Mexican meatballs served with creamy spicy Queso Blanco and guacamole. Perfect for your next party. Make a double batch because these won’t last long. And don’t forget the Margaritas.
Meatballs are simply the best party food. Easy to eat and easy on the palate. They’re just plain fun.
And why not let one of your favorite dip recipes become a part of a bigger picture?
I decided to make some spicy seasoned Mexican Meatballs and serve them along side Queso Blanco Dip for dipping. Spicy flavored meatballs in cheesy bliss? Yes, please…and yum!
Meatballs are relatively easy to make. Once those ingredients are combined, rolling out the meatballs are quick and easy … and call me weird, and somewhat theraputic.
Juicy on the inside and just right crispy on the outside … this recipe for Mexican Meatballs will become one of your favorite meatball recipes.
Let’s take a look.
Table of contents
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Lean Ground Beef: A ground beef mixture of 85-15% fat works well here. A little fat makes for a juicy meatball.
- Roasted Chile Peppers: Use either fresh roasted Hatch chile peppers, or canned chopped chile peppers.
- Oatmeal: Old Fashioned rolled oats.
- Onion: Sweet or yellow onion, chopped
- Half and Half
- Egg
- Mustard: To add another layer of flavor. Use Dijon or Regular Yellow Mustard.
- Mexican Spices: Chili Powder, ground cumin, coriander, paprika, garlic powder
Recipe Substitutions
- Ground Beef: You can use a fattier blend of ground beef. Fat adds flavor, but the meatballs will be a bit greasier.
- Oatmeal: You can use Old Fashioned Oats or Quick Oats.
- Onion: Using a red onion will bring a stronger and spicier flavor.
- Half and Half: Milk will also work fine here.
Step by Step Instructions, It’s Easy
- Step 1: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with Pam. Combine the ground meat and all ingredients in a large bowl. Using clean hands, mix until well combined. Let the mixture sit for about 10 – 15 minutes. This will give the oatmeal a chance to soften and become a part of the binding.
Pro-Tip: Hands are always the best tool for mixing meatballs. Using a large spoon will crush everything together, creating a tighter mix, which can cause the meatballs to be dry and too dense in texture.
- Step 2: Using your hands form the mixture into small meatballs. To serve a crowd, I like to make them about 1 1/2 inches in diameter which will make about 45 meatballs. Place them on a parchment lined sheet pan, or a sheet pan sprayed with cooking spray such as PAM.
- Step 3: Bake meatballs in a 375 degree oven for 15 – 20 minutes. If you’d like to make sure meatballs are fully cooked, use an digital meat thermometer to test the center of a meatball. Temperature should be 160 degrees.
Mexican Meatballs, FAQ’s
You can roll the meatballs and then store in the refrigerator (covered with plastic wrap) for up to two days. Let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before baking.
Cook meatballs up to a day in advance and store in the refrigerator in an air-tight container. To reheat, use the low setting in a crockpot. Heat for about an hour or until nice and warm. Use the warm setting to keep warm for serving.
Yes. Just place any leftover cooked meatballs on a sheet pan. Place the pan of meatballs in the freezer for about 2 hours. Then place the meatballs in a zip-lock freezer bag for storage. Freezing them separately in advance will keep the meatballs from sticking together. Let meatballs thaw in the refrigerator overnight before reheating.
Yes. You can make these Mexican Meatballs with Ground Turkey without any adjustment to the recipe. Use a fattier blend of ground turkey. However, you’ll be losing that beefy flavor. You can also make pork meatballs using ground pork.
Yes. However, baking is a much easier process. Frying will give you a crispier outer texture. Spray a large fry pan with non-stick cooking spray. Fry the meatballs over medium high heat, turning them often until cooked through. Work in batches using this process.
Yes, by using rolled oats rather than bread crumbs, these meatballs are naturally gluten free.
Tips For Success
- Practice you knife skills and chop the onion as small as you can. Large heavy chunks of onion will cause the meatballs to separate. Also large chunks of onion may not cook through during the baking process. If you’d like, grate the onion using the large holes on a box grater.
- Don’t over-mix the meat mixture. Over mixing will cause the meatballs to come out tough.
- If you want, very lightly moisten hands with cool water during the process of making these Mexican meatballs. This will keep your hands from getting too sticky.
- You can make larger meatballs. Just adjust the cooking time a few minutes longer to compensate.
- Eggs are important. Don’t skip adding an egg to the meatball mixture. Eggs are the key ingredient for binding the ingredients together.
- Make the meatballs uniform in size. The meatballs will cook evenly. Some people suggest to use a kitchen scale or cookie scoop. I say no! Don’t go to the trouble. Just eyeball them to keep them even.
Serving
- Serve the meatballs on a platter with a side of Queso Blanco, Guacamole or Salsa for dipping. Provide toothpicks or party picks for spearing.
- Or serve the meatballs on a platter always speared and drizzled with hot Queso Blanco sauce.
- Want to make this recipe a main course? Serve meatballs over rice drizzled with a chipotle adobo tomato sauce.
To find the recipe for Queso Blanco, head over to my post for Mexican Queso Blanco Dip.
More Meatball Recipes
And if you’re looking for unique Southwestern appetizer recipes, you won’t want to miss this one for Simple Air Fryer Nachos and this for Mexican Street Corn Dip.
And if you’re fond of Mexican Meatballs, don’t miss my recipe for Chorizo Mexican Albondigas Soup. For more Mexican recipes, visit my Mexican Category.
