How fitting that just days after I make these scrumptious sriracha glazed turkey meatballs, the Huy Fong Foods factory is in danger of temporary shutdown. So, you know what that means? You better make these meatballs, pronto! There’s about to be a sriracha shortage! Panic in the streets!
Okay. Temporary freakout finished. Back to the meatballs…
Turkey and sriracha go great together, so I took the basic recipe for my Teriyaki Meatballs and switched out the pork for turkey (you can use pork for these, too). Then I whipped up a quick brown sugar and sriracha glaze to slather them in. Deeee-licious! You can serve these over a bed of rice, pierced with a toothpick as an appetizer, or even over a nice salad, like this Crunchy Asian Salad. Very easy and very versatile.
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Turkey Sriracha Meatballs
Servings 6 4 meatballs eachIngredients
MEATBALLS
- 19 oz package ground turkey ($4.59)
- 1 large egg ($0.17)
- 1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs ($0.17)
- 2 inches fresh ginger ($0.30)
- 1/2 tsp soy sauce ($0.02)
- 1 bunch green onions, divided ($0.69)
- Freshly cracked black pepper ($0.05)
SRIRACHA GLAZE
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce ($0.20)
- 1 Tbsp rice vinegar ($0.11)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar ($0.06)
- 2 Tbsp sriracha hot sauce ($0.17)
- 1/2 cup water, divided ($0.00)
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch ($0.12)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add the ground turkey, egg, bread crumbs, soy sauce, and some freshly ground pepper to a large bowl. Peel the ginger with a vegetable peeler or by scraping the skin off with the side of a spoon. Use a small holed cheese grater to grate about two inches of the ginger straight into the bowl. Thinly slice 2-3 of the green onions and add to the bowl (save the rest for later).
- Mix the ingredients in the bowl thoroughly. Shape the meat mixture into meatballs about the size of pingpong balls. You should get 25-30 meatballs, depending on the size. Arrange the meatballs on a baking sheet covered in foil and bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.
- While the meatballs are baking, make the sriracha glaze. In a small pot combine the soy sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, sriracha and 1/4 cup of the water. Heat and stir the mixture over medium heat until the brown sugar is dissolved. In a small bowl, stir together the remaining 1/4 cup of water with the cornstarch. Pour the cornstarch slurry into the pot with the glaze. Stir to combine. Allow the mixture to come up to a simmer, at which point the glaze will thicken and become glossy.
- After the meatballs are finished baking, transfer them to a large bowl and pour the glaze over top. Carefully toss the meatballs to coat in the glaze. Serve hot topped with the remaining sliced green onions.
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Nutrition
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Step by Step Photos
This is the ground turkey I used… why they package it in 19 oz. portions, I’ll never know.
Combine the ground turkey, egg, breadcrumbs, soy suace, ginger (grated), green onions (2-3 onionts sliced, save the rest of the bunch for later), and some freshly ground pepper in a large bowl. You can actually add a clove of minced garlic for extra flavor, if you’d like (I just forgot it).
Mix these ingredients really, REALLY well. You’ll probably need to use your hands.
Shape the meat mixture into balls about the size of pingpong balls. I got 27 balls, so you should aim for 25-30. Place them on a baking sheet covered with foil and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.
It’s always a good idea to sacrifice one meatball to see if they’re cooked through. You can actually freeze the meatballs at this point. Frozen meatballs reheat easily in the microwave or by heating in any sauce of your choice.
While the meatballs are baking, you can get the glaze going. In a small sauce pot combine the soy sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, sriracha, and 1/4 cup of water. Heat and stir this mixture over a medium flame until the brown sugar is dissolved.
In a separate small bowl, stir together the cornstarch with the remaining 1/4 cup of water. Pour that into the pot with the sriracha glaze. It will turn the glaze kind of milky looking, like this. Let the glaze come up to a simmer. When it reaches a simmer, the cornstarch will work its magic and begin to thicken the sauce. It will also turn from milky to clear and shiny. Magic!
The last step is to coat the meatballs in the glaze. Now, the turkey meatballs are quite a bit more delicate than the pork teriyaki meatballs were, so if you drop them into the pot of glaze, only do a few at a time, or else you won’t be able to stir them without breaking the meatballs up. You can also add the cooked meatballs to a large bowl, pour the glaze over top, then gently toss to coat.
Slice up the rest of the green onions and sprinkle them over top. You can serve these meatballs over rice, pasta, a salad…
Or just pop ’em into your mouth as is!
