Baked Turkey Meatballs with Mushroom Sauce
These Baked Turkey Meatballs are served in a red wine mushroom sauce for an easy, quick, and filling weeknight dinner.
While there’s no childhood nostalgia in meatballs for me (can I please get a surrogate Italian nonna?!), as a cook I really appreciate how quick, easy, filling, and comforting they tend to be.
I like meatballs in all varieties but gravitate toward a rotation of the classic Italian beef and pork meatballs, turkey meatballs, and even vegetarian meatballs like eggplant & white bean.
Today I’m sharing one of my favorite turkey meatball fixes.
This is one of those recipes that you’d call solid, satisfying, simple, and perfect for dinner.
Here I serve the turkey meatballs with a savory mushroom sauce, which coats the meatballs with an earthiness and saltiness that I really enjoy, but you could certainly make the turkey meatballs and pair with your sauce of choice.
I have also enjoyed making the turkey meatballs plain without the sauce, to add them to salads. There are many ways to eat them!
How to Make Turkey Meatballs:
In a bowl, combine panko bread crumbs and buttermilk. You can also use regular milk:
Using soaked panko breadcrumbs is my preferred bread component for meatballs, to give them a softer texture.
If you’re accustomed to something else, like using a slice of white bread, you could certainly substitute that instead.
Let this sit for 5 minutes to soften, then add it to a bowl with ground turkey, egg, parsley, parmesan, salt, and pepper:
Mix to combine:
Portion the mixture into meatballs.
My favorite tool to use for this is a cookie scoop, so the meatballs are all the same size and cook evenly:
Bake the meatballs in the oven, then make the sauce in the meantime.
In a large skillet cook sliced baby bella mushrooms in some butter:
After about 5 minutes, they should look slightly softened:
Add a touch of red wine to the pan:
Cook for a few minutes, then add a cornstarch slurry:
Cook for a couple minutes until the sauce thickens, then add the meatballs to the pan.
Cook for another couple minutes until the sauce coats the meatballs:
They’re now ready to enjoy, and I like serving them with a side of Rice Pilaf.
More Ground Meat Recipes:
- Turkey Chili
- Asian Lettuce Wraps
- Korean Chicken Rice Bowls
- Bourbon Meatballs from The View from Great Island
- Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
Enjoy!
Baked Turkey Meatballs with Mushroom Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup buttermilk or milk
- 1 pound dark ground turkey
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon salt + more for the mushrooms
- a few grinds of black pepper
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 lb baby bella mushrooms sliced
- 1/4 cup red wine
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 3/4 cup chicken broth
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425F.
- In a bowl, mix together the breadcrumbs and buttermilk. Let this sit for 5 minutes, until soft. Add the turkey, parmesan, egg, parsley, the salt, and pepper. Mix this mixture together with your hands until the ingredients are combined, taking care not to overmix.
- Use a cookie scoop to portion out the meatballs, and place on a sheet pan. Bake for 15 minutes, until the meatballs are fully cooked through to 160F.
- Melt the butter in a skillet over medium high heat, then add the mushrooms. Season with a pinch of salt, then cook for about 5 minutes, until the mushrooms have softened. Add the red wine to the pan and cook for 2 minutes.
- Whisk together the cornstarch and chicken broth to make a slurry, and add to the mushroom pan. Cook for 2 minutes, until the sauce has thickened. Add the meatballs to the sauce and cook for 2 more minutes, until the meatballs are also coated in the sauce. Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
Post updated in March 2019. Originally published September 2016.
3 Comments on “Baked Turkey Meatballs with Mushroom Sauce”
My whole family loves this dish.
Hi Joanne, This recipe really appealed to me, so bought the turkey and mushrooms earlier today. My Italian background and training led me to alter a few things.
These are:
1. To turkey mixture, add about 1/2 tsp of garlic powder to existing spices.
2. To mushroom pan, added a couple of chopped garlic cloves, some parsley and some crushed red pepper, before adding the wine, and broth mixture.
3. To sauce – used white wine instead of red.
It was delicious – served it with a crunchy multigrain bread (heated) and a mache salad tossed with salt, olive oil and lemon juice.
This will be on our standard rotation! Thank you so much…we loved it.
Hi Elaine, I’m so happy to hear the meatballs were a hit!! I loved the suggestions you shared too and know others will appreciate them as well.