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.
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.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!
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!
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!