It’s was a great weeknight dinner. When I tasted the sauce alone I was concerned it would be too spicy. That wasn’t the case on the meatballs with plain rice and steamed green beans. I will definitely make this again. If your family’s palate is sensitive to spicy reduce the sriracha.
Wow, this turned out to be so delicious and easy! Doubled it for meal prep, half to freeze. Thank you :)
The meatballs were good but my glaze turned into paste and never got shiny.
These were soooo good and the glaze was amazing! I served this over rice and with a side of adobo-seasoned asparagus. My only note is to cook the meatballs a little bit longer than instructed if you want more of a crust on the outside. I have friends over for dinner every week, and I plan on adding this to my hosting rotation!
WOW! So great. I served over rice and absolutely loved them! We will definitely be making again. Thanks!
I used a cookie scoop that made slightly larger meatballs, 17 total. I baked them for 35 min and they were perfect (I also used a meat thermometer).
Will it still work if you only have 16 oz packages of ground turkey?
Yes you’ll be fine!
I’ve made these a dozen times at least. I love to double and even triple the recipe, cook some of them until about 80-90% cooked, and freeze those for a rainy day. They freeze so well! My step-son says they are delicious even without the sauce, but he LOVES Sriracha.
AMAZING. My somewhat picky 15 year old step-son said the whole house smelled amazing while these were in the oven and he begged to eat one. He loves spicy food and I told him there’s no sauce yet. He ate one anyways and said it was so good he wouldn’t care if there was a sauce. I doubled the recipe and frozen half for later. Meatballs freeze extremely well!
Thank you for sharing budget bytes, love-love-love these meatballs & spicy sauce over brown rice…, it’s a winner in my house! 👍💕
Another amazing, easy recipe!! The fresh ginger in the meatballs REALLY make this recipe. I didn’t add garlic or green onions to the meatball, but still SO DELICIOUS. I ate it over jasmine rice, sprinkled green onions to the top. Super quick, super yummy. Thank you for sharing!
Lovely texture. I made these the night before and put them on a plate covered by cling film. When I got home I just took them out of the fridge and put them in the oven. I didn’t put the glaze on them because I was making this for several children under the age of 5. I’m having the remainders for lunch today and they go very well with Zoodles and grilled tomatoes.
I have made this meal several times and it is a family favorite! Ok, my six year old and three year old don’t like the spicy sauce so we just give them plain meatballs. Thank you for the recipe!
Second Budget Bytes recipe in two days and DING DING DING we have another winner! These meatballs were amazing. I served them over the basmati rice I had on hand and my husband and I are in love. Added a little more sriracha to the glaze (because spice=life) but otherwise made no changes. Thank you Beth! I’ve rediscovered the joys of fresh ginger.
Made this tonight and loved it! Super easy to make and so yummy with a bit of a kick!
These were so so good! My husband and I are wary of ground turkey sometimes, but we loved this recipe. I just added a little extra soy sauce and a little less sriracha to tone down the spice for our daughter, but even our 1 year old was happy! Thanks for the easy recipe :)
These were delicious! I made them with coconut aminos instead of soy sauce since my husband can’t have soy, and they were a big hit!
Delicious! I tend not to use ground turkey, preferring beef, but am trying recipes. These really were great…didn’t miss the beef! I served them with your Coconut rice recipe. For me, I’d prefer a sauce rather than a glaze, so next time I’ll use less cornstarch and have some broccoli with the rice/sauce. I also only had Italian flavored breadcrumbs, but I don’t think they made much difference in taste.
I did find that the meatballs while nice and tender, easily fell apart (unlike ground beef meatballs which I’ve baked like this recipe). Any thoughts on that?
I’ve made this three times (this one twice and the teriyaki version once) I freaking love it. Easy, flavorful. This last time I was out of fresh ginger, so I used ground but added a whole fresh chopped jalapeño (including seeds). If you like spice I recommend it.
I love this site…I love these balls
This recipe looks so good! Would it be possible to use oatmeal instead of breadcrumbs? And if so, do I have to grind them in a food processor, or can I use them as is? I know I could go out and get breadcrumbs, but I would like to try the oatmeal. Thank you for the help-can’t wait to try these out!
That might work, but I’d definitely grind them up or whiz them in a blender first to make smaller pieces. I’m not sure how much you’d need without testing it, though, so I’d start by trying the same amount as the bread crumbs.
These were great and super easy. I doubled the recipe and added some chopped garlic and sesame oil to the ground turkey mix. This will be dinner for tonight and tomorrow. Thanks so much for the recipe.
