These Thai Meatballs are made with ground turkey and full of garlic, ginger and curry flavors. These sweet, savory, and spicy meatballs are ready in one skillet, in under 45 minutes.
These Thai meatballs is one of the oldest recipes on my website dating back to 2013. It’s very popular, so today I am bringing it to your attention once again!
Much like my slow cooker porcupine meatballs and sweet and sour meatballs, Thai turkey meatballs can be eaten as a main dish with a side of rice or quinoa. Or with a toothpick for an appetizer like cranberry turkey meatballs.
It’s amazing healthy dinner or healthy appetizer!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Signature Thai flavors: That everyone loves and rival any Thai restaurant dish!
- Easy recipe: Despite lengthy list of ingredients, meatballs are made in one skillet. Just combine, sear, and cook in the sauce.
- No eggs or breadcrumbs: And still moist meatballs. If you use certified gluten free fish sauce, these meatballs are gluten free! Dairy free too because we’re using coconut milk.
- Healthier than your typical meatballs: Added zucchini for moisture which means every bite has some veggie in it.
Ingredients for Thai Turkey Meatballs
- Ground turkey: On its own ground turkey is quite dry but it works with this recipe because of the creamy sauce. You can also use ground beef, pork or chicken.
- Zucchini: Grated and squeezed of excess moisture, this is a key player in keeping moisture locked in.
- Fish sauce: A lovely salty condiment that is a popular ingredient in many Asian dishes. Will be used in the meatballs, as well as the sauce.
- Green onion: Finely chopped, adds the fresh vibrant onion flavor without overpowering.
- Basil: Finely chopped basil adds a freshness like the green onions however without the pungence.
- Ginger: Grated. Add it to the complex flavor combination of these ingredients and they all work in harmony.
- Garlic: Grated fresh garlic goes hand in hand with the ginger.
- Red curry paste: A spicy, sour, and salty flavorful paste, delicious addition to both meatballs and the sauce.
- Coconut milk: Use full fat milk or even coconut cream for a thicker, richer sauce. I like Thai Kitchen coconut milk because it is creamy and doesn’t separate.
- Red pepper flakes: To kick up the heat a notch. The amount can be adjusted to your preference. You can also use chili paste or sriracha sauce.
- Cooking spray: I use Misto because it’s essentially olive oil which is a healthier option.
- Tomato paste: Helps to thicken up the sauce and add tomato flavor.
- Kaffir lime leaves: An optional ingredient you can buy in International foods aisle or on Amazon. They are sold dry and last forever, but they’re completely optional.
How to Make Thai Meatballs
- Make the meatballs: In a medium bowl, combine meatball ingredients, mix and shape 28 meatballs. Set aside.
- Make the sauce: In another medium bowl, whisk together ingredients for the sauce and set aside.
- Brown: Preheat large ceramic non-stick skillet on medium-high heat and spray with cooking spray. Cook meatballs until brown or for 2-3 minutes, turning a few times. No need to cook meatballs through as they will continue to cook in the sauce.
- Simmer: Add the sauce, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 15 minutes, uncovered.
Tips for Best Results
- Squeeze zucchini: Make sure to squeeze all of the excess water out of the zucchini. While it does help with adding moisture, too much liquid can cause problems in keeping the meatball intact, since there are no breadcrumbs to absorb it.
- Wet your hands: To avoid the meatball mixture sticking to your hands, wet them a little before rolling into balls.
- Use cold meat: The colder your meat, the easier it is to maintain its meatball structure.
- For same size balls: I like to use a trigger ice cream scoop.
Serving
There are 2 ways to serve these Thai meatballs. Serve meatballs warm with garnishes like fresh cilantro and green onion alongside these side dishes:
- Instant Pot brown rice
- Cooked quinoa
- Rice noodles
- Cauliflower rice
- Instant Pot steamed vegetables
- Zucchini noodles
- Spaghetti squash noodles
Or serve them as an appetizer on a platter with toothpicks, and some naan bread or pita bread for dipping into the sauce.
How to Store and Reheat
Store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Freeze: Fully cook, cool completely and freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight.
Reheat: Simmer on a stovetop while covered on low heat until heated through. Or use good old microwave and reheat in 1 minute increments until warm.
FAQs
Use cold meat straight out of the fridge. Squeeze excess liquid out of the zucchini and don’t overpower the meatball ingredients with too many “bigger” ingredients. You want to leave the meat as the main portion of the meatball, so when it says “finely chop or grated” follow that direction!
Yes, you can. It does add a delicious taste, but you can omit it or replace it with soy sauce, tamari, Worcestershire sauce, or coconut aminos instead.
These Thai meatballs are mild. If you would like to make them less spicy, omit the red pepper flakes in both meatballs and the sauce.
Yes. Combine meatball ingredients, shape into balls and then, also combine sauce ingredients, store covered separately in the refrigerator up to 24 hours. On the day you plan to cook them, proceed with recipe instructions.
More Meatballs Recipes to Try
Thai Meatballs
Equipment
Ingredients
For Thai Meatballs:
- 2 pounds ground turkey pork or chicken
- 1 cup zucchini shredded & liquid squeezed out
- 1/4 cup green onion finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons basil finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons ginger grated
- 2 garlic cloves grated
- 1 teaspoon red curry paste
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons coconut milk light (canned)
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Cooking spray I use Misto
For the Sauce:
- 1 1/2 cups coconut milk light (canned)
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon red curry paste
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes more to taste
- 5-6 dried kaffir lime leaves optional**
Instructions
- To make meatballs: In a medium bowl, combine ground turkey, zucchini, green onion, basil, ginger, garlic, red curry paste, fish sauce, coconut milk and red pepper flakes. Mix well.
