Maple Glazed Ground Turkey Meatballs Recipe - Turkey Meatballs (2024)

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Anyone familiar with this space knows how much I love meatballs, and while normally ground turkey meatballs are dry and boring, these… well, these are not that.

Rich meatballs, glazed with a tangy maple sauce, are one of the best party appetizers I know. I made them many times while on tour for my cookbook Pheasant, Quail, Cottontail, and every time they were eaten up as fast as we could put them out.

I make my ground turkey meatballs more or less like I’d make a meatloaf, which is to say with fat, some sort of bready thing and eggs. You should know that all-meat meatballs might sound nice, but they cook up hard and dry. You need fat to keep things nice, and the addition of a bread-like thing makes them even lighter.

I know a lot of you are trying to eat less bread products, so if you want to skip the breadcrumbs, my preferred alternative would be to use 2 or 3 slices of gluten-free bread, crusts removed and torn up, soaked in the milk and mashed to a paste. you can also buy gluten-free breadcrumbs.

For milk haters, use white wine or hell, apple juice. Even water.

As for seasoning, I kept things simple, but I do use a not-so-secret spice mix: Bell’s Poultry Seasoning, which you can get in most supermarkets, or online. It’s what makes a Thanksgiving turkey taste like tradition…

The glaze is the star here. You can make these meatballs from any meat you feel like, but the glaze ought to be made as close to my recipe as possible. It’s sweet, tangy, a little salty and a little spicy. Oh, and you need not use expensive maple syrup here; cheap stuff is fine.

You’re going to want to make more of these ground turkey meatballs than you think you need; they’re addictive, especially if you make them small enough to eat in one bite. Holly and I ate this entire recipe at one sitting, albeit for dinner, but still. They’re that good.