We LOVED these! A bit spicy but very filling and packed with flavor like all your recipes!
These are to die for! So, so good. My husband and I both loved them. I kept a few meatballs sauce-less for my 17 month old (he’s not too crazy about spicy food yet) and he devoured them! Wonderful recipe!
Put this recipe together & my 2 picky eaters gave it 2 thumbs up, delish!!!
Hey! Great recipe, very simple and loved the taste of the end result- one problem though, I found the glaze so sweet and full of sugar that I basically had a sugar crash, headache, and felt generally terrible after eating them. Had to wipe the glaze off the leftovers. Any suggestions as to substitution for the brown sugar for a slightly healthier version?
You can use honey, and definitely cut back the amount. Start with half, give it a taste and add more if you feel like it needs it. :)
Just made these for the first time tonight and they were the best. Just the right amount of sweet and spicy. And they were so tender that I can’t believe they were made with low fat turkey. Definitely will be making these again.
I stumbled on a sale for ground Turkey for $1.89 a package. I love it when that happens. This is my go-to recipe for ground turkey. Made a bunch of these and they are easy to make, delicious and inexpensive. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Made these for a work potluck and served the glaze on the side. Everyone loved them and they were gone in a flash! Really easy to make as well, keeping this recipe to use later.
Thank you, Beth! I just made these tonight exactly as written, and they were amazing! Just the right amount of spicy and so flavorful. We ate these with your Dragon noodles made half spicy, and loved everything.
That sounds delicious!! I’ll have to try that. :-)
Oh. My. God. The flavor of these was outstanding and reminded me of pot stickers. I broiled them for the last few minutes so the outside crisped up. The sauce is awesome (I added a touch of honey) and so versatile for other dishes. This is definitely one of my new go-to recipes! Thank you!
Beth, you’ve done it again! I have been dying to make this recipe for a few weeks, and finally had all the ingredients to put it together today. Not only does it smell and look good, but it tastes amazing. My super picky husband even gave it the thumbs up, which means it’s a keeper. Actually, I would have made these for myself even if he didn’t like them, as they were so delicious! You rock, Beth!
I added some roasted sesame seeds in there too- SO GOOD!
hey! think I could just use vegetarian meatballs from the store with the glaze?
Absolutely! :) They’ll taste a little different because they probably don’t have ginger, but I’m sure they’d still be great with the sauce!
Hello everyone! OMG these are just amazing. They have become part of our weekly menu. Everyone loves them. Additionally I share the same philosophy on cooking can be easy, cheap and good.
I have this websites saved to my favorites and can’t wait to try something else!
Michelle
These are AMAZING. Made them for the first time today, paired with some lime cilantro rice. Accidentally forgot to pick up brown sugar at the store and just substituted white sugar. So yummy, thank you!
I made these and they were seriously delicious! I liked them so well in fact, that I ate leftovers for breakfast the next morning. lol :)
Thanks so much for the amazing recipe.
This is the first time I’ve commented but I’ve tried at least a dozen over the past 2 years and I can already tell these will be in the regular rotation along with your Dragon Noodles and Sesame Chicken!! Thanks for all that you do, I love your site :) Inspires me to do my own cooking, try new flavor combos, and stick to a reasonable food budget!
I’m always a little nervous making anything that resembles Asian food for my husband as he’s half korean and was raised on authentic Korean food. When I began making this dish I realized that I had accidentally purchased ground pork instead of ground turkey….ugh! Low and behold this sh*t was A-Ma-Zing! I thought my husband was going to propose again. Seriously, it’s THAT good! Holy Moses! Thanks Beth for another WINNER!
Thinking of making these for my husbands birthday party. What do you think of keeping these in a crockpot with the glaze so people can make sliders?
I think that would work well. Just keep it on low so that they don’t continue to cook. :)
Eating these as I type. Made exactly as written and they’re delicious!! Our mouths are on fire but he had a second bowl so it can’t be too bad lol.
Just made these for lunch. Typically, I’m not a meatball person, but these were incredible! I even forgot the egg and had no green onion and subbed powdered ginger! They were still amazing! Yet another job well done, Beth!
Hi,
First, LOVE BB… I’ve made 5-6 recipes so far and they have all been awesome (and the wife agreed). I am going to make these to bring to a friends house as an appetizer tomorrow and I was wondering what you thought the best method would be? Should I make them and glaze them then just reheat them in their oven with the glaze? Any input would be appreciated.
I would bake them and glaze them, and then reheat them in a saucepan with the glaze over low with a lid (stirring occasionally and very gently).
