These juicy turkey meatballs are made with Thai flavors inside and finished in a flavorful sweet chili sauce. The turkey meatballs themselves feature flavors like garlic, fresh ginger, cilantro, and chives. Then, finished cooking in a sweet and slightly spicy sweet chili sauce.
If you like turkey recipes, try my turkey burgers and garlic parmesan turkey meatballs.
Table of Contents
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.
Some More Meatball Recipes To Try
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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.
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.
Emilee says
Loved these! I cooked these @ 450 for 20 minutes to skip the searing prior to putting in the oven and added broccoli in as others mentioned. I served with rice as meal prep for 3 meals total– This made 17 medium-ish sized meatballs (5-6 meatballs per meal). I also swapped the bread and milk for bread crumbs and added some Cumin and Tumeric to the mix. I bet Thai Basil would add even more depth to this recipe as well!
Isabella says
What is the serving size for this? And is this 206 calories per serving?
Gail says
Is it possible to make these without cilantro, or is there a substitution I can use?
Alicia says
I just made these and they are delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
Angie says
By far, the best turkey meatballs I have cooked for my family! We love the sweet and savory combination. This recipe is on my monthly dinner rotation meal!!
Thank you for providing such an easy and delicious recipe.
LyubaB says
You are so welcome, Angie! So glad you enjoyed them!
Paige says
These are delicious! Made them last night, and I’m looking forward to leftovers today! Yum!
I like the recommendation above of adding broccoli to the pan before cooking. I may try that next time!
LyubaB says
Hi Paige,
I am so glad you liked it! I think broccoli would taste great!
Paige says
These are delicious! Made them last night, and I’m looking forward to leftovers today! Yum!
I like the recommendation above of adding broccoli to the pan before cooking. I may try that next time!
Karen Moore says
These meatballs were delicious! I love the sweet chili sauce. I added harissa to the sauce because I love spicy food. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
LyubaB says
So glad you liked it, Karen!
Agnetha Léveillé says
I love these meatballs! I find that I need to double the sauce though. 😉 Thanks for sharing your recipe!
LyubaB says
Thank you!
Ashley says
I made this using my cast iron pan and added 2 heads chopped broccoli before sliding into the oven. Went great over quinoa and has become my go to when I am craving Chinese!
LyubaB says
Thanks, Ashley! Glad you liked it! 🙂
Melia says
What pairs well with these meat balls. Zoodles come to mind, brocolini? What did you us as your side with this.
LyubaB says
Hi Melia, I think zoodles will be delicious with these meatballs!
Julia says
These were delicious! My kids gobbled them up 🙂 I did add salt & pepper to the ground turkey mix, and used breadcrumbs instead of milk & bread, but otherwise did as said, and they were really good. Thank you!
LyubaB says
Julia, I am so glad you liked them! 🙂