Albondigas en Chipotle
Meatballs simmered in a smoky chipotle-tomato sauce.
Discover smart recipes
Sign up on Homecooked to cook this recipe as the chef intended, with parallel steps and built-in timers guiding you along the way. Stock your pantry to discover more recipes you can cook with the ingredients you have at home.
Join HomecookedIngredients
- 500 g Ground beef
- 60 g White rice
- 1 Egg
- 4 Tomato
- ½ tin Chipotles in adobo
- 1 Onion
- 3 cloves Garlic
- 2 tbsp Neutral oil
- 1 tsp Salt
Method
- Mix the beef with the raw rice, egg, and salt, then roll into walnut-sized meatballs.
- Blend the tomato, chipotle, onion, and garlic into a smooth sauce.
- Fry the blended sauce in the oil in a pot over medium heat until it deepens in color, about 6 minutes.
- Drop the meatballs into the simmering sauce, cover, and cook through, about 22 minutes.
- Serve with rice or warm tortillas.
Nutrition per serving
Estimated from ingredients; varies with exact portions and brands.
About Albondigas en Chipotle
Albondigas en chipotle are Mexican meatballs simmered in a smoky, brick-red chipotle-tomato sauce — a homey, everyday main found on countless Mexican family tables rather than in fancy restaurants. The defining trick, and what sets Mexican albondigas apart from their Mediterranean cousins, is that raw rice is mixed straight into the meat: as the meatballs cook through in the sauce, the grains swell and soften, lightening the texture from within and quietly thickening the whole pot. It's a one-pot dinner built for feeding people simply and well.
The soul of the dish is the sauce, and the method matters: the tomato, chipotle, onion, and garlic are blended smooth and then fried in hot oil until they deepen in color, a step that concentrates the flavor and takes the raw edge off before any liquid goes in. Chipotles in adobo bring the signature smoky heat and a faint sweetness, so the sauce lands somewhere between warming and genuinely spicy depending on how heavy your hand is. The meatballs poach gently in that sauce until tender, soaking up its flavor as the embedded rice cooks. Serve it with white rice or warm tortillas to catch every bit of the sauce — it's the kind of comforting weeknight plate that tastes like it took longer than forty minutes.
Albondigas en Chipotle: frequently asked questions
How many calories are in Albondigas en Chipotle?
One serving of Albondigas en Chipotle has about 627 calories, with 18g of protein, 35g of carbs, 45g of fat and 3g of fiber. These are estimates based on the ingredient amounts in this recipe and will vary with your exact portions and brands.
Is Albondigas en Chipotle gluten-free?
Based on its ingredients, Albondigas en Chipotle has no gluten-containing components, so it's naturally gluten-free — as always, check that any packaged ingredients you use are certified gluten-free to be safe.
How long does Albondigas en Chipotle take to make?
About 40 minutes start to finish, but only around 20 of those are hands-on — the rest is largely unattended cooking time you can step away from. In the Homecooked app the timers and parallel steps are sequenced for you so the hands-on part feels even shorter.
How many servings does Albondigas en Chipotle make?
This recipe makes 4 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.