Get my Cookbooks! Turkey and Stuffing Meatballs
These Turkey and Stuffing meatballs are easy to make with stuffing mix, ground turkey, sausage, and minced onions and celery! They taste just like Thanksgiving dinner in meatball form! Be sure to serve them with mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and cranberry sauce!
Turkey and Stuffing Meatballs
If you’re looking to sneak the delicious flavors of Thanksgiving into an every day meal, these Turkey and Stuffing Meatballs are just the way to do it! They’ve got juicy ground turkey, savory sausage, seasoned stuffing, and sauteed onions and celery! Your family will truly gobble these up, no need to wait for a special holiday!
Aside from serving these with the works, (mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and cranberry sauce), they can also be served with toothpicks for a festive appetizer! Drizzle them with some gravy and serve with a side of cranberry sauce for dipping!
BONUS: They’re make-ahead and crock pot friendly!
How to Make It
Note: This is an overview. See recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
Dice the onions and celery very finely so that they roll smoothly into the meatballs. Soften in butter for 5-6 minutes.
Add chicken broth, water, and more butter. Bring to a boil, add the stuffing, stir to combine, and remove from heat. Transfer to a large bowl and let cool. Season the turkey with salt/pepper and add it to the bowl along with the sausage and egg. Stir until evenly combined.
Roll into 1 ¾ inch meatballs. Transfer to a light colored, lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 400°F for 16 minutes. Broil at 450° for up to 2 minutes to brown the tops more. Serve with mashed potatoes, roasted green beans, and my chicken gravy or brown gravy and cranberry sauce!
Pro Tips
- Make sure the onions are minced and the celery is very finely diced to ensure they roll smoothly into the meatballs.
- Sausage: I recommend Jimmy Dean’s Regular Sausage for this recipe. It tastes like breakfast sausage and is really good in stuffing. Mild Italian would be another great option.
- Ground chicken can be used to make this recipe instead of ground turkey as well!
- Crock Pot Method: To cook in the crock pot instead of the oven, add an additional 1/2 cup chicken broth to the bottom of the slow cooker to keep them moist. Cook on low for 4-5 hours or high for 2-3. Consider broiling in the oven at 450° for up to 2 minutes to give them more color at the end.
- Make Ahead: These are easy to roll ahead of time and bake when ready to serve. After rolling, transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 24 hours prior to baking.
- Serve this with mashed potatoes, roasted green beans, and my chicken gravy or brown gravy along with cranberry sauce! Green bean casserole and dinner rolls are another delicious additions!
- Serve as an appetizer: These make a festive and delicious Fall/Winter appetizer with toothpicks! Drizzle them with gravy and serve with a side of cranberry sauce for dipping!
Storage
- Store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Leftover meatballs freeze/reheat very well!
Tools For This Recipe
(Amazon affiliate links*)- Check out all of my kitchen essentials here.
- Baking Sheet– This is the one I use for this recipe.
- Ice Cream Scoop– Handy for scooping meatballs!
- Better Than Bouillon– This is what I always use for broth in my recipes. It takes very little space and makes it easy to measure out customized amounts.
- Mixing Bowls– These assorted sizes are handy.
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- Slow Cooker Beef Stew
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- Clam Chowder
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Tried This Recipe?
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Turkey and Stuffing Meatballs
Ingredients
- ½ cup yellow onion, minced
- 1 rib celery, very finely diced
- ¾ cup chicken broth
- ¼ cup water
- 4 tablespoons butter, divided
- 1 (6 oz.) box turkey Stovetop stuffing
- 1 lb. ground turkey, 85% lean
- Salt/pepper, to taste
- ½ lb. ground sausage, see notes
- 1 large egg, whisked
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400° F.
- Melt half of the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the minced onions and finely diced celery. Soften, stirring frequently, for 5-6 minutes.
- Add the remaining butter, chicken broth, and water. Bring to a boil and add the stuffing. Reduce heat to low and stir the stuffing until combined. Remove from heat. Transfer to a large bowl and let it cool for 2-3 minutes.
- Season the ground turkey with salt and pepper and add it to the bowl with the stuffing. Add the sausage and egg. Stir until evenly combined.
- Roll into 1 ¾ inch meatballs and transfer to a light colored, lightly greased baking sheet.
- Bake for 15 minutes, then broil at 450° F for 2 minutes, watch it carefully during this time to ensure they don’t brown too much.
