I used a Pyrex glass dish to bake the meatballs in and well, I guess Pyrex dishes aren’t as indestructible as I thought they were. When I went to pour the tomato sauce on the meatballs….Smack, Crackle, Pop! I watched in horror and disbelief as my pan cracked into shards of glass. I managed to salvage the meatballs, but thought scraping the sauce out of the bottom of an oven that never gets cleaned would be taking things a little too far.
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground meat (we used beef)
- 1/4 c almond flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 T chipotle adobo sauce
- 1 t dried oregano
- 1 t onion powder
- 1 t garlic powder
- salt
- 1 c chicken stock
- 15 oz can tomato sauce
- 1-2 finely diced chipotle peppers in adobo sauce or you could use just sauce
- 2 t dried oregano
- 2 t onion powder
- 1 t garlic powder
- salt
For the Guacamole
- 2 avocados
- 1 lemon or lime, juiced
- 1 t chili garlic sauce
- salt
Method
Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, almond flour, and herbs/spices. Add the ground meat and mix with your hands until combined. Form the mixture into balls and place in an oven safe dish. Bake until browned, about 15 minutes.
For the sauce
While the meatballs are browning, add the tomato sauce ingredients to a sauce pot. Let is simmer until the meatballs are done.
For the guacamole
Place all the ingredients into a bowl and smash with a fork until a chunky/creamy consistency has developed
23 Comments
Mario
March 16, 2010 at 5:39 amYummy.
the glass was probably stress cracked prior to heating in the oven. Pyrex can survive much higher temperatures than your oven can produce, when it is not mechanically damaged.
Mike B.
March 19, 2010 at 1:59 pmI made these the other night. I cut back on the chipotle peppers so my wife could eat them and they were still delicious. I’m looking forward to trying the pork butt one weekend very soon.
megan
March 19, 2010 at 10:18 pmso glad you liked the meatballs! let us know how the pork turns out for you.
kt_simms
May 3, 2010 at 6:43 pmHoly Snikes… that’s a spicy meatball! Tender and flavorful and quite delicious, but they’ve definitely got a kick. I might cut back one pepper next time.
megan keatley
May 4, 2010 at 4:30 pmoh dear. hope it wasn’t too painful….
🙂
jimmy
November 2, 2010 at 10:33 pmGreat job on this one!!! I chose to pair this up with some spaghetti squash! Once again great dish!
megan keatley
November 3, 2010 at 12:00 pmthanks so much jimmy!
Virginia
May 25, 2011 at 10:39 amI made these for dinner the other night, and they were VERY spicy! We enjoyed them, but I actually cut the sauce with a little more broth and a couple of ripe tomatoes to reduce the burn. I was surprised to see, when broiling the meatballs, that it seemed like a lot of the fat rendered out. There was a half-inch of bubbling white stuff all over the bottom of the pan – did I do something wrong? Anyway, we just put the sauce with some added vegetables in the pan and went right on cooking, but the end product was flecked with the white stuff everywhere. Delicious, but a little strange looking.
Aubrey
October 4, 2011 at 11:30 amI made the meatballs last night and they were absolutely AMAZING!!! We like things spicy here in Texas, so I threw in an extra pepper which was not only delicious, but it clears your sinuses in a heartbeat! I love your blog and have already tried another of your recipes and have many more on my list to make. So glad I stumbled across you guys!
megan keatley
October 5, 2011 at 10:51 ammany thanks aubrey!
Steve
July 23, 2012 at 6:09 pmMade this today. WOW! I love spicy foods and its tough to find something good at your everyday restaurants. This probably topped my list of delicious spicy dishes. I can’t wait to make this for friends and family. THANKS MEGAN!
Ana
January 28, 2013 at 11:18 pmMaking the meatballs with ground chicken breast. When I was mixing in a bowl, the mixture of meatball was very soggy, I’m not sure if it is because of the chicken. But it tasted amazing. I added about 5 more chilies and it was perfect. Will be making again definitely
Maggie
February 5, 2013 at 9:41 pmHoly cannoli, these are delicious! To make them palatable to our entire family, I used only 1 chipotle in the sauce and cut the adobo sauce to about 2/3 in the meatballs, and shaved back the chili sauce a bit (I was being very cautious). Everyone loved them. I also served it over spaghetti squash with a rice option for non-paleo family members. A winner all around. Thank you!
Lorna
February 20, 2013 at 8:48 pmMade these tonight and loved the flavor! I think I’ll do what others suggested and eat the leftovers with some spaghetti squash.
Judy
May 20, 2013 at 7:51 pmmade this for the 2nd time tonight w/ a few changes. used much of the adobe sauce from the peppers on the first batch so i used 2 T of chili garlic sauce instead and a few long squirts of sriracha. while i like things hot the sauce is a bit much for me so i used my entire jar of tomato sauce. this time i made a double batch of the sauce bc its just that amazing. i plan to put it on everything from meatballs to eggs. yum! thanks so much!!!
Joyce Dahlbeck
June 17, 2013 at 2:55 pmI fell through Alice’s rabbit hole into the Paleo website after clicking on Barbacoa Meatballs. Just FYI Pyrex can cook at 25 degrees less but it should have been able to handle the heat, who knows.
Also as an Anthropology minor ya’ll (we live in Texas) are doing pretty good! In your spare time (which is prob zippo) you may want to pick up an anthropology course or two! Research has discovered Paleo foods through midden (middan? I’m only a minor) piles (ancient trash). Bones, husks, whatnot…
Judy
August 8, 2013 at 8:57 amThis is prob one of my fav recipes! I’ve been making it w/ chicken that I grind myself 3 parts thigh 1 part breast meat. They always come out deelish! When I’m not on the whole 30 I squirt some sriracha in w/ the meat mixture & while I am I just add a bit more peppers to the mix. I mk huge batches of the sauce bc well it’s amazing! Thanks so much for this recipe !!!
Erin O
November 4, 2013 at 3:30 pmWhere do you find “paleo” Adobo sauce? Everything I’ve come across has HFCS in it. I made my own.
Fill your freezer without an OAMC cooking session! | Working at Homeschool
July 16, 2014 at 10:43 am[…] Chipotle Meatballs (S) & sweetened oopsie rolls for dessert from THM (my favorite way to do this is to follow the […]
Fill your freezer without a OAMC cooking session! | Working at Homeschool
July 18, 2014 at 11:14 am[…] Chipotle Meatballs (S) & sweetened oopsie rolls for dessert from THM (my favorite way to do this is to follow the […]
Maggie Cain
September 15, 2015 at 10:23 pmSo, while I adore this recipe, the sticky part if finding the peppers. The kind linked to here, on amazon, has both canola oil and sugar in it. I was pretty disappointed, as I ordered a whole bunch of cans and they are WAY more expensive than the ones I can get at the grocery store, and now have to wait until my Whole30 is done before using them. :-/ BUT – thanks for this awesome recipe and I can hardly wait to make them again in a few weeks!
Jennifer
October 11, 2015 at 8:42 pmI have a husband that needs to be gluten free, but a daughter with tree nut allergies. Any thoughts on what I can use in place of the almond flour? Thanks for any advice!
Maggie Cain
February 21, 2016 at 10:24 amHi, Jennifer. When I make paleo meatballs, I like to follow the advice of Michelle Tam in NomNom Paleo. She doesn’t use any flour as a binding agent; she uses leftover cauliflower mashed potatoes. Her book gives you the specifics you need (not sure if you can find the recipe online). It works remarkably well to give a realistic texture to the meatballs. Good luck!