These turkey meatballs are glazed with a sweet heat honey sriracha mixture that makes these perfect for an appetizer, potluck, or quick dinner!
Let’s talk about meatballs. Do you feel that meatballs are to be the Italian-style we know that is served with spaghetti or in hoagie rolls or are you more meatball adventurous?
Considering I have Thanksgiving, porcupine, bacon chicken ranch, and even spicy banana pepper ones, it’s fair to say I’m completely adventurous.
This recipe is another one of those adventurous meatball recipes. Sort of…
These all have pretty standard ingredients turkey, panade (bread milk), egg, spices with a twist – I made it sweet and spicy coated in the most amazing Honey Sriracha Glaze.
Ingredients Needed
What matters here is using fresh ingredients like real ginger and cilantro along with a ground turkey that’s not super lean.
- Ground turkey
- Panade – milk and bread
- Egg
- Heat & Sweet – sriracha and honey
- Spices and Herbs
- Low sodium soy sauce
- Toasted sesame seeds for garnish
Let’s Make Meatballs!
- In a bowl, add the bread pieces and milk. Press gently on the bread into the milk and let it sit for 5 minutes. You’re making a “Panade”.
Panade (milk bread)
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”. To me, it’s critical to help the meatballs retain their tenderness.
- While the bread is soaking in the milk, grab another bowl and add the ground turkey.
- Once the bread softens, add that into the ground turkey (and any milk if left).
- On top of that, add the cilantro, sriracha, honey, soy sauce, salt, pepper, and ginger.
- On top of that, add the egg, and half of the green onions.
- Sprinkle on the salt and pepper and mix.
- Mix gently just until combined. If the mixture is too wet and doesn’t form a meatball then feel free to add up to 3 tablespoon of bread crumbs. *This can happen depending on the type of turkey you use.
- Using a large cookie scoop (*about 3 tablespoon of the mixture), scoop up a meatball and, with damp hands, form into a meatball. Place on the prepared baking sheet and repeat.
- Prior to putting it into the oven, drizzle the meatballs with about a tablespoon of olive or avocado oil to help with the browning.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes or until the internal temperature is 165F. While the meatballs are baking, prepare the glaze.
Let’s Eat!
Plate the meatballs in a serving platter and drizzle the glaze over. Leave a little glaze on the side that way folks that like it saucy can add more if desired.
Sprinkle on some toasted sesame seeds and chopped cilantro for garnish.
Keto-Friendly and Gluten-Free Options
- Honey – Sukrin Syrup Gold is a great low carb, keto sugar substitute
- Bread – Gluten-Free bread or crushed pork rinds work well as a 1:1 swap. For this, you’d need about 1 cup of bread crumbs/pork rind crumbs
- Sriracha – if the traditional sriracha has too much sugar for your diet, this one has a lower sugar content from what I’ve read.
Recipe Substitutions
Hey, I get it, we all like different things. You may like chicken but not turkey meat; others may like parsley but not cilantro. Here I’ll do my best to provide alternatives that still allow this recipe to work.
- Meat – you can use poultry, beef, or pork. I would stick to ground chicken that does have a bit of fat in it so the meatballs do not dry out.
- Bread – you can use breadcrumbs in the milk. You’ll need ~1 cup of breadcrumbs for the 3 slices of bread.
- Milk – you can use almond or soy milk. You can also use chicken or vegetable stock.
- Cilantro – ahhhh you haters! LOL You can use fresh parsley but it is NOT the same.
- Green Onion – mild white or shallots will work
- Egg – See this post for suggestions
Serving Suggestions
Well, can I just say “a fork” because honestly, these on their own are OUTSTANDING?! No? Okay, no worries – here are some ways I used these:
- Appetizer – make them as big or as small as you want and then serve them on a pretty toothpick
- Sub – we all think of meatball subs with a red sauce but I’m here to blow your mind about that. These on a sub with Asian slaw, sliced radishes, and pickled red onions are insanely delicious!
- Sliders – Grab those little sweet Hawaiian rolls and place these on a slider bun with Asian Slaw, toasted peanuts, and cucumbers
- Rice Bowl – whip up a bowl of steamed rice or cauliflower rice, add in some snow peas, radishes, carrots, and a few of these meatballs with sauce
- Tacos – make these as directed then roughly chop the meat up into taco crumbles. To a soft tortilla add some shredded cabbage, cucumbers, carrots, meat, sauce, toasted peanuts, sesame seeds
- Pizza Topping – Stretch out your dough, add some of the honey sriracha sauce, add a layer of mozzarella, the meatballs and peanuts. When it’s done, add shredded cabbage and red onions, shaved carrots and cucumbers, chopped peanuts, sesame seeds, cilantro, and more sauce
Honey Sriracha Glazed Turkey Meatballs
These turkey meatballs are glazed with a sweet heat honey sriracha mixture that makes these perfect for an appetizer, pot luck, or quick dinner!
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 35+
- Total Time: 45
- Category: Healthy, meatballs, sweet & spicy, turkey
- Method: oven
- Cuisine: Healthy, meatballs, sweet & spicy, turkey
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 3 slices of bread, torn
- 3 tablespoon milk or stock
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 tablespoon sriracha
- 3 green onions, chopped and divided
- 3 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 XL egg
- Toasted sesame seeds for garnish
Honey Sriracha Glaze
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/4 cup sriracha
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
Instructions
Make the Meatballs
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment and lightly spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- In a bowl, add the bread pieces and milk. Press gently on the bread into the milk and let it sit for 5 minutes. You’re making a “Panade”
- In a larger bowl, add the ground turkey, the panade (bread mixture), cilantro, sriracha, honey, soy sauce, salt, pepper, ginger, egg, half of the green onions, salt, and pepper. Mix gently just until combined. If the mixture is too wet and doesn’t form a meatball then feel free to add up to 3 tablespoon of bread crumbs. *This can happen depending on the type of turkey you use.
- Using a large cookie scoop (*about 3 tablespoon of the mixture), scoop up a meatball and, with damp hands, form into a meatball. Place on the prepared baking sheet and repeat.
- Prior to putting it into the oven, drizzle the meatballs with about a tablespoon of olive or avocado oil to help with the browning.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes or until the internal temperature is 165F. While the meatballs are baking, prepare the glaze
Make the Honey Sriracha Glaze
- Add all ingredients to a pot over medium heat and whisk to combine. Stir until it begins to bubble gently and reduce the heat, stirring occasionally until it thickens. You want it thick enough to coat the back of the spoon.
Assemble & Serve
- Transfer the cooked meatballs to a serving dish. Remove the thickened Honey Sriracha Glaze from the heat and pour over the cooked meatballs, reserving some sauce on the side for folks that like extra.
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