If you love Thanksgiving and all of the great flavors of it, then you will LOVE these Thanksgiving Gobbler Turkey Meatballs! Ground turkey blended with stuffing seasonings, milk bread, sauteed onions, and celery plus cranberry relish! It’s like turkey and stuffing as a meatball!
I. Love. Thanksgiving.
I love the bajillion hours of prepping, cleaning, cooking, and even doing the dishes. Thanksgiving always held a very near and dear place in my heart. It’s one of the very few times we got together as an entire family, catching up and eating Mom and Dad’s amazing foods.
TKW Family Love
These are SO GOOD! I made them according to the recipe only subbing soaked dried cranberries for the sauce. Baked for a half hour and then held them until dinner in a quart of frozen turkey gravy left over from Thanksgiving. I make so much gravy and this is a great use for it! Happy family!
Being the youngest of 6 by such a significant age gap (17 year years between myself and the oldest) I didn’t spend a lot of time with them. They were either off with their friends, at college, or simply off living their own lives.
But Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving was where we all came together at the 3-leaf extended table, with tons of food, and just reconnecting. I miss those days but fortunately Mr. Fantabulous and I have been able to create our traditions and still give us that same family time.
Let’s talk Thanksgiving turkey meatballs
So every year I make at least 1-2 post-Thanksgiving recipes on what to do with the leftovers. From the Gobbler Rolls to the Gobbler Pizza, I have you covered. Just wait until you see what I have in store THIS year! But then I realized something. I became one of those people who only made Thanksgiving dinners around the holidays. FYI… I stopped being that person.
Then, because my brain works a million miles a minute, I thought about how to recreate those same Thanksgiving flavors but in different applications. Thus… the Gobbler meatball.
I knew that I started with ground turkey and all the same seasonings I would put in my stuffing and hey, you can’t have Thanksgiving without my famous Cranberry Relish, that I could make a killer Thanksgiving Meatball. Now, if your Thanksgiving is like mine, you also have candied yams, Brussels Sprouts, and green bean casserole. I did opt to leave those out of the meatball. I figured those can still be served on the side.
How to make Thanksgiving Gobbler Turkey Meatballs
These are almost identical to most other meatball methods; however, there are a few steps you need to do before you add the stuff to a bowl and mix.
- Chop up celery, onions, and garlic
- Sauté in butter and olive oil until soft and then cool to room temp
- Create a Panade – a panade is where you put bread in a bowl and add milk to the bowl. The bread soaks up the milk after about 5-10 minutes and creates a panade. You may have heard it called “milk bread”
- In a large bowl, add all of the ingredients, gently mix to combine, and form into a meatball.
- Bake until the thermometer reads 165°F and enjoy them!
See, easy!
TKW Family Love
Made these yesterday for our early Thanksgiving dinner. Oh my gosh, so good!! Moist and tasty, I will probably make these every year now. And definitely won’t wait til thanksgiving to make them again. They were gobbled up quickly. I made the smaller balls using medium cookie scoop. I was running low on cranberry relish so I didn’t include the relish in my recipe. To serve them I placed a spoonful of relish on the plate then set the meatballs inside, on top of, the relish. Very pretty and so delicious. I minced the onion and celery vs chopping. I also doubled the recipe. Mine took longer to cook as they were sharing oven space with stuffing. I used gluten free bread and oat milk.
Meatball sizing
This recipe makes about 16 Large cookie scoop (about 3 heaping tablespoon/2-3 ounces) size meatballs. I tend to serve 2-3 per person as a meal. The larger ones are about 2″ or so in size.
If you want to make these as appetizers I would use either the Medium Cookie Scoop (about 2 tablespoons) or the Small Cookie Scoop (about 2 teaspoons).
Freezing the meatballs
These freeze beautifully, both raw and cooked. I, personally, tend to freeze my meatballs raw and then cook them as I need them.
If you want to freeze them raw, once the meatballs are shaped, place the baking pan in the freezer for at least an hour. You’re “flash freezing” the meatballs. Once the meatballs are hard to the touch and have little to no give when you pick them up, simply place them in a freezer-safe bag, and mark the outside of the bag with what they are and the cooking time. *Note I tend to add 5-10 minutes of additional baking time as you are starting from a frozen state. Frozen they will last about 3 months raw.
If you want to freeze them after they are baked, allow them to cool completely. Place in a freezer-safe container, mark the outside what they are. To reheat either microwave, thaw in the fridge and then reheat in the oven at 350F until warmed through. Cooked and then frozen, they will last about a month in the freezer.
TKW Family Love
These are a must make! Hubby won’t eat turkey (texture issues) but these were a huge hit. Made them with and without the cranberry and they are the bomb. Make extra and freeze!
Recipe Substitutions
Because I know you guys love to take a recipe and put your spins on them let me give some tips on substitutions.
- .Turkey – um… You do know this is for Thanksgiving Turkey meatballs, right? Seriously, you can use ground chicken instead.
