The chili con meatballs make a delicious family meal made with a gorgeous tomato base sauce and those delicious and made-from-scratch meatballs that are to die for. Served with some fluffy rice is purely delicious!
We love, love, LOVE chili corn carne, don’t you? We also love meatballs and we are kind of addicted to those so I thought why not chili corn meatballs?
I have to confess, the first time I made this, quite a few years back, I made it with ready-bought Swedish meatballs that we used to love but…. they were ready-made. Not to be compared in the slightest with the homemade ones.
Any meat can be used and I do sometimes use turkey mince or chicken that I mince myself manually by using a meat mincer. I’ve made this quite a few times by now here is the recipe as it is delicious enough to come up here to share with you lovely people that visit my food world which is my very blog.
This chili con meatball
Hmm, they are the star in this dish and I’m saying this because the meatballs can be greatly varied and I have tried soo many kinds including vegetarian versions with mushrooms, spinach, cheese, you name it.
I will need to put a vegetarian version of this as it’s soo good. Coming soon! I have added some cheese as you can see in the picture and it was divine however this is optional and we don’t always go for it. If you like this you may also like this dumplings recipe, this beautiful meatball soup, or this wonderful Baked Beans With Ground Beef.
Let’s just get this beautiful family dish rolling, shall we?
Chilli con meatballs
Equipment
- ovenproof dish
- chopping board
- knife
- pan
Ingredients
For the meatballs:
- 400 g minced meat I use beef 5%
- 1 medium onion
- 1 potato
- 2 cloves garlic
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 egg whole
- 1 egg yolk
- Few springs of herbs thyme, parsley, marjoram
For the Sauce:
- 400 g red kidney beans 1 can
- 400 g chopped tomatoes 1 can
- 1 tablespoon tomato purée
- ½ small leek
- 1 small onion
- 1 red pepper
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 celery sticks
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 heaped teaspoon hot chilli powder or 1 level tablespoon mild chilli powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 beef stock cube
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon dried marjoram
- 120 g grated cheddar optional
- Plain boiled long grain rice to serve with
- Soured cream to serve (optional)
- 1 Thai red chilli to decorate optional
Instructions
To make the meatballs:
- Use a bigger sized bowl into which you need to put the ground/mince meat, super finely chopped onion * (see recipe notes) together with all the other ingredients for the meat balls listed above which are the potato (finely grated and squeezed slightly to reduce the juice slightly),
- 2 cloves of garlic crushed and finely chopped, freshly ground black pepper, the whole egg and the yolk and the fresh and/or dry herbs (thyme, parsley, marjoram)
Sauce and dish prep :
- Prepare your vegetables by washing all all, peel the onion and the garlic. Chop the onion and dice the pepper by first cutting it into half lengthways, remove the stalk and shake the seeds away, then chop. Finely dice the celery by cutting the sticks into 2-3 strips lengthwise then chop. Do the same with the leek. Crush and finely chop the garlic cloves.
- Place a deep pan on the hob over a medium heat, add the olive oil, allow it to heat up for about 30 seconds, add the chopped onions and cook for 3-4 min stirring a few times until the onions are soft, slightly squidgy and begin to become translucent.
- Tip in the garlic, the red pepper, the hot or mild chilli powder, the paprika and the ground cumin. Give it a good old stir, then leave it to cook for another 4 minutes, stirring every now and again.
- Crumble 1 beef stock cube into 150ml hot water. Pour this into the pan where the semi cooked vegetables are.
- Open the chopped tomatoes can and add these to the veggies along with the dried marjoram, honey, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and the tomato purée. Stir well.
- Allow the sauce to simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Preheat the oven at 200°C.
- Add the beans and the fresh herbs and transfer the sauce into 1 or into 4 individual oven proof dish/es. Sink all or 4-5 meatballs into each dish.
- Place in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes.
- Take out of the oven, add the shredded cheddar cheese and place back in the oven for an extra 10 min.
- If you choose not to use the cheddar cheese, serve with soured cream alongside plain boiled rice.
Notes
Leanne says
I've never had chili corn carne but we love meatballs, so I'm pretty certain we would love this recipe! Looks and sounds flavourful, and meatballs are so versatile - great for an appetizer or meal prep!
Sandhya Ramakrishnan says
That is a lovely combination of two classic and favorite recipe and they look awesome together! This will be a hearty meal and being vegetarian I can already envision making this using vegetarian substitutes.
cuisine says
Je trouve que votre site est super. J'aime bien souvent votre blog
Ramona says
Merci beaucoup 😉
atelier de cuisine says
Très sympa votre article, je vous trouve très pertinent, bravo.
Ramona says
Ha ha - Merci!
Rhiannon says
Oh wow - I think you just made my sons day! He loves anything with meatballs! I am excited about your vegetarian version too 🙂
Ramona says
Thank you Rhiannon,
Oh, I cannot tell you how this dish makes my kids day every time I ma making it. They absolutely devour it in minutes - it’s super nice and comforting. Vegetarian version is also to die for. I love it. Thanks once a gain and have a wonderful week ahead!
Caroline says
How interesting to add potato to meatballs, that's a new one for me but intrigued to try. Looks so comforting and tasty.
Ramona says
Hi Caroline and thank you for your comment - it is the way my mum always used to make them and that stays with me - I love the potato in there - makes the meatballs moist and a lot more tasty. Give it a try and let me know what you think and how you have found it all.
Jenni LeBaron says
I love meat balls and chili con carne so I'm sure I would love this. It's a new and interesting mix of spices too - I would be super interested in trying a big bowl of this!
Ramona says
Thank you Jenni, Try it and you will not regret it 😉 its delish
Beth says
What a fantastic, unique recipe! Coincidentally, we love chili and meatballs too! I have to this a try!!
Ramona says
Thank you Beth! I am soo good at coming up with weird ideas - kids have confirmed it and hubby says it all the time 😉 ha ha but this one is really good - please do try it - my kids go ‘meatballs’ about it every time I am making it 😉
Angelica Berrios says
I love chili con carne and I love meatballs, wonderful idea having them in just one recipe, win!
Ramona says
Thank you Angelica, definitely a win! Many thanks and have a lovely day.