E: Mexican Meatballs Filed under ( Beef, BSI, Mexican )

Happy Friday!! Weekend plans? Mine are a bit up in the air- but hopefully lots of friend & family time. After seeing Mandi whip up those incredible meatballs the other day, I knew I wanted to take the concept and make a more Mexican-ish type of meatball for Josh (for new readers: I am a vegetarian).  And here is the result:

Mexican Meatballs

Ingredients:

• 1 egg, beaten lightly
• 1 jar of salsa (I used a jar of Pace that was provided to me through the taste testers program at Food Buzz- disclaimer: I received this salsa for free but have always been a fan of Pace’s salsas)

 

• 3/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 jalapeno or other spicy chile pepper (I used 1/2 a chile pepper my Aunt gave me from her garden), seeds removed, chopped

 

• 3/4 to 1 pound of ground beef (you can you chicken/turkey, I used ~.84 lb ground sirloin)
• 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese or Mexican blend (I used 2% sharp cheddar)
• 1/4 cup plain bread crumbs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, mix together egg, 2 tablespoons of salsa, chili powder, onion & jalapeno/pepper. Add ground beef, cheese and bread crumbs. Mix together with your clean (as Mandi noted ;)) hands until just combined.

Line a baking sheet with foil and top with a cooling rack. Spray cooling rack with non-stick spray. Form medium sized meatballs and place on cooling rack.

  

Top with additional salsa (note: I ground up my salsa since Josh is not a fan of tomato chunks).  Looks like the meatballs are wearing little hats:

 

Bake for 18-20 minutes until cooked through (no longer pink). Serve! You could put these on top of veggies (peppers & onions), rice or both! You could also top with additional salsa. These would make a fun meatball sub. The result isn’t too gorgeous but Josh said the taste was awesome.

  

I am entering this recipe in this weeks Blogger Secret Ingredient (BSI) challenge, chilies, hosted by Biz.