Awesome recipe, would make it again. I’d give it a medium on spicy. We had it with rice and green onions for lunch. Will try it with the asian slaw tonight. Thank you for your great website, have shared it with a few family and friends.
This were easy, cheap and tasted awesome! Served over white rice. Would make a great appetizer as well. Delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
I think this may have been my first BB recipe ever.. Had to come back months later to sing my praises. This recipe is so great! I love making homemade glaze, and this one takes the cake. Better than any chinese takeout!
I’ve made this recipe with turkey, pork, and beef and it always comes out perfectly. I use a little extra garlic and sriracha, because I like to punish my dudefriend with my dragon breath ;)
Thanks as always, Beth! You are a rockstar.
I made these last night and they were really wonderful. The cheapest ground turkey came in a 3-pound package, so I figured I’d make a big batch and freeze some. But now it looks like we’re just going to happily eat the leftovers tonight! Oh well. ;-)
These were so good that I’m making them a second time this week.
Made this tonight and absolutely loved it! The only adjustment I made was reducing the sriracha by half, and it was still plenty hot for me and my husband. The sauce was amazing, though, and the meatballs were so incredibly flavorful!
We had this with the coconut rice from this site and some steamed broccoli. This meal is definitely going into regular rotation.
This is going to be one of those annoying “I subbed everything for everything” reviews.
When I was grocery shopping, I thought, ooh, I remember that sriracha meatball recipe on Budget Bytes and bought some ground turkey. In the middle of prepping the meal, I realized I’m out of soy sauce, ginger, and rice vinegar. Also, I forgot to buy green onions. BUT not all was lost: I had the dregs of some good teriyaki sauce languishing in condiment heaven, which I figured would do for the soy and ginger. I cut back on the brown sugar to compensate, too. I finely diced some red onion to sub for the green. And a splash of apple cider vinegar instead of rice vinegar. The glaze came together nicely, and the meatballs are still cooking but are looking good!
I’m serving it with brown rice & steamed broccoli (because of course, out of jasmine). Smells amazing, though!
I made these for dinner last night using pork (our grocery store was all out of turkey). They were delicious, thank you!
just thought id let you know these were the first thing gone at our super bowl party! the combination of the brown sugar, sriracha, and ginger was heavenly. sometimes when cooking with sriracha it can easily overpower even if you enjoy the heat. no such issues here, cannot wait to make these again.
Made these last night for the lady and I, OH MY SWEET SWEET MEAT BALLS. So yummy! I like the heat so I doubled the amount of sriracha and paired it up with some jasmine rice. Huge fan of your site! Made 5-6 recipes so far and I rarely can wait until lunch the next day to finish em off! Can’t wait to try some more!
Do you think this could be transformed into a soup?
Hmm, probably. I bet anything could be transformed into a soup! :)
Hey, so have you ever thought of doing these meatballs, but in the sesame chicken sauce? I got bored one night, so I made these meatballs (but with chicken), and like… 4 sauces (the sesame chicken sauce, a red curry sauce, a hollandaise sauce, and a spicy black bean sauce). Lovely. (Well… except the hollandaise. That didn’t really work, so I used the rest of it on a poached egg.)
Wow, I love the idea of making meatballs with a variety of sauces! Yum! :D My Teriyaki Meatball Bowls is pretty much the same thing as these with the sesame chicken sauce… maybe small differences, but the basic concept is the same.
Finally made these last night.. had to use up some ground beef so I made a double recipe, with beef instead of turkey. Everything else the same. So delicious!
I did add frozen broccoli (warmed/cooked) to the meatballs and sauce, and served over jasmine rice for a full meal.
Eating leftovers for lunch now, and I think it’s even better the 2nd day because the rice soaked up all that sauce. Mmm!
Made these tonight. Very good. A little too spicy for us. Added some garlic, salt and Chinese 5 spice. Thanks.
Amazing! Sauce is good enough by itself to warrant a separate post. I plan to try this sauce in stir fry with chicken and veggies, too!
Ooooh so yummy! I added a little more water and a dash more soy cause and vinegar as it got a little too thick. The glaze and meatballs together were magic!! I reduced the sriracha to 1 teaspoon so it wasn’t too spicy for 12 and 16 year olds then I drizzled my balls with extra sriracha..:)
As a full time student with a full time job I have such little time, but this recipe is just perfect! Make the meatballs, throw them in the oven, go do some homework, come back make the glaze and then the meatballs are done! Super delicious and perfectly frugal!
