Chile Colorado Meatballs

Julesong's Note:

We were feeling like having a bit of Chile Colorado tonight, but weren't looking forward to the hours of watching over it would require with cubed beef; and besides, all the beef was frozen. So I looked in the freezer to see what I could come up with, and hey -- there were meatballs in there! The resulting Chile Colorado Meatballs were "very" tasty, and in addition to being a great dinner item I think will make a really nice potluck and/or appetizer dish in the future. Here's the quick and easy recipe I created for our crockpot.

• Total Time: 2 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 3

• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules (See *)
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons dried onion flakes or ¼ cup minced fresh onion
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons dried ancho chile powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon cocoa powder
• ¼ teaspoon cider vinegar
• Tabasco sauce or your favorite hot sauce , to taste (I used somewhere between 1/4 to 1/2 tsp, cause I'm a whimp)
• salt and pepper , to taste
• 1 lb good quality frozen meatball

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, stir together the boiling water and bouillon granules until dissolved.
2. Add remaining ingredients.
3. Pour all into either a crockpot and cook on high for 2 to 3 hours (or low for 5 hours), or a large casserole and bake in preheated 350 degree F oven for 45 minutes.
4. Enjoy! Serve as part of a Mexican-style combination dinner of enchiladas or tamales, rice, and refried beans- the sauce goes really well with other dishes on the plate.
5. *Note:I prefer using 1 tsp of Maggi Chicken with Chipotle bouillon cube and 1 tsp of Chicken and Tomato bouillon cube instead of 2 tsp beef bouillon; please note that most Maggi bouillon cubes contain 2 tsps, so you'll be using half a cube.
6. Another note: also, you can add another tsp of bouillon and cup of water to make more sauce if you want to add another pound of meatballs for more servings.

Reviews

[yamakarasu]

This was delicious. Sadly I was out of cocoa powder so I didn't get to try it with, but it was still tasty without it. This was super quick and easy to make. Thanks!

[iris5555]

These were just so good! I also used El Pato tomato sauce and omitted the hot sauce because I found that to be plenty spicy!

[Katie :-D]

Very good meat balls with a bit of a kick. I tripled the meatballs and doubled the sauce and it worked well. I took it to a potluck and they disappeared very quickly. Thanks for the recipe!