These Thai turkey meatballs are simmered in a fragrant coconut milk sauce with warm Thai spices and fresh lime. An easy, flavorful dinner with Thai-inspired flavors. Video. Low carb, keto-adaptable.
I wish I could give more than 5 stars! This recipe is so flavorful and certainly well-balanced. The meatballs are moist and so very tasty. This is a keeper in our home!
Here is my favorite turkey meatball recipe! These easy, flavorful Thai meatballs are made with ground turkey and simmered in a fragrant Coconut Lemongrass Sauce, so incredibly flavorful.
My friend MaryAnn gave me this recipe, and I’ve been making it on repeat for the last several months. Those of you who know MaryAnn will agree that she is genuinely one of the most thoughtful humans I have ever known. Her peaceful, gentle way blesses those around her, without her even being aware of it.
Why You’ll Love this Turkey Meatballs Recipe!
Mouthwatering flavor! The Coconut Lemongrass Sauce is infused with star anise, cardamom, and coriander. Trust me, you will want to lick the bowl! Fresh lime and cilantro finish the dish, giving it a beautiful brightness that I crave.
Incredibly versatile. Serve these as an appetizer, or with rice for dinner, or over a bowl of rice noodles, mopping up the delicious sauce.
Meal prep and freezer-friendly. The meatballs can be assembled in advance and even stored in the freezer. The sauce comes together quickly, so it’s not a bad idea to have the meatballs on hand for busy weeknights!
Turkey Meatballs Recipe Ingredients
- Ground turkey - Lean ground turkey forms the tender base of the meatballs, soaking up the bold Thai-inspired flavors; ground chicken or ground beef work just as well as substitutions, though we prefer a poultry base.
- Olive oil or peanut oil - Used for sautéing and adds richness; peanut oil brings a subtle nutty flavor that pairs nicely with the spices.
- Shallots, garlic, lemongrass, and ginger - Create a fragrant, aromatic foundation with bright citrusy notes and savory depth.
- Soy sauce and fish sauce - Provide salty, umami-rich flavor that gives the meatballs their signature savory taste, and add some moisture.
- Sambal Oelek or chili paste - Adds gentle heat and complexity; adjust to taste depending on spice preference.
- Panko breadcrumbs - A binder for the meatballs that keeps them tender; gluten-free breadcrumbs or almond meal can be used as alternatives.
- Fresh cilantro - Fresh herbs add brightness to the mixture. Garnish with cilantro and/or fresh basil or Thai basil.
- Salt and pepper - Enhance and balance the overall seasoning.
- Whole spices (cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, turmeric, coriander seeds, star anise) - Infuse the coconut sauce with warm, aromatic flavor and subtle sweetness, creating a rich, fragrant broth.
- Coconut milk - Forms a creamy, luscious sauce that balances the spices and keeps the meatballs moist and flavorful.
- Fresh limes - Add brightness and acidity, lifting the richness of the coconut sauce just before serving.
How to make Ground Turkey Meatballs
1. Sauté the aromatics. In a large skillet, warm oil over medium-high heat. Sauté the shallots for 4 minutes, then add the garlic and lemongrass and cook for another minute. Turn off the heat.
2. Prep the meatballs. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Add the ground turkey to a large bowl and create a well in the center. Add ginger, soy sauce, fish sauce, chili paste, bread crumbs, cilantro, salt, and black pepper. Add the shallots to the meat mixture. Use your hands or a spoon to mix until just combined. (Don’t use a food processor as it can overwork the meat and make the meatballs dense.)
Dampen your hands and shape the meatballs, making 18-20 2-inch meatballs. A wet cookie scoop can work, too. Place them on the parchment-lined baking sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.
3. Sear the meatballs. Add oil to the same skillet and turn the heat to medium-high. Once hot, add the meatballs and brown all sides. Work in batches if needed. Set aside when done.
