Mexican Meatballs with Roasted Garlic, Chipotle and Tomatillo Sauce

For the sauce:
Preheat the oven to 425 F. Place the onion quarters, tomatillos and unpeeled garlic on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Roast the vegetables until they begin to blacken and blister, about 35-40 minutes.

Remove pan from oven. Squeeze the garlic from the skin and discard the skin. Place the vegetables in a blender along with the beef broth, chipotle peppers and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Process until smooth. Pour the sauce into a small saucepan, bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add more salt to taste.

For the meatballs:
In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, chorizo, breadcrumbs, milk, diced onion, eggs, oregano, salt, pepper and 4 tablespoons of cilantro. Using your hands, knead the mixture until thoroughly combined. Form the meat mixture into 1-inch balls. You should get about 30 meatballs. Flatten each of them and place a piece of hard-boiled egg in the center. Then close the meat around it to form back into a ball. Repeat for all meatballs.

Heat some vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and fry the meatballs on all sides until brown. Depending on the size of your skillet, you may have to do this in batches. Don’t crowd the pan. Transfer the cooked meatballs to paper towels to drain the grease. Repeat with the remaining meatballs.

Put the drained meatballs back into the skillet. Pour the sauce into the skillet and nestle the meatballs in the sauce. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Add a little more beef broth as needed to thicken the sauce.

Serve meatballs and sauce topped with some fresh cilantro and your choice of sides (e.g. crusty bread and salad).