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.
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You’ll absolutely love diving into a big plate of these!
This lightened up version of Swedish Meatballs is made with ground turkey instead of the traditional combination of ground beef and ground pork. Plus, they’re doused in a better-for-you sauce made with reduced-fat sour cream, instead of the traditional heavy cream.
Ingredients needed
- Ground Turkey – Or, ground turkey. You can also use ground beef.
- Chicken Broth – Or, bone broth or turkey stock.
- Sour Cream – I used reduced fat sour cream.
- Worcestershire Sauce & Soy Sauce
- Dijon Mustard
- Bread Crumbs – I used Italian seasoned breadcrumbs. You can also use panko.
- Egg
- Butter & Flour
- Garlic
- Parsley
- Spices – Allspice, nutmeg, onion powder, 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, onion powder salt and pepper.
- Shape mixture into 1-inch balls and place on a baking sheet.
- Bake at 400-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:
- Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the flour and cook for a couple minutes, stirring constantly, until it turns golden.
- Whisk in the chicken broth. Then add the Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and dijon mustard; cook for 5 minutes, until slightly thickened.
- Reduce heat to low and stir in sour cream. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Add meatballs to the gravy; 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.
- Meatballs are done when they reach a temperature of 165-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 → 20+ side dishes for Swedish 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
More meatball recipes
- Thai Meatballs in a Creamy Coconut Curry Sauce
- Sticky Mongolian Meatballs
- Marry Me Chicken Meatballs
- Peruvian Chicken Meatballs
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Turkey Swedish Meatballs
Ingredients
Meatballs:
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1/3 cup bread crumbs (or panko)
- 1 egg (lightly beaten)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced or grated)
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley (chopped)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Swedish Meatball Sauce
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 2 Tablespoons flour
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 2/3 cup reduced-fat sour cream
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
For Serving:
- Chopped parsley (to garnish)
- Mashed Potatoes (Rice, or Egg Noodles)
- Lingonberry jam
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- In a large bowl, combine ground turkey, bread crumbs, egg, garlic, parsley, allspice, nutmeg, onion powder, salt and pepper.
- Shape mixture into 1-inch balls and arrange on a baking sheet.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, until cooked through. (Temperature should register 165-degrees)
- Meanwhile, make the gravy.
- In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the flour and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring continuously, until it begins to turn golden.
- Slowly whisk in the chicken broth. Then add the Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and dijon mustard.
- Let simmer for about 5 minutes, until thickened slightly. Reduce heat to low and stir in sour cream. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Once the meatballs are done baking, add them to the skillet with the sauce and continue to cook for a couple minutes, spooning the sauce of over the meatballs.
- Garnish with parsley and enjoy over mashed potatoes with lingonberry jam, if desired. Enjoy!
Equipment
Nutrition
This Swedish meatballs with ground turkey post was originally published in 2020. It was updated in 2023 to add new content, and again in 2024 to add new photographs and change the meatball recipe slightly.
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!
I added some avocado oil because I was afraid the turkey meatballs would be too dry. I think it really helped too. The broth in the bottom of the baking dish kept the meatballs moist on the bottom but they didn’t brown on the top. I also ran out of worschtershire sauce so I added some balsamic vinegar and some soy sauce. It worked really well.
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.
I wanted to love this recipe. The meatballs turned out great but the sauce tasted like a bland sour gravy with mustard. Could just be my tastebuds.
My family really liked this recipe. For the sour cream I used the full fat sour cream and some heavy whipping cream to equal the 2/3 cup required using equal parts of each. If you want more flavor for the sauce, the full fat is the best. I also eliminated the dijon mustard and instead added a teaspoon of Pick A Pepper Sauce. WOW! Along with the Worcestershire sauce this gave it just the right amount of flavor. I find that using full fat instead of low fat is much better as the low fat stuff always has more carbs and sugar. The meat balls were great and if you want to get them to brown, just remove them from the broth and put them under the broiler for a few minutes on a cookie sheet. I also sauteed 1/2 medium chopped with the garlic before I added that to the ground turkey. All in all, this is a really great recipe. One more thing, I doubled the sauce recipe as my family liked the sauce the best on the test taste. Then this was served over mashed potatoes, kind of like the picture shows.
I think this is a great recipe.. I could see how someone thought they were supposed to add the chicken broth into the meatballs but its used after forming them to put in the dish around the meatballs to keep them moist. I feel like that could get a little confusing for some lol. I liked the sauce..it was different but I ended up turning it into a turkey gravy instead with gravy packets bc I knew my husband would not like that tang. also I used Aldi breadless crumbs that were plant based and they turned out amazing. will definitely use the meatball portion of this recipe again and sub for turkey gravy instead. thanks so much 🙂
Soooo good minus the sauce.
Absolutely perfect, thank you for the recipe! I took a small chunk from the meatball mix and sauteed it off before making the sauce in the same pan and felt it helped give it flavor (that’s what the old beef meatball recipe I used to make suggested!). I tweaked the sauce, adding more Dijon and Worcestershire as I went along until I liked the flavor. Low fat sour cream worked great as well, the gravy was gorgeous.
Thanks Em! I love that tip!