Easy Turkey Swedish Meatballs are a lightened-up version of traditional Swedish Meatballs. Served in a delicious, creamy sauce. Serve them over mashed potatoes, rice or egg noodles.
Lately I’ve been totally overdoing it on the pasta, cocktails and cookies. And while I’ve also been spending a bit more time on the treadmill, I’m thinking it’s time to start eating a bit lighter…
Let’s indulge in comfort food in a different way. With this lightened up version of Swedish Meatballs.
Made with ground turkey instead of the traditional combination of ground beef and ground pork. And doused in a better-for-you sauce made with reduced-fat sour cream, instead of the traditional heavy cream and butter.
You’ll absolutely love diving into a big plate of these Turkey Swedish Meatballs!
Ingredients Needed
- Ground Turkey
- Chicken Broth – Or, bone broth or turkey stock.
- Sour Cream – I used reduced fat sour cream.
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Dijon Mustard
- Bread Crumbs
- Egg
- Cornstarch
- Garlic
- Parsley
- Spices – Allspice, nutmeg, salt, pepper
How to Make Them
The most time consuming part of making Turkey Swedish Meatballs is forming them. I’ve found that using a cookie scoop makes the process much easier. If you don’t have a scoop, you can also form them by hand. Wetting your hands before forming the meatballs makes them less sticky to work with.
- Combine ground turkey, bread crumbs, egg, garlic, parsley, allspice, nutmeg, salt and pepper.
- Shape mixture into 2-inch balls and place in a casserole dish.
- Add 1 cup chicken broth around meatballs.
- Bake at 450-degrees for 15-20 minutes.
On to that delicious Turkey Swedish Meatball sauce! The best part if you ask me!
It’s tangy, creamy and delicious and I like to drown my meatballs in it:
- Whisk together cornstarch and broth in a large skillet, until smooth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.
- Reduce heat to low and stir in sour cream, Worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Add meatballs to the gravy using a slotted spoon (discard the cooking broth); simmer for 1-2 minutes, spooning gravy over the meatballs.
- Enjoy over mashed potatoes, rice or egg noodles, garnished with fresh parsley and lingonberry jam, if desired.
Recipe Tips
- Don’t over handle the ground turkey, otherwise your meatballs can become too dense, and not as tender.
- Be sure your meatballs are roughly the same size before baking. This ensures they’ll cook evenly.
- Use a cookie scoop to make the process easier and ensure your meatballs are all the same size.
- If using your hands, wet them to make the process less sticky.
- Pour a bit of chicken stock around the meatballs while they cook. This keeps them moist and keeps them from sticking to the pan.
- Meatballs are done when they reach a temperature of 160-degrees. I love using this meat thermometer to test for doneness.
- You can use beef or pork (or a combination) to make these Swedish Meatballs more authentic. The process and cook time will remain the same. You may want to swap beef broth for the chicken stock.
How to Make Ahead & Store
You can form the turkey meatballs ahead of time and keep them in the refrigerator for up to three days until you’re ready to cook them. Or, to store the cooked meatballs, simply store them with the sauce in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days.
Freezing
To freeze Turkey Swedish Meatballs:
- Bake.
- Let cool.
- Freeze on a baking sheet, with meatballs spaced apart so they don’t stick to each other.
- Once frozen, store in freezer safe bags.
- To serve, bake meatballs at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until heated through.
Note: I don’t recommend freezing the swedish meatball sauce. I would make that last minute and add the meatballs to it before serving.
What to Serve with Them
- Serve them alone with gravy as an appetizer
- Mashed Potatoes
- Rice
- Orzo
- Mashed Cauliflower
- Slow Cooker Spaghetti Squash
- Egg Noodles
- Lingonberry Jam
- More → 25+ side dishes for meatballs.
Wine Pairings
- Red – Pinot Noir or Beaujolais
- White – Lightly oaked Chardonnay or dry Riesling
- MORE → the BEST wine pairings for turkey
More Ground Turkey Recipes
- Taco Zucchini Boats
- Turkey Picadillo
- Pumpkin Chili
- Taco Lettuce Wraps with Turkey & Quinoa
- Thai Curry Meatballs
- More → 25+ BEST ground turkey recipes
Did you try these Swedish turkey meatballs?
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Turkey Swedish Meatballs Recipe
Ingredients
Meatballs:
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1/3 cup bread crumbs
- 1 egg (lightly beaten)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced or grated)
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley (chopped)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup chicken broth
Swedish Meatball Sauce
- 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 2/3 cup reduced-fat sour cream
- 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
For Serving:
- Chopped parsley (to garnish)
- Mashed Potatoes (Rice, or Egg Noodles)
- Lingonberry jam
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- In a large bowl, combine ground turkey, bread crumbs, egg, garlic, parsley, allspice, nutmeg, salt and pepper.
- Shape mixture into 2-inch balls and place in a casserole dish. Pour 1 cup chicken broth around meatballs.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, until cooked through. (Temperature should register 160-degrees)
- Meanwhile, make the gravy.
- In a large skillet, whisk together cornstarch and broth until smooth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Reduce heat to low and stir in sour cream, worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Remove meatballs from oven and add them to the gravy using a slotted spoon (discard the cooking broth); continue to cook 1-2 minutes, spooning gravy over the meatballs. Garnish with parsley.
