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    Home » Recipes » Main Dishes

    Buffalo Turkey Meatballs with Creamy Feta Ranch

    Published: Apr 14, 2021 · Modified: Aug 25, 2021 by Alana Lieberman · As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

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    Pin graphic for buffalo turkey meatballs.

    Buffalo turkey meatballs are a unique take on a game day classic. Made in less than 30 minutes with minimal effort, they are easy to make, eat, and serve. Perfect as a weeknight dinner, game day snack, or fun appetizer, they pair wonderfully with nearly any side dish. It’s a quick and healthy meal, you won’t want to miss!

    A serving platter full of meatballs with ranch and vegetables off to the side and 3 meatballs on a small appetizer plate.
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    Jump to:
    • 📋 About the Recipe
    • 🛒 Ingredients
    • 📓 Instructions
    • ⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations
    • 🔍 FAQs
    • 💭 One More Tip
    • 🍴 Related Recipes
    • 📖 Recipe
    • 💬 Reviews

    📋 About the Recipe

    • Quick, easy, healthy, and made in less than 30 minutes!
    • The use of ground turkey makes it a healthy dinner with lean protein, just like my healthy french onion chicken meatballs.
    • Homemade sauces help you remain in control of the fat, sodium, and spice levels.
    • Tastes just like buffalo chicken without the messy fingers, excessive napkins, and sauce smeared across your face!
    • Homemade creamy feta ranch helps to tame the spice, while adding a unique twist on the traditional dipping sauce. Celery and carrots also help to calm down the heat.
    • Looking for sweet instead of heat? Try these sweet and sour chicken meatballs made with fresh pineapple, stir fried veggies, and a sweet and tangy glaze.

    🛒 Ingredients

    For the Turkey Meatballs

    Labelled ingredients for turkey meatballs (see recipe for details).

    For the Buffalo Sauce

    Labelled ingredients for homemade buffalo sauce (see recipe for details).

    For the Creamy Feta Ranch

    Labelled ingredients for feta ranch dressing (see recipