Albondigas, Mexican Venison Meatballs

Yep, meatballs again. What can I say? I love meatballs. Anyone who doesn’t lacks some critical gene required to be a good human, I suspect.

Every culture in the world makes some kind of meatball, and those cultures that are vegetarian make meatless meatball-like orbs. Meatballs are universal. They are little balls of comfort.

I’ve made these with venison, duck, and wild boar. Any meat will do. Bear? Sure. Beef or pork? Of course. Skip the muskrat, though. This recipe comes together in an hour or so, making it easy enough to do on a work night. Kids love making meatballs, too, so shanghai them into it.

I mostly like eating these with rice while watching football or nature shows (yeah, I am a sucker for those… ) but chipotle meatballs make a damn good party appetizer. I’d like to see a celebrity death match between chipotle meatballs and Swedish meatballs. Both awesome, both classic party fare, just very different.

OK, I am rambling. Make these meatballs! Seriously. Make them.

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Mexican Venison Meatballs, Albondigas al Chipotle

Prep Time

25 mins

Cook Time

35 mins

Total Time

1 hr

 

Clearly, while I tagged this a venison recipe pretty much any ground meat will work here. Just make sure it has been ground with some fat or your meatballs will be sad and dry. Other than that, this is a dead-easy recipe. Only thing even remotely challenging is finding the chipotles in adobo, but every Latin market in America sells it, as do most larger supermarkets. In a pinch, you could buy chipotles in adobo online.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Mexican

Serves: 4 people

Author: Hank Shaw

Ingredients

MEATBALLS

• 2 pounds ground venison, duck, or other meat
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 to 2 tablespoons dried mint
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• Bacon fat, lard, or oil for frying

SAUCE

• 2 tablespoons lard, bacon fat or oil
• 1 onion, minced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups tomato puree
• 2 cups broth, chicken, duck, venison, whatever
• 3 to 6 chipotles in adobo, chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Put all the meatball ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix with your very clean hands until the mixture comes together. Don't overwork the mix or the meatballs will get tough. Roll into meatballs of whatever size you want. I like to make them by the tablespoon. If you have the time, let the meatballs sit in the fridge for up to an hour; this helps them stay together.
2. Brown the meatballs in the bacon fat, lard, or oil. Set aside once browned.
3. If you browned the meatballs in a large enough pan to hold all of them, drain all but about 2 tablespoons of the fat and keep using that pan. Otherwise, get a pot or pan large enough to hold all the meatballs and heat 2 tablespoons of fat in it. Cook the onions in this until soft and browned at the edges, about 10 minutes. Stir from time to time. Add the garlic and cook another minute.
4. Add the spices, chipotles, broth and tomato and mix well. Nestle the meatballs into the sauce and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through. Eat with rice or by themselves as an appetizer.

Serve this with rice, or by itself as an appetizer.

Like the Recipe? Buy the Book!

You'll find everything you need to know to master venison in Hank Shaw's cookbook Buck, Buck, Moose.