Nutrition
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This post was originally published in 2020. It was updated in 2023 to add new content. The turkey Swedish meatball recipe remains the same. Enjoy!
Hi Erin. A question. What was the ratio of fat for the ground turkey? Was it 85/15 or does it not matter?
Hi Cindy – I used 85/15, but I think you could even go leaner with this recipe, since the meatballs are bound with breadcrumbs and egg. Hope that helps!
This is such a rich and comforting recipe! We almost exclusively cook with ground turkey vs ground beef in our house, so this recipe is perfect for us. I’m now curious about that Lingonberry jam – sounds delicious! – and am going to check it out!
Waaay too much sodium per serving.
Oh please…! There’s not too much salt in this recipe.
great idea to use turkey in this dish, a nice opportunity to use a healthier ingredient that won’t really change the flavor with the sauce that you’re using, thank you! Also lingonberry jam, yum
The lingonberry jam really amps it up!
Too much chicken broth for this recipe, or not enough bread crumbs. Wouldn’t even form balls until I adjusted. Ugh.
Hi Mike. Did you maybe add the broth to the meatballs instead of to the pan?
I made these and added some chopped peppers. The meatball is pretty mushy until it cooks. They turned out great. I also added a bit of white wine at the beginning of the sauce which cooked down and added extra flavor.
The meatballs are tasty, the sauce was easy to make but was rather bland. Wondering what I should do to bump up the flavor.
I really love serving them with lingonberry jam! Adds so much flavor to the dish!
I Tried making the sauce for 3 times and each time just ended up more disgusting. Way too much cornstarch and way too much yogurt
Hi N… I’m sorry to hear that! There is no yogurt in this recipe, so I’m a bit confused?
I agree that there is too much sour cream.. I ended up adding some heavy cream to try to balance the too tangy taste
I just made this dish. It’s a different take on Swedish Meatballs than anything I’ve tried before. I wasn’t sure about the dijon mustard, and now I think next time I’ll omit it…seems like an odd addition? IDK… But it’s very tasty! I did bump up the Worchestershire a bit and subbed plain lowfat Greek yogurt for the sour cream. Next time I’ll get some fat-free sour cream and give that a go. I served mine over garlic mashed cauliflower and fixed egg noodles for my son.
Is that sodium count accurate? Seems crazy high.
Made this tonight and it wasn’t Swedish meatballs I’ve ever had. Tasted more like a lightened Dijon cream sauce that you would put on pan seared chicken. The Dijon overpowers the allspice and nutmeg — even when adding double the spice. The addition of worcestshire was weird to me, too. Making the sauce felt like throwing together whatever I could find in my fridge/pantry. The meatballs on their own were good, though. Sometimes some traditional recipes just can’t be made low-fat and that’s okay.
I added a little skim milk to the gravy and dry dill approx a teaspoon
I also sautéed a lb of sliced mushrooms in a tablespoon of butter and seasoned with black pepper. Cooked the meatballs 45 min got a little firmer and browned. Combine all – DELICIOUS
I’m so happy you liked it Jul!
So I made this dish. And while I found it tasty, I realized there was no serving size listed? What is the serving size for the nutritional info? Thanks ^_^
Hi Chrissy – The recipe makes 4 servings and each of them has approximately 265 calories.
Hey this turned out pretty good! I pretty much followed the recipe as is. Mostly beef broth though as I ran out of chicken! And plain Greek yogurt in place of sour cream. I made it pretty quickly so a good weeknight meal. Thanks for the recipe!
I never comment on recipes but this was to good not to! Wow! Thank you for making my weeknight meals amazing. So much favor and good consistency all around. Will be a repeat.
Thank you so much Heidi!
I’ve never posted a comment on a recipe before. I’ve never felt so compelled to declare how delicious I found the meal to be. I served these meatballs over egg noodles, and it was absolutely fabulous. I am genuinely looking forward to the next time I eat these meatballs. I didn’t have sour cream, so I just used the crème fraiche I had on hand. So good!
Thank you Nora! I appreciate the review 🙂 I’ll bet it’s amazing with creme fraiche too!
Hi, when you say bread crumbs, do you mean fresh bread crumbs or dried, like Panko?
Hi Linda – The bread crumbs are the dried ones that you can find. Panko or the finer dried breadcrumbs will work. Hope that helps!
Made this recipe for Easter and it was delish!
Thank you Kayla!
This turned out very good. I sauteed some onion with the garlic before adding it to the turkey. Definitely will make again.
Thanks Carole!
My family and I absolutely loved this! I added some cayenne pepper and a bit of sugar to balance the flavours and it came out so delicious! My husband said it tasted like a ‘fancy big mac’
Thanks Breanna!
I only have beef broth…do you think it’ll still work?
Sure! That shouldn’t be a problem 🙂
I added an extra teaspoon of Dijon and a few more drops of Worcestershire because I found the sauce a bit bland while I was cooking it on the stovetop; however, when paired with the meatballs, it came to life. I made 12 meatballs and there wasn’t enough sauce for my liking, so next time I make it I will double the sauce. I served it with cranberry sauce which really made a difference. I will definitely make it again.