- Remove from heat. Serve with mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and cranberry sauce.
Notes
- Make sure the onions are minced and the celery is very finely diced to ensure they roll smoothly into the meatballs.
- Sausage: I recommend Jimmy Dean's Regular Sausage for this recipe. It tastes like breakfast sausage and is really good in stuffing. Mild Italian would be another great option.
- Make Ahead: These are easy to roll ahead of time and bake when ready to serve. After rolling, transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 24 hours prior to baking.
- Serve this with mashed potatoes, roasted green beans, and my chicken gravy or brown gravy along with cranberry sauce! Green bean casserole and dinner rolls are another delicious additions!
- Serve as an appetizer: These make a festive and delicious Fall/Winter appetizer with toothpicks! Drizzle them with gravy and serve with a side of cranberry sauce for dipping!
- To cook in the crock pot instead of the oven, add an additional 1/2 cup chicken broth to the bottom of the slow cooker to keep them moist. Cook on low for 4-5 hours or high for 2-3. Consider broiling in the oven at 450° for up to 2 minutes to give them more color at the end.
Storage
- Store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Leftover meatballs freeze/reheat very well!
Nutritional information is an estimate and is per meatball. This makes approximately 35 meatballs.
Another great recipe Stephanie! When I first saw this recipe, I knew I wanted to make it but was hesitant because my husband is not a stuffing lover unlike me. I decided to go for it. I made it exactly as written. Hubby asked what I was making and I just said “meatballs”. I also made mashed potatoes, green beans and your gravy recipe. He had applesauce and I had cranberry sauce. He absolutely loved it! He asked me what was in the meatballs and I said turkey, sausage and a “special” ingredient. I eventually told him the special ingredient was stuffing. It was a truly delicious meal. We have leftovers and I can’t wait to have them again. Thank you!
Ohhh I’m so glad it was a hit Debbie!! I LOVE that you served it with all of the sides to complete the meal- I’m hungry now! Thank you so much for the great review, you are the best!! ❤️❤️❤️
I really love these! I added a couple of teaspoons of poultry seasoning to the mixture, to enhance the flavor of the turkey. I shaped my meatballs by hand (my ice cream scoop died recently), and since they were a little larger than the recipe size, I baked them an extra five minutes to get them to 165 degrees F inside. They were absolutely delicious with turkey gravy and my sesame green beans. Today for lunch I made a sub with some of the warmed-up leftovers: I split a sub roll, scooped out some of the interior, and filled it with meatballs and gravy. I topped that with some freshly-shredded cheddar cheese and popped it in a 400 degree F oven until the cheese melted and the sub roll was toasty and crisp. I topped that with a couple of dollops of cranberry sauce. Wow, was it tasty! Thanks for yet another amazing recipe!
Hey Dennis!! What an amazing job you did preparing these! I am obsessed with how you utilized the leftovers! (And I’m hungry now too!) Thank you soooo much for sharing that and for taking the time to leave a review, you’re the best!!
Ok ..this was so good! I’m a Thanksgiving dinner girl, and this was a good second!
Hey Karen!!! I am soooo a Thanksgiving dinner girl too!! Thanksgiving is my favorite “food”. 😂 I’m so happy that you loved it, thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review! ❤️
I’ve been making stuffing balls for years as an appetizer. I think i will have to try yours at Christmas. Mine have bacon and cheese, then baked so everyone gets the crispy bits.😊😊
Yummm, those sound great too!! Definitely a great one to experiment with! I’ll be making these for a fun holiday app!!
I truly enjoy your recipes so much! Keep them coming!
I am soooo happy to hear that Kim! Thank you sooo much, I’ll definitely keep the recipes coming! ❤️🙌
Could you make this in a meatloaf pan? How long would you bake it?
Eventually I want to create a Turkey and Stuffing meatloaf recipe, but that would be a separate testing effort. I do have this Turkey Meatloaf recipe however here are the baking instructions for it. Note that it uses 2 lbs. of meat, which means this meat mixture would need to be altered to accommodate that.
-Place the meatloaf pan on a baking sheet to catch any overflow.
-Bake for 45 minutes. Remove and top with remaining ketchup/BBQ sauce.
-Bake for an additional 35-40 minutes or until the internal temperature reads 155 degrees.
-Remove and let it rest in the loaf pan for 15 minutes prior to slicing in. It will increase an additional 8-10 degrees during this time.