- Cranberry Relish – No, it CANNOT be cranberry jelly. It has to be of a relish texture. You could try omitting it, but being completely honest here, I have not tried it. The relish adds a great background sweetness that helps round out the recipe.
- Oysters/Pecans/Other “Stuffing” usuals – I’ve not done this as I wanted the Turkey and “Thanksgiving” flavors to shine here. However, I know many of you love oysters or pecans in your stuffing so that is part of your Thanksgiving profile. You could add some to the mix, but watch the nuts’ moisture level. The nuts may dry out the meatball, so you may need to add a bit more egg or panade.
- Dried Cranberries – If you do not have cranberry relish (and you don’t feel like making my world-famous recipe), then my advice would be to soak them in warm stock for about 15-25 minutes or until they soften and plump up. You may also want to add a few tablespoons of the liquid to the meatball mixture.
- Bread: You can use gluten-free bread in place of regular bread.
Ways to serve these Thanksgiving Gobbler Turkey Meatballs
Honestly, the sky is the limit here. Truly go with your imagination. Here are a few ways I’ve served them:
- Make a Thanksgiving bowl – add mashed potatoes to a bowl, swirl on some turkey gravy, add a few meatballs, and a drizzle of more gravy. If you’re an adventurous eater add some corn too! Heck, throw on a spoonful of green bean casserole if you’re a rebel! FYI. I’m a rebel!
- Serve them as sliders – Make the meatballs smaller to fit those Hawaiian sweet dinner rolls. To the bottom of the rolls add some brie cheese, meatballs, and top with cranberry relish. Add the top of the buns and heat at 350 just until warm and the cheese is slightly melted.
- Serve as Thanksgiving Shooters – To the bottom of a small plastic dessert cup, spoon or pipe in some mashed potatoes, add a little bit of gravy, a small meatball, a few pieces of corn, and a little drizzle of gravy. Serve with mini plastic spoons. My guests went NUTS over these!
- Serve on a Charcuterie board – Make smaller meatballs and serve on a charcuterie board with a side of cranberry relish, dijon mustard, soft cheeses, figs, dried apricots, and mini toasts
TKW Family Love
I made these meatballs instead of a roast turkey for a simplified Thanksgiving this year and they were indeed far simpler to make and also very well received. Since cranberry sauce was already on the menu I left out the cranberry relish but they were still plenty moist. I modified the recipe slightly as I was low on bread and so substituted panko breadcrumbs for the dry bread slice and that worked fine too.
Thanksgiving Gobbler Turkey Dinner Meatballs
If you love Thanksgiving and all of the great flavors of it, then you will LOVE these Thanksgiving Gobbler Turkey Meatballs! Ground turkey blended with stuffing seasonings, milk bread, sauteed onions, and celery plus cranberry relish! It’s like turkey and stuffing as a meatball!
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 25
- Total Time: 45
- Category: Thanksgiving
- Method: oven
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 small yellow onion, chopped small
- 2 stalks celery, plus leaves, chopped small
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoon butter, unsalted
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra for brushing the meatballs
- 4 slices of bread, divided
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 teaspoon thyme, dried
- 1/2 teaspoon rosemary, dried
- 1/2 teaspoon ground sage, dried
- 1 teaspoon parsley, dried
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 cup prepared cranberry relish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment, spray with non-stick spray and set aside. In a medium skillet over medium heat, add the butter and olive oil. When the butter starts to foam, add in the onion and celery. Sauté, stirring often, until the onions and celery start to soften. ~10 minutes. When they are softened, add in the garlic, stir and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, put in a small bowl or plate and allow to cool to room temp. ~15-30 minutes.
- In a bowl, tear up 3 slices of bread and add in the milk. Smush the bread down into the milk. You’re making “milk bread”. The bread will soak up all/most of the milk. Allow to rest for 5 minutes. In a mixing bowl add in the turkey, cooled onions/celery/garlic mixture, the milk bread mixture, seasonings, egg, and cranberry relish. Take the remaining dry piece of bread and tear up into small pieces and put that into the bowl as well.
- Without overworking the mixture, gently mix just to combine. The mixture should be wet but hold a shape when you form it into a ball. If it doesn’t you can add a little bit of regular bread crumbs (1-2 tablespoon) but the mixture will be soft but should hold a shape. Scoop enough meat mixture to form a 2” round ball (I use a large cookie scoop to measure out my meatballs). Wet your hands and shape. Damp hands are a trick to keeping the mixture from sticking to your hands! See notes for smaller meatballs. Place the meatballs on the pan and repeat until all of the meatballs are formed.
- Either spray the meatballs with olive oil with a mister OR using a pastry brush, brush each one with olive oil. This helps with coloring and browning.
- Bake for 20-23 minutes or when the internal temp of the meatball reads 165F. See notes for smaller meatball baking times. If you want a darker char, pop the meatballs under the broiler for a minute.
- Allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
For smaller meatballs (medium cookie scoop), cook 14-17 minutes.
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