Mexican Meatballs with Queso Blanco
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef 85-15 blend works well here.
- 1/2 Cup half and half or milk
- 1 Cup old fashioned oats or quick cooking oats, or panko bread crumbs
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- 1/2 sweet onion about 1 cup, fine chopped or grated.
- 2 Tablespoons chili powder
- 1 Tablespoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- 1 Tablespoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 Tablespoon mustard Dijon or regular yellow mustard
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with Pam. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Using clean hands, mix until well combined. Let the mixture sit for about 10 – 15 minutes.
- Form the meat into small meatballs, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.. I usually get about 45 meatballs. Arrange meatballs on a baking sheet and bake 15 or 20 minutes.
- To serve, place meatballs on a serving platter with bowls of queso blanco and guacamole. Or drizzle the meatballs with the Queso Blanco and serve already speared and ready to eat.
Notes
- Practice you knife skills and chop the onion as small as you can. Large heavy chunks of onion will cause the meatballs to separate. Also large chunks of onion won’t cook through during the baking process. If you’d like, grate the onion using the large holes on a box grater.
- Don’t over mix the meat mixture. Over mixing will cause the meatballs to come out tough.
- If you want, very lightly moisten hands with cool water during the process of making the meatballs. This will keep your hands from getting too sticky.
- You can make larger meatballs. Just adjust the cooking time a few minutes longer to compensate.
- Eggs are important. Don’t skip adding an egg to the meatball mixture. Eggs are the key ingredient for binding the ingredients together.
Nutrition
Mexican Meatballs … It’s What For An Appetizer
Why Trust These Recipes? Lea Ann Brown has lived, worked and played in Colorado for 45 years. She has immersed herself in the Colorado Culinary space, is a Culinary School Graduate and publishes her Colorado food Blog, Cooking On The Ranch.
These are seriously good. 🙂
BTW, just want to say we’ve just posted our last blog post. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed your blog, and I’ll still be visiting. But we’ve got a lot of activities lined up that will be occupying my time, so my visits will be much more sporadic in the future. Best wishes to you.
Oh yum! I would make a meal out of these beauties. Between the meatballs and the dip, lots and lots of flavor.
They look very good with those Mexican flavors.
Probably shouldn’t mention that I am live in Washington—SeaHawks Land. Who doesn’t love a meatball. I think I make a great meatball. But your meatballs are greater than my meatballs for sure. I never thought of putting a Mexican spin on a meatball. Recently I have two versions of an Asian meatball both of which gave new meaning to the word savory.
No, don’t mention Seahawk land please! 🙂 We’re still not over it. Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to comment. Heading over to your site right now.
Cancel the missing friend report. Catching up on your blog has been on my list for far too long – but I wanted to have some time to savor the pictures and recipes. This looks sinfully decadent – love the idea of Mexican meatballs! We had queso fundido (Pioneer Woman’s recipe ish) and it was a hit. Would have been twice as nice with some of your meatballs. 🙂
Missing friend report cancelled! 🙂 Queso Fundido has been on my list for a long time. I’ve been eyeing a Rick Bayless recipe, I’ll have to Google Pioneer Woman’s version.
Oh my!! I could hurt myself eating those. They look amazing. Printed out to try real soon. Thanks for sharing.
I was really pleased with the flavor of my meatballs. And with queso blonco we couldn’t stop eating these. Thanks Griffin.
The meatballs truly look amazing! I love that each of you has a different style shirt on in the pic-how fun! I’m bummed about the outcome of the game too, on to next season:@)
Thanks so much! And for stopping by and the comment. I can’t ever think about next season yet… geez such a bummer of a game. 🙂
Sad it was Ansh. What a mess. But the sun came up on Monday and it’s back to routine. 🙂
I have no comment absolutely at all: except, those meatballs look fantastic.
I really like your comment ChiliB.
Love those meatballs! So wonderful. Sorry about the Broncos, but there’s always next year!
Darn those Broncos! Thanks John. 🙂
Yes please. I’ll take a whole plate! AH-MAY-ZING! These look so darn good!!
Thank you Nicole! And thanks for stopping by.
Your meatballs with queso blanco sound like a real winner. Your Broncos put our Patriots out of the running and we thought for sure they were going to win the Superbowl. There is always next year for everyone.
It was a sad day in Denver Karen. I thought we were going to win too and instead it was…. well, what it was.
much sadness here about the SB – but there’s always next year!
These look like a nice comforting way to console myself…
It was much sadness. I’m still stunned and eating meatballs. 🙂
Yum! Gorgeous meatballs but that sauce is divine!
Thanks so much Jane. And I have to head over to your blog to check out that Bacon Maple Cocktail.
Welcome to #SundaySupper! I love checking out new blogs!! I LOVE your meatballs, I have grown to love making any and all meatballs I can’t wait to give yours a shot!
Thanks for the welcome Tammi. Let me know how you like them. I think I got the seasonings pretty spot on.
This recipe looks delicious, love the queso blanco sauce!
Thanks so much Cheri. And thanks for taking the time to comment. Always love new visitors.
Seriously I could eat an entire bowl full of queso blanco. That stuff is so freaking delicious!
Love it. I think I could too. Thanks for stopping by and the comment.
Absolutely delicious looking meatballs, Lea Ann! So disappointed re the game…imagine Denver is bummed out, but thought the sportsmanship on everyone’s part was wonderful to behold.
I agree Barbara. Always good to hear from you.