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.
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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!
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!