4. Prepare the sauce. Use a mortar and pestle to smash the lemongrass, then add it to the pan. Crack the cardamom pods open and add them to the pan, along with the cinnamon stick, turmeric, ginger pieces, coriander seeds, star anise, and coconut milk. Bring to a simmer and whisk in the chicken stock.
5. Simmer. Arrange the meatballs in the pan and simmer over medium heat for 10-12 minutes, or until cooked through. The meatballs should reach an internal temperature of 165F. Use an instant-read thermometer if you have one.
6. Season. Add fresh lime juice and more salt and pepper to taste.
7. Garnish. Garnish with lime zest and cilantro. Add red pepper flakes for a little heat, if desired. Enjoy as an appetizer (pricking with appetizer forks) or turn it into a meal and serve with rice or over a bowl of rice noodles. Either way, you’ll love the flavors here!
Chef’s Tips & Tricks
- Be careful not to over-mix the meatball mixture. Mix until just combined to keep the meatballs tender rather than dense or tough.
- Wet your hands when shaping. Damp hands prevent sticking and help create smoother, evenly sized meatballs.
- Don’t skip the chill! Chill the meatballs before searing them. Refrigerating helps them firm up, making them easier to sear and less likely to fall apart. It also helps the flavors meld!
- Use whole spices for the best flavor. Whole spices slowly infuse the coconut broth with layered, aromatic flavor without overpowering it.
- Lightly crush the spices first. Cracking cardamom pods and bruising lemongrass releases more fragrance into the sauce.
Serving Suggestions
Serve these turkey meatballs as an appetizer with toothpicks, or serve as a main dish over basmati rice or rice noodles. Or, for a low-carb meal, serve over a bed of fresh spinach.
Pair with a simple salad, like our Thai Quinoa Salad, Thai Mushroom Salad, Thai Grilled Eggplant Salad, Green Papaya Salad, Crunchy Thai Salad, or Asian Cucumber Salad.
Storage & Reheating
- Storage: Store leftover turkey meatballs in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- To reheat: Reheat on the stovetop over medium low heat. Cover and simmer for 8-10 minutes until warmed through. If the sauce has thickened, add a splash of chicken broth, water, or coconut milk. You can also bake the meatballs in a covered baking dish (or with tented foil) for 15-20 minutes in a 350 F oven. Or microwave in 30-second intervals until heated through.
- To freeze: You can also freeze the meatballs for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.
We hope you enjoy these healthy turkey meatballs as much as we have! xoxo Sylvia
More recipes you may like
Turkey Meatballs Video
After you try these Turkey Meatballs, let us know how they turn out in the comments below. Your review will help other readers, too! Sign up here to join our community and receive our latest recipes and weekly newsletter! xoxo Sylvia
Thai Turkey Meatballs Recipe
- Prep Time: 20
- chilling time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
- Category: ground turkey recipes, healthy dinner, Main, weeknight dinner
- Method: stovetop
- Cuisine: American, Thai
- Diet: Dairy-Free, Keto, Low-Carb
Description
These Thai turkey meatballs are simmered in a fragrant coconut milk sauce with warm Thai spices and fresh lime. An easy, flavorful dinner with Thai-inspired flavors. Video. Low carb, keto-adaptable.
Ingredients
Turkey Meatballs:
- 1.5 pounds ground turkey
- 1 tablespoon olive or peanut oil
- 1/3 cup chopped shallots
- 2 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 stalk of lemongrass white part only chopped fine ( 2–3 tablespoons)
- 1.5 tablespoons grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Sambal Oelek, or red chili paste
- 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs (or gluten-free breadcrumbs, or almond meal)
- 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 teaspoon white or black pepper
Coconut Sauce:
- 2 tablespoons olive or peanut oil
- 2 stalks of lemongrass, trimmed
- 3 cardamom pods lightly cracked
- 3" cinnamon stick
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1.5 inch piece of ginger root, peeled and cut into 3 pieces
- 1.5 tsp coriander seeds
- 2 points of a star anise pod
- 14.5 oz can of coconut milk with full cream
- 1 cup chicken stock
- salt and pepper to taste
- juice from 1/2 of a lime
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Saute: Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and cook until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and lemongrass and cook for one minute longer. Remove from heat.
