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Posted: 09/08/2011

Tamale Balls {Slow Cooker}

Name: Tamale Balls {Slow Cooker}
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 6 h
Total time: 6 h 30 min
Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef; 1 pound ground pork; 1 1/2 cups cornmeal; 3/4 cup tomato juice; 1/2 cup flour; 4 cloves finely chopped garlic; 1 teaspoon chili powder; 1 teaspoon ground cumin; 1 teaspoon ground coriander; 1 teaspoon dried oregano; 2 teaspoons salt; 5 cups tomato juice; 1 tablespoon chili powder; 2 teaspoons salt

Total Time: 6 hours 30 minutes 0 Reviews Jump to Recipe

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It seems as if slow cooker meals have become the new “it” thing. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you’ll know that I’ve had mixed opinions on slow cooker recipes/meals. But last month’s Cookbook of the Month really inspired me to use my slow cooker more. In fact, there was a week last month when I was making recipes from that book that I developed 4 more slow cooker recipes as well. I had 1 or 2 slow cookers going every day for that whole week!! Luckily, only 2 recipes that I made didn’t turn out like I wanted them to, but everything else turned out fantastic.

Among those recipes was this recipe for Tamale Balls. Well, I can’t take all the credit. A few weeks back, I was talking to my mother-in-law about recipes. We were actually discussing stuffed peppers, and different twists you could make on them. My mother-in-law then told me about a recipe she used to make for her kids when they were growing up – these tamale balls. She said that a pepper stuffed with the tamale ball mix would probably be fantastic!! That evening, she sent me home with a copy of an old family cookbook with the recipe.

A couple of days later, I decided to try it out. But instead of just baking them off, I thought I’d try them in the slow cooker. And while the end result was edible, it wasn’t really what I was going for. I’m not sure a pepper can really hold up to the slow cooker, because they were falling apart, and the filling was just a little bit too much. Luckily, I had made the whole recipe for the tamale filling, and only used half for the peppers, so the next day I turned the remaining mix into balls. I still wanted to make them in the slow cooker, so into the slow cooker they went, covered by the tomato sauce. When they were done, I served them over rice, and I found out that I had found my new favorite meatball recipe!!

These meatballs are so good. They have the flavors of tamales, all rolled up into a little ball. I can see why my husband and his siblings loved these meatballs growing up. And I love that they were so easily made in the slow cooker!!

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