garlic, then wrap each in foil. Arrange the tomatoes on a rimmed baking sheet, drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Place the onions and poblano peppers, drizzled with the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil, on another baking sheet.

Roast the garlic, tomatoes, onion, and poblano pepper, rotating the baking sheets halfway through, until the vegetables are tender and browned, about 45 minutes. (Remove the vegetables early if they begin to burn.)
Peel the garlic cloves. Remove the skin and seeds from the poblano pepper. Set the pepper and half of the roasted garlic and onion aside for the albondigas. In a blender, puree the tomatoes, remaining garlic and onion, and chopped chipotle. Scrape down the sides of the blender as needed.

Reduce oven temperature to 200°C.

Melt the lard in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the roasted vegetable puree and simmer until reduced by about half, 8-10 minutes. Pour in the broth, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer until the mixture thickens slightly, about 10 minutes. Gradually add the butter, stirring until it melts into the mixture. Season with adobo seasoning, salt, and pepper. Keep warm.
Make albondigasWhile the sauce is preparing: finely chop the carrots in a food processor. Combine with the remaining roasted vegetables (peppers, garlic, and onions), chipotle puree, hot sauce, eggs, cotija cheese and cilantro and blend until well combined.
In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, blender mixture, bread crumbs, cornmeal, adobo sauce, 2 teaspoons salt, and a few grinds of pepper. Mix well with your hands (do not overwork the ground beef).

Form this mixture into 1.5-inch (3.8 cm) meatballs (about 40). Place them on 2 baking sheets and bake until done, 15-20 minutes. Add to the sauce.
For serving, you will need: crumbled queso fresco cheese, hot mayonnaise and cilantro. To assemble the tacos, heat the tortillas on a grill pan, then spread each tortilla with spicy mayonnaise. Top with 2 or 3 meatballs and a little sauce. Garnish with pickled onions, mayonnaise, queso fresco, and cilantro.

Pickled onions

Combine 3/4 cup red wine vinegar, 1/2 cup water, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 tablespoon salt, 3 cloves, 1 bay leaf, 1/2 teaspoon each dried oregano and peppercorns, and a pinch of red pepper flakes in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, then add 1 large red onion, thinly sliced into rings. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until the onion is softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let cool completely. Store in a covered container for at least 2 hours and up to 2 weeks.