Sweet Chili Sauce Turkey Meatballs
Turkey meatballs is a great alternative to beef or chicken and these meatballs always come out so soft and tender. Turkey has a mild flavor to its meat so it easily adopts to the flavors you add to the meatball mixture.
I absolutely love making meatball recipes on weekends because it’s an easy dinner to make, you can always make extra and save the leftovers for the week and meatballs are easy to freeze. These sweet chili sauce meatballs are one of my favorites to make because of the Thai flavors but also the ease of using the already made sauce.
Of course, you can always use homemade sweet chili sauce (after all, homemade is always best), but if you’re short on time, Thai sweet chili sauce is perfectly tasty store-bought too. Plus, I enhance the flavors in the meatballs and in the sauce by adding some fresh ginger, fresh cilantro, red pepper flakes, garlic, and chives.
Ingredient Notes and Tips
Ground Turkey – I recommend “lean” ground turkey, NOT “extra lean.” You want to make sure there is some fat left in the ground meat and extra lean will have almost none. Fat will help keep the meatballs juicy and adds more flavor.
Eggs – eggs are important because they act as a binder for the other ingredients.
Bread – You only need one large slice use of wheat or white bread. You can substitute two slices of gluten free bread (GF bread slices tend to me much smaller).
Milk – you can use just about any milk you prefer to keep in the house. Regular or milk alternatives will work.
Garlic – For the best flavor, make sure you’re using fresh garlic cloves.
Ginger – use fresh ginger for the best flavor. Peel the ginger root using a spoon, because the ginger skin comes off very easy, and grate on a fine grater.
Cilantro – Fresh minced cilantro adds beautiful aroma and bright flavor.
Lime juice – just like garlic, ginger, and cilantro, it’s best to use freshly squeezed lime juice!
Red Pepper Flakes – You can add more or less of this ingredient depending on how spicy you’d like your dish to be.
See recipe card for complete information on ingredients and quantities.
How To Make Sweet Chili Sauce Turkey Meatballs
Sauce: Whisk the ingredients for the sauce together and set it aside to use later.
Meatballs: Combine all ingredients for meatballs in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Use a cookie scoop to get an even amount of meat mixture every time to make the meatballs all the same. I like to use #40 cookie scoop.
Rolling meatballs: Grease your hands with a little oil and shape the meatballs. Roll all the meatballs first, before cooking, and place them on a parchment paper covered tray.
PRO TIP: For the BEST results, make sure you grease your hands with some cooking spray and use a cookie scoop! The grease on your hands will prevent the meat from sticking to you, and the cookie scoop will ensure that all of the meatballs are uniform in size.
Preheat a large, oven-safe pan, over medium heat and add oil. Add meatballs and cook them over medium heat for about 2 minutes on each side to give them a nice sear on the outside.
Pour the sauce all over the meatballs and give them a gentle shake to mix well with sauce.
To finish the meatballs, you can do so in the oven or on the stove-top.
To finish the meatballs in the oven: preheat the oven to 350°F and make sure you used an oven-safe pan to cook the meatballs. Transfer the pan into the oven and let the meatballs finish cooking for about 15-18 minutes.
If oven is not an option, you can easily finish cooking the meatballs on stovetop. Simply lower the heat to medium-low and cover the pan with a lid. Let the meatballs cook in sauce for about 15 minutes. Make sure that the sauce is only gently simmering while cooking or lower the heat if needed.
Storing Recommendation
Store the leftover meatballs in the refrigerator, in an air-tight food storage container with a lid. Make sure to cool the meatballs to room temperature before refrigerating. You can store the meatballs with the sauce together, of course.
Cooked turkey meatballs will last 3-5 days in the refrigerator.
How To Freeze Turkey Meatballs
Yes, turkey meatballs can be frozen. You can freeze them with or without sauce but do cook the meatballs before freezing them.
Mix all the ingredients for turkey meatballs in a bowl and shape them into meatballs. Place meatballs into a large baking dish and bake them at 350° until done.
Cool completely before freezing. Place cooled meatballs on a cutting board covered in parchment paper and freeze for about 2 hours. (Set the timer to help you remember.)
Once the meatballs are just frozen, portion them into freezer bags, close them tight, label and place back in the freezer. (You can also store all the meatballs in one large freezer bag.)
