These juicy turkey meatballs are a fantastic addition to your meal rotation. Made with lean ground turkey, flavorful herbs, and spices, and baked to golden perfection, they offer a healthier twist on traditional meatballs without sacrificing taste. Ideal for a quick dinner, meal prep or even as a tasty appetizer. Serve them atop a bed of quinoa with marinara sauce for a protein-packed, satisfying meal!
Table of Contents
On top of spaghetti (all covered with cheese), tucked into a bun, or served atop a bed of fluffy quinoa or couscous, this recipe for oven-baked turkey meatballs is one you’ll want to bookmark and add to your regular dinner rotation.
Think of these ground turkey meatballs as a protein building block for other meals. They’ll turn just about any recipe into a satisfying and filling lunch or dinner. I like to make a batch ahead of time and freeze them (see my storage suggestions below for how to do it) so they’ll be ready to toss into sauce, soup, pasta, or even just heated up and eaten with toothpicks dipped into spicy ketchup or homemade barbecue sauce!
Made with lean turkey, they’re a little healthier than beef meatballs, which means you can splurge on Secret Ingredient Cheesy Garlic Bread!
- Milk: Whole milk softens the breadcrumbs, keeps the meatballs moist and tender and adds richness to the recipe
- Breadcrumbs: Use regular breadcrumbs for denser meatballs, or fluffy panko breadcrumbs for a softer texture. Seasoned breadcrumbs can be used to add more flavor.
- Ground turkey: As with ground beef, ground turkey is sold in a variety of lean-to-fat ratios. Look for 93 percent lean turkey, which will provide just enough fat to keep the meatballs moist and tender.
- Egg: An egg binds the ingredients together.
- Minced garlic: Jarred or frozen minced garlic is a great shortcut for this recipe. If you’re using whole garlic, you’ll need to mince five to six cloves, depending on size.
- Parsley: Fresh parsley adds bright flavor to these meatballs. For a shortcut, you can use an equal amount of freeze-dried chopped parsley.
- Parmesan cheese: Grated parmesan cheese provides the meatballs with a touch of umami complexity.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
- Prepare the baking tin. Preheat the oven to 500˚F. Grease a mini muffin tin. Baking the meatballs in individual muffin tins helps them to brown uniformly.
- Soak the breadcrumbs. Combine the breadcrumbs with milk and let them soak. This mixture (called a panade in culinary lingo) will bind the ingredients and will tenderize the meat, preventing it from getting tough and rubbery.
- Combine the meatball mixture. Clean hands are the best tool to mix together all the ingredients to ensure it is thoroughly combined. Form the mixture into individual balls, using about 2 to 3 tablespoons of mixture for each. You should end up with about 24 meatballs.
Pro Tip: To evenly portion the mixture, use a large cookie scoop.
- Bake the meatballs. Put one meatball into each cup of the mini muffin tin and bake for about 15 minutes or until cooked through. Check for doneness by cutting into one or by testing with an instant-read thermometer. The internal temperature should be 165˚F. Serve hot with your recipe of choice!
- Don’t be afraid of shortcuts! Use packaged minced garlic, freeze-dried parsley or parsley herb paste in a tube to speed up prep time.
- If you don’t have a mini muffin pan, use a 9 by 13-inch baking pan or a rimmed baking sheet.
- An air fryer works great for reheating these meatballs! Spritz them with a little cooking oil to prevent them from drying out.
Once your meatballs are in the oven, you can whip up the rest of the meal. Here are some of my favorite combos to pair with turkey meatballs:
- Toss with store-bought or homemade marinara sauce and serve on spaghetti.
- Serve on a bed of quinoa, sprinkled with parmesan cheese.
- Float a few in tortellini soup or chicken noodle soup.
- Tuck meatballs into slider buns or Hawaiian rolls, with cheese and ketchup or mustard, for lunchbox sandwiches.
- Toss with sweet and sour sauce or barbecue sauce and serve on skewers for a party.
- Simmer in tomato sauce and stuff into hoagie rolls. Add a slice of mozzarella or provolone cheese and broil to melt the cheese.
Meatballs can stored in the refrigerator for three to four days. They should be cooled, then stored in an airtight container or wrapped tightly in aluminum foil or plastic wrap.
Cooked meatballs can also be frozen. Arrange the meatballs up on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze until solid, then transfer to a freezer bag and store up to three to four months. Freezing them separately means you can take out as many or as few as you want from the freezer bag.
Heat the meatballs to an internal temperature of 165˚F before eating. You can reheat in an oven, an air fryer or by simmering them in soup or sauce.
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Ingredients
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs (Italian or plain)
- 1 1/2 lbs ground turkey
- 1 large egg
- 2 Tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 500°F. Generously grease a baking dish or nonstick mini muffin pan with cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, stir together the milk and breadcrumbs and let the mixture sit for 5 minutes.
- In a large bowl, combine the ground turkey, breadcrumb mixture, egg, minced garlic, chopped parsley, grated Parmesan, ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Use your hands to thoroughly combine the mixture and then shape it into balls using 2 to 3 tablespoons of meat per meatball.
- Arrange the meatballs in a single layer in the prepared baking dish or nonstick mini muffin pan. Bake the meatballs for 15 minutes until they are cooked through.
- Serve with the recipe of your choice
Kelly’s Notes
- Use packaged minced garlic, freeze-dried parsley or parsley herb paste in a tube to speed up prep time.
- If you don’t have a mini muffin pan, use a 9 by 13-inch baking pan or a rimmed baking sheet.
- An air fryer works great for reheating these meatballs! Spritz them with a little cooking oil to prevent them from drying out.
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Recipe by Kelly Senyei of Just a Taste. Please do not reprint this recipe without my permission. If you'd like to feature this recipe on your site, please rewrite the method of preparation and link to this post as the original source.
Could you swap out milk for beef broth for soaking breadcrumbs?
That should work!
Fantastic absolutely fantastic
Thrilled you enjoyed the recipe, Teresa!
The meatballs were full of flavor and the mini muffin pan trick is genius!
So glad you enjoyed the recipe, Beth!
How many calories per ball.?
We’re working on providing nutritional info for our recipes. Please stay tuned!
Can you freeze these raw and thaw and cook when ready or should you cook then freeze them?
Hi Kim – I’ve never tried freezing them so I can’t say with certainty how they’d turn out after. But it should work to freeze the meatballs after forming them and before baking them.