I have literally been using your website to make meals for my family every night for a month.
They have all been good, but this one..this one is REALLY good. That glaze is incredible and I cannot wait to make this again. I doubled the glaze, and I glad I did. It is hot though, I’m a hot food fiends..but the kids ate theirs dry, and they still loved it.
I made these last night and they were delish!! My glaze got really, REALLY thick – maybe I added too much cornstarch, it tasted great though, will definitely be making this again.
My husband made these last night and he seemed to have fun making them.
They were pretty good!
This was amazing! I’ve made about a million Budget Bytes recipes and this was probably one of my favorites. My husband (who ADORES spicy) added more sriracha to his and my sister (who is a spicy wimp) said it made her nose run, but they all went back for seconds so I’d call it a win. Thanks for the inspiration, Beth!
Oh! I also put it over your Coconut Rice and that just totally put it over the must-make-again edge for me!
Freakin’ awesome!! Only had one pound of turkey, so I cut the bread crumbs a bit, but otherwise, left all the same. The extra sauce over brown rice and a little steamed broccoli left my hubz telling me that this meal is the best I’ve ever made. Needless to say, we like it spicy in this house ~ thanks for the excellent recipe! Lovin’ Budget Bytes’ recipes thus far.
Made ’em, loved ’em. Definitely a nice kick to them, but I love sriracha so it was fine by me.
I just made these with Trinidad Scorpion Peppers ( I only used <1/4 of the pepper). They were amazeballs! So delicious and again super easy and quick. Thanks, Beth!
Mmm made these tonight and they went perfectly with some rice. I did feel the ginger was a bit overpowering with the turkey–might try it with pork next time!
Really good but hot. My husband loved them. I might also use half the sriracha too next time I make them…
Have you considered making your own hot sauce? It’s something I’ve personally wanted to try but I haven’t made the plunge yet. I suppose we’ll all be googling “copycat sriracha recipes” if there’s a shortage. ;) These meatballs look really fantastic, they’re now going on my weekly meal plan menu. Thanks for sharing!
I actually did, once! My landlord grew a bunch of cayenne peppers, so I made some “sriracha”. While it was really awesome, it just wasn’t the same. ;)
Made this tonight and loved it. It was pretty spicy so next time I am going to use 1/2 the sriracha. My leftovers will probably be eaten for breakfast. Thanks for another winner!
Could you grind up oatmeal and sub that for the bread crumbs.
Probably, yes. Great idea!
It’s OK! A judge ruled against the shutdown. Sriracha supplies are safe for now! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/31/sriracha-factory-shutdown_n_4181528.html
I’m a big fan of turkey balls and, having written a few balls recipes of my own, have gotten to be somewhat of a balls expert. I made these tonight and, on a scale of “ehhh, balls” to “BALLS!,” these were BALLS!! with two exclamation points. I served them with some vegetable fried rice, and they were the perfect amount of spice. Definitely a repeat recipe.
Hahaha, this is one of my favorite comments in all of Budget Bytes history. :)
I made these last night and they were amazing! I had mine over white rice and it was perfect. I ended up only doing a 1.5tbsp of Sriracha instead of the 2 and it was just right for me. I actually forgot to put the remaining green onion on mine after cooking them because I couldn’t wait to eat it.
I made these yesterday. Really nice – and the glaze can also be used as a tasty dip for them.
Just made these with some spaghetti and it was amazing! I added extra sriracha of course. I didn’t have rice wine vinegar so I used apple cider vinegar and it was still great! I also subbed the fresh ginger for 1/2 tbl of ground ginger.
Made these last night, they were amazing!!! Love the sweet and spicy flavor. I have leftovers for lunch today and it’s all I’ve been thinking about this morning :)
Oh no!!! Sriracha shortage!!! Good thing I have a new bottle waiting in the cabinet once I run out of my current one …
looks delicious! will be trying these on my menu next week :)
Unfortunately very spicy things give my fiance terrible heartburn. How would you rate these on a heat scale from 1-10 (1 not spicy at all and 10 setting your mouth on fire)?
Probably a 7… but then again my heat sensors may be slightly dulled from all of my hot food :) It’s pretty hot, though. Try the teriyaki meatballs, instead :)
My husband has horrible acid reflux and usually has issues with anything remotely spicy, but for some reason Sriracha doesn’t bother him.
These look delicious!
Slightly Skint Blog
I am more than a bit obsessed with sriracha right now. A shortage would be depressing.
Sriracha shortage?????? GASP!!!! That would be HORRIBLE!!!!