To prepare the meatballs with sauce, place thawed meatballs in a baking dish and add sauce. Bake for about 15 minutes, until sauce bubbles around the edges.
If freezing the meatballs in sauce: follow the recipe for adding sauce and cooking meatballs and make sure to cool the meatballs and the sauce first! Transfer into a freezer save food storage container with an air-tight lid. Close tight and get as much air out as you can.
Thaw frozen meatballs: do it in the refrigerator, overnight or for up to 24 hours.
For more tips on freezing meatballs, check out my instructional post here.
Recipe FAQs
To make these meatballs gluten free you simply swap a regular slice of bread for gluten free bread. Sauce should be already gluten free but do double check the bottle label to make sure.
Of course! This recipe will work great with ground chicken as well. Just make sure to use ground chicken without any additional flavors in it.
If you feel like your meatball mixture is too soft and you are having a hard time rolling the meatballs, you can do a couple of things to thicken it. Add about 1/4 to 1/3 cup or panko bread crumbs and mix well.
You also need to make sure to keep your hands greased. I like to keep a shallow dish with a tablespoon or so of oil in it to dip my hands after rolling every 2-3 meatballs.
DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE? PLEASE leave a 🌟 star rating! Let me know how you liked it by leaving the 📝 comment below or share and tag me on social media @willcookforsmiles. DON’T FORGET to subscribe to my newsletter!
Sweet Chili Sauce Turkey Meatballs Recipe
Ingredients
Turkey Meatballs:
- 2 lbs ground turkey 93/7% lean
- 1 small onion minced
- 6 garlic cloves pressed
- 2 tsp fresh grated ginger
- 2 large eggs
- 2 oz sliced bread* (1 or 2 slices depending on the bread)
- 2 tbsp milk to soak the bread
- 1 tsp coarse salt more or less to taste
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes more or less to taste
- 1 tbsp cilantro minced
- 1/2 cup chives diced
Sweet Chili Sauce
- 12 oz sweet chili sauce
- 1 lime – juice only
- 1 tbsp cilantro minced
- 2 tbsp chives diced
- 1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Whisk the ingredients for the sauce together and set it aside to use later.
- Make sure to squeeze all the milk out of the bread slices before adding to meatball mixture. Discard excess milk and crumble the bread into the meatball mixture. Combine all ingredients for meatballs in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Use a cookie scoop to get an even amount of meat mixture every time to make the meatballs all the same. PRO TIP: I like to use #40 cookie scoop.
- Grease your hands with a little oil and shape the meatballs. Roll all the meatballs first, before cooking, and place them on a parchment paper covered tray.
- Preheat a large, oven-safe pan, over medium heat and add oil. Add meatballs and cook them over medium heat for about 2 minutes on each side to give them a nice sear on the outside.
- Pour the sauce all over the meatballs and give them a gentle shake to mix well with sauce.
To finish meatballs in the oven:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and make sure you used an oven-safe pan to cook the meatballs. Transfer the pan into the oven and let the meatballs finish cooking for about 15-18 minutes.
To finish meatballs on stove-top:
- Lower the heat to medium-low and cover the pan with a lid. Let the meatballs cook in sauce for about 15 minutes. Make sure that the sauce is only gently simmering while cooking or lower the heat if needed.
Video
Notes
- *Gluten free notes: To make these meatballs gluten free you simply swap a regular slice of bread for gluten free bread. Sauce should be already gluten free but do double check the bottle label to make sure.
- Meatball mixture too soft? If you feel like your meatball mixture is too soft and you are having a hard time rolling the meatballs, you can do a couple of things to thicken it. Add about 1/4 to 1/3 cup or panko bread crumbs and mix well.
You also need to make sure to keep your hands greased. I like to keep a shallow dish with a tablespoon or so of oil in it to dip my hands after rolling every 2-3 meatballs.
Nutrition
Some More Meatball Recipes To Try
Would you like to save this recipe?
We'll email this post recipe to you, so you can come back to it later!
Categories:
Appetizer Recipes, Dinner Recipes, Gluten Free Recipes, New Year's Eve Recipes, Super Bowl Recipes, Turkey Recipes,All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
Yum! Nuff said!
I am glad you like the meatballs! Thanks for stopping by to let me know. 🙂