- Make 28 meatballs by spooning heaping 1 tablespoon of mixture and rolling between your hands. Lay on a cutting board or plate. Set aside.
- To make sauce: In a small bowl, whisk together coconut milk, tomato paste, red curry paste, fish sauce, red pepper flakes and kaffir lime leaves. Set aside.
- Preheat large ceramic non-stick skillet on medium-high heat and spray with cooking spray. Add meatballs and cook until brown or for 2-3 minutes, turning a few times. No need to cook the meatballs through.
- Add the sauce, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 15 minutes, uncovered.
- Serve warm with brown rice or brown rice noodles. Add garnish like fresh cilantro and green onions.
Notes
- Make ahead: Make meatballs and sauce up to 24 hours in advance. Store covered separately in the fridge.
- Store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
- Freeze: Fully cook, cool completely and freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw on a stovetop covered on low.
- Kaffir lime leaves: You can buy kaffir lime leaves in any Asian store or online. They are sold dried and last forever in a sealed container. If you don’t have any, omit.
I am curious how eating meat is “clean” . Eating meat is the oppposite of clean eating. I feel a lot cleaner since going vegan. Sauce looks good though. May try veganizing this.
Not everyone considers veganism as the only way to eat healthy and clean.
I made these tonight and it was great! Thank you for sharing!
These are awesome and have made it into our regular dinner rotation! I have 4 young kids who are all picky eaters and they all scarfed it down. Some even had seconds (unheard of). So thank you! We’ve found that we like them better with ground beef and a little extra salt, but other than that perfection.
Kids are funny that way. I’m really surprised how many picky kids would eat these meatballs…that’s great!
I made these today and they taste amazing!! I stirred a little bit of apricot jam into the sauce to sweeten it a bit for my little one and picky husband! About three tablespoons and it is AMAZING!!
I made these last night and follow the recipe, except for the lime leaves, and they are delicious! If I were to make these again, I wouldnt use fish sauce, bc I’m really not a fan of anything fishy. Though, I only used it in the meat and not the sauce and i dont really taste it, I just know its there. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Olena, I have these on the menu for next week and I am really looking forward to trying them, just curious if there is anything I can substitute for the kaffir leaves. I have never used them before and I don’t know what they taste like or if there is anything similar to them in flavor. Thanks!
Just skip them or add fresh basil at the end.:)
Fresh basil, I have. Thank you!
Hi!!
Firstly… thank you so much for sharing this recipe – the flavours in these meatballs are to die for – A+++ !
Secondly… I’m on a mostly Paleo diet and when I came to the bit about serving with brown rice or brown rice noodles, ass I could picture was a saucepan full of delicious sauce, and meatballs in search of a comfy bed on which to be served – this wouldn’t be the end of the world, as I do eat rice occasionally, but… at this point I was hungry and didn’t feel like waiting around for rice to cook. I’d originally planned to make a side dish of Paleo mayo-free coleslaw but didn’t feel much like putting the effort into preparing that..
Staring at the pan full of sauce and the lonely meatballs, knowing I need to get some veg into me somehow, I contemplated making cabbage & broccoli ‘rice’, as you would typically do with cauliflower as a substitute for grains in Paleo meals… I thought it’d be a great way to soak up that tasty sauce, add some veg, and create a nice bed for the meatballs… Asian flavours and cabbage go nicely gogether – so why not!?
Anyways, I don’t usually step outside my comfort bubble of following the recipe to the T… BUT I DID IT… I INNOVATED!! Put the cabbage & broccoli through the food processor, removed the meatballs from the saucepan and added the ‘rice’ to soak up the sauce and cook for a few minutes…
Boy am I glad I did – turned out to be a fabulous accompaniment for this dish.. and so I just had do share 🙂
ooops, that’s supposed to say *all I could picture.. not *ass.. :/
You are very welcome. Quite a dinner story you got. That sounds fabulous! I’m not paleo but I like veggies in all shape and form.
I tried this tonight and the flavor is great! However, I had some trouble with the meatballs sticking to my stainless frying pan as I was putting them in, even though I sprayed with cooking oil. Should I have used a non-stick pan or did I just not have the heat turned up high enough? I’ve only ever baked meatballs before.
Hi Stevie. Use non-stick skillet next time. I have 2 stainless steel pans but never use them for same reason – almost everything sticks to them.
These were yum! How rude of the one commenter who said they were terrible. Why even say that? Some people. Did you add any salt to this recipe? I’ve been trying to cut a lot of salt out but felt like the meatballs maybe needed a little salt in the mix? I’m a salt freak so maybe not. Please let me know!
Hi Kelly. Salt is very personal thing, I would say. I didn’t add any extra salt. I have been off any processed foods for quite a while now so my tastebuds are very clean and sensitive LOL. But feel free to adjust it. I have a friend and she loves salt like you. She adds salt to all my food although nobody else at the table does.:) P.S. I suspect someone just doesn’t like Thai food period, hence the comment.:)
Delicious! I didn’t have any ginger in the house but followed the rest if the recipe and service with steamed brocolli and basmati rice. Even my picky eater husband enjoyed it. Great recipe!