Chorizo Meatballs

Foolproof, flawless, flavorful. One bite of these chorizo meatballs was all it took to confirm that this was a winning recipe. Juicy, delicate texture, brimming with bold flavors—I could devour a boatload of these.

Since the recipe called for 1 teaspoon chili powder, my natural instincts made me add Indian hot chili powder—oh yeah, so worth it! I added approximately 1 teaspoon salt to the mix. And then 12 minutes in my Viking rendered these beautiful babies! I dig flavors that don’t require the extra elevation of frying or oil.

One can serve these as appetizers or, like me, you can make chorizo meatball gyros with them. Throw some pickled onions on top, smash the beautiful babies, and it’s a party in your mouth!

If you’re looking to whip up some spicy meatballs for tonight’s dinner, this is your recipe. Indeed, I saw this chorizo meatballs recipe in the morning and made these meatballs the same afternoon. I had all the ingredients on hand except the chorizo and bread, which I picked up in the meantime.

As a bonus, the meatballs are baked, not fried, so they can be cooked up all at once. The chorizo enhanced with chili powder gives these quite a kick. They looked and smelled so fabulous coming out of the oven, it was hard to resist eating one right away. (I withstood temptation and waited until the rest of the meal was finished and on the table.)

After I turned on the oven, I prepped, mixed, and formed the meatballs and put them on the sheet pan to go into the oven, yet the oven still wasn’t preheated—they come together that quickly.

My bread crumbs were from a baguette and I used Monterey Jack cheese. I did not add salt because of the chorizo and cheese. There is so much heat and flavor going on, it seemed unnecessary to add more salt.

I served the meatballs alongside a planned (ahem) vegetarian main dish of spinach lasagna. We also had baguette slices from the same bread I used to make the fresh bread crumbs, along with a dipping sauce of peppery extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar with some fresh herbs.

I loved this chorizo meatballs recipe. Maybe it’s because it’s so similar to German-style meatballs—well, not really ingredient-wise, but using pork and beef, bread, egg, onion, garlic, and parsley (ah, cilantro).

They were very nicely browned, juicy, and great-tasting meatballs. Since I had no Cheddar or Jack, I used Gruyère, which worked great. I served the meatballs with some spaghetti squash sautéed with garlic and scallions and a lemony mayo-based sauce on the side. As it turned out, these meatballs didn’t need any sauce. This recipe is a keeper.

I am always looking for new ways to make meatballs, and I must say that I enjoyed this chorizo meatballs recipe a lot. It was easy to find all the ingredients, and it came together ever so quickly. I liked the flavor of the chorizo sausage in the meatballs.

I made a fresh tomato sauce and homemade pasta to go on the side of the meatballs. I added 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. I ended up with 20 meatballs, so if you’re serving 4 meatballs per person, you could feed 5 people.

Once you have all the ingredients, these chorizo meatballs are very easy to throw together.

Whenever I make meatballs, I always grab a small chunk of the meat mixture, and cook it in a skillet so I can taste for seasoning. I cooked my sample meatball in the skillet I had cooked the onions and garlic in. Why dirty another pan? My sample meatball was actually prettier and tasted better than the rest of the meatballs that baked in the oven. That was due to the crisp outside achieved by sautéing it in the skillet. The meatballs that baked in the oven swam in the fat that was rendered as they cooked, so they had a dull finish to them.

Before serving the meatballs that had baked in the oven, I took the time to crisp the outside by sautéing them in a skillet. I’m sure that some would find that unnecessary, but I did have the taste of the sample meatball in my mind. I can see making these to serve to folks as an appetizer or as part of a Mexican buffet—perhaps at a taco party. I served them with a cheesy Tex-Mex rice dish with some slices of avocado. If I do make these again, I will cook them on top of the stove to achieve the crisp outside crust.

This recipe definitely has a Mexican flavor profile so I don’t think you should plan to have spaghetti with this dish. That said, they’re flavorful and delicious with lots of spice. I thought that serving them with migas would be a good idea for next time I make them.

I didn’t add any salt at all because I thought the chorizo had enough already. I found the timing was right, although I turned them down about halfway through cooking to make sure they browned evenly.