- Make meatballs. Transfer the ground turkey to a large bowl and create a well in the center. Add the ginger, soy sauce, fish sauce, chili paste, bread crumbs, cilantro and salt and pepper along with the reserved shallot mixture into the well. Mix with your hands or a spoon until just combined. Dampen your hands and shape the mixture into meatballs. This will make 18 to 20, 2" meatballs. Place the meatballs on the prepared baking sheet and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes. This step will give the flavors time to meld and help the meatballs stay together while you cook them.
- Brown the meatballs. Heat the oil over medium-high heat in the same skillet. When the pan is hot add the meatballs and brown on all sides. Set aside.
- Make the sauce. Smash the lemongrass with a mortar and pestle and add to the pan. Crack the cardamom pods open and add to the pan along with the cinnamon stick, turmeric, ginger pieces, coriander seeds, star anise, and coconut milk, and bring to a simmer. Whisk in the the chicken stock.
- Simmer. Nestle the meatballs in the sauce and simmer gently over medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes, until cooked through.
- Season. Add the fresh-squeezed lime juice to the sauce, and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Garnish with lime zest and cilantro. You can enjoy it as an appetizer, or turn it into a meal and serve it over rice or rice noodles.
Notes
For a low-carb option, try almond meal instead of bread crumbs and serve over a bed of spinach.
Leftovers will keep up to 4 days in an airtight container in the fridge or can be frozen for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 3 meatballs with sauce
- Calories: 414
- Sugar: 2.9 g
- Sodium: 1689.1 mg
- Fat: 24.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 10.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 19.1 g
- Fiber: 2.3 g
- Protein: 26.8 g
- Cholesterol: 79.4 mg
Can you freeze this and the sauce ?
I haven’t tried freezing, but I don’t see why not?
Did you try freezing it? I need to do the same thing for a party and just want to confirm with someone that has frozen it !
Everyone loves these I usually don’t cook them until the next day
Trying this recipe next week but cannot get lemongrass here. However i have lemongrass paste. Could i use that?
Yes, use that!
Delicious and refreshing. Wrote the recipe down so I can try it on my own.
I have made this soooo many times – it is one of my family’s favorites. In fact, making it tonight for Sunday dinner:)
Great to hear! Glad you like it!
Am making this for the second time tonight. It is absolutely the most flavorful, fun dish to make and eat! Didn’t change a thing, and it was quite simply perfection. THANK YOU!!
Yay Alison! I love this one too! Thanks for rating, very appreciated!!!
My husband and I loved this recipe! I served it over rice noodles as mentioned to make a meal. I was simply looking for something new to do with the ground turkey in my fridge and came across this delectable recipe. I was very curious as to the flavor that this recipe would produce given the combo of spicy ingredients paired with lemongrass and shallots. Together the herbs and spices create a unique taste of East meets West origin. No doubt this is authentic Thai cuisine. It is definitely a keeper!
Yes, I really like this one too! such good flavors….so happy you enjoyed it!
Great flavors !! Labor intensive but worth every minute. Leftovers were great too!! Will prepare it again.
It gets easier the second time around! Glad you liked it!!!
Love meatballs! Can’t wait to try these this weekend.
Scrummy! Finger licking delicious, made twice now and everyone is raving about it, served a choice of rice or thick linguine pasta with it, with loads of condiments. Highly recommend !!
Kay- thanks so much for letting us know…appreciate it!!
Hello Sylvia. My wife and I made this dish again last night, but made a few changes. I used a microplane grater for the lemongrass and the ginger so it was super fine. For the cardamom, coriander seeds, and star anise, we used a coffee grinder and ground it very fine. We didn’t have any fish sauce, so we used oyster sauce. Also this time we used powered Saigon cinnamon(1 teaspoon) instead of the stick. For the meatballs, we put them directly on a cookie sheet and baked them at 350 for about 45 minutes turning the pan several times. Once they were done we added them to the sauce. There were some browned bits left on the cookie sheet, so I added a little water to the hot pan and scraped the remnants up, then added them water and all to the sauce. It gave it more of a brown color, but really added to the flavor. On our first attempt we didn’t want chunks of seeds, etc, so we put the cardamom, coriander seeds, and star anise in a cloth tea bag and then removed it when done. We thought this time was our best tasting attempt at this dish. All the flavors really came out, maybe because of the grinding. . Many thinks for all the delicious recipes!
Thanks for this Randy…it sounds delicious! I will try that next time! Hope the island is treating you well.
We LOVE this recipe and make it weekly. We also added peas and red peppers which also ad a little more colour. THANK YOU
Oh that’s great Sally!! Thanks for sharing…and love how you have added…to make it your own!
This sounds just perfect. If this is any where near as good as it looks and sounds I seriously need to try it out asap! Beautiful food
Planning on making this tasty looking dish tomorrow and I was wondering if it would be ok to make It then reheat later in the day?
Yes, absolutely!
My husband and I just finished making/eating this. TOTAL HOMERUN. Wow. The only thing I did differently was to strain the sauce at the end as I don’t enjoy eating around cardamom pods and lemongrass stalks (I know, that’s the authentic way, but what can I say…) but other than that, I followed the recipe to a T and it was even better than I expected it would be. You have a new devoted fan. Thanks for posting this. I can’t wait to make it again for friends. OH, and to the person who claimed it would turn brown: NOPE. It stayed a beautiful yellow green. YUMMMMMM.
Yay! Im so glad you liked it!!Thanks for the the feedback Desiree!!
Hi Sylvia, I just posted your link and Mary Ann Delaney’s recipe on my Facebook author website along with a picture of my not as pretty dish. We tried the recipe on my husband and in-laws this weekend and it is so delicious. Thank you! We made two batches because someone was trying to cut out the carbs (Panko) and it is equally good without. Also we made one dish with less chicken broth and it is great if you want more of the taste of the lemongrass. Just an option! —Tess
This recipe seems so delicious and healthy. This sounds good to have recipe with coconut. Thanks for providing such Coconut Turkey Soup
That is a great question. Can you get Chinese Five Spice? Try a pinch or two of that, you just need a hint. You could use a little ground cardamom as well.
when serving the sauce, do you take out the cardamom pods and cinnamon stick and like, the ginger root and seeds? I assume you can’t really eat that?
Simply gorgeous! It looks to be simply delicious too. I love meatballs and the sauce you used is splendid!
Thanks Carol. Hope you are having a good week. Happy holidays to you!!!
Yes, to keep it nice and bright yellow, you can’t simmer it too long. 🙂 We just did a light simmering, and the meatballs were just lightly browned. Did you use turkey?
This looks delicious, I love the color of the sauce, and the smell must be just heavenly with all those delicious spices and the lemongrass!
It does smell heavenly! And tastes heavenly!! Have a great week Mary Frances!
What a wonderful comforting dish, love the meatballs and the coconut sauce.
Through this post, you have successfully transported me back to my beloved Thailand where I have spent many years teaching and conducting research . . . and thoroughly falling in love with their exquisite, unique cuisine! I cannot wait to try this recipe and to continue to learn more about your recipes from being a new reader of your blog. I found you from another blogger that I follow and am grateful for this. Wishing you the best,
Roz
Thank you Roz and welcome to the blog, I’m so glad you are here!
I cannot wait to try this, just have to go and get the turkey mince. What a bautiful dish!
Thanks…let us know how you like it! You can also use ground chicken. Happy holidays to you!