Thanksgiving-Style Turkey Meatballs Recipe

Roasting a turkey is a lot of work. Even if you love cooking, making the Thanksgiving turkey can be a huge undertaking, and one that has dire consequences if you mess up. Sure, it's hard to picture Thanksgiving without a turkey, but it's even worse to picture it with a dry one.

So whether you simply don't have the bandwidth for making a whole roasted turkey this year or happen to be serving an extra-small crowd, we have the perfect turkey swap for your Thanksgiving feast. Reminiscent of IKEA's most famous entrée, these flavorful turkey meatballs are baked until browned and draped in a creamy gravy. The white pepper gives a hint of heat while the sage adds an herbal flavor that is complemented by the rich white turkey gravy. These meatballs developed with Michelle McGlinn are everything you love about the Thanksgiving turkey without the hassle — and trust us, no dry turkey here.

For the juiciest meatballs, we recommend seeking out ground turkey with a high fat-to-lean percentage, like 80 or 85% lean. From there, you'll need to grab breadcrumbs, fresh sage, salt, white pepper, Worcestershire sauce, shallot, garlic, and an egg. For the gravy, you'll need butter, flour, turkey stock, thyme, heavy whipping cream, and cracked black pepper. Turkey stock is readily available in stores around Thanksgiving, but if you can't find it, just swap for chicken stock instead.

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Arrange a baking sheet with foil and a wire rack. Spray rack with oil.

Add the turkey, egg, breadcrumbs, sage, 1 teaspoon salt, white pepper, Worcestershire sauce, grated shallot, and grated garlic to a large bowl.

Using your hands, mix the ingredients together until incorporated.

Roll the mixture into 20 1-inch balls.

Arrange meatballs on wire rack.

Bake until golden brown and cooked through, 15-20 minutes.

In the meantime, make the gravy. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat.

Whisk in the flour until a golden paste forms. Do not allow to burn.

Once all flour is incorporated, add the turkey stock and thyme. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes.

Whisk in the heavy cream, remaining 1 teaspoon salt, and black pepper. Remove the thyme.

Add the cooked meatballs to the gravy, stirring to coat.

Serve meatballs in gravy.

Even if you did make a full Thanksgiving feast, these turkey meatballs are a good option for using up a few leftover scraps from the day before. While you likely don't have a meat grinder to use up extra turkey, you can still be resourceful about using other leftovers to make this dish. If you're making stuffing, save a cup of stale bread cubes and grind them into bread crumbs to use in the meatballs. Seasoning the potatoes with thyme? Save a sprig or two for the gravy. Same with the sage: Don't toss extra leaves, instead, use them here.

If you made a turkey, consider using the bones for a stock to use in the gravy. For a 2-pound carcass, you'll have enough stock to make this gravy with plenty leftover for soup, pot pie, or turkey chili. To do this, just cook the turkey with your vegetable scraps (think onions, garlic, celery, and carrot), add water, and simmer until golden and flavorful.

Even though this gravy contains cream, the meatballs can be stored in the gravy and reheated easily in the microwave. In fact, storing the meatballs and gravy together prevents the turkey from drying out. Store in airtight containers in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days. When ready to eat, reheat in the microwave until warmed through, stirring every 30 seconds.

Turkey meatballs pair well with classic Thanksgiving sides like yams, cornbread stuffing, and cranberry sauce. Plan to serve about five meatballs per person — so if you have a bigger group of hungry people coming over, double or triple the recipe to ensure everyone has enough to eat.

If you're a fan of IKEA's lingonberry, we highly recommend stirring some cranberry sauce into the meatballs for a similar touch of sweetness. If you are planning a whole feast of non-conventional Thanksgiving mains, try serving with bacon-wrapped Brussels sprouts, acorn squash wedge salads, and cranberry-sage pearl couscous. Our recommendation? Whatever you do, don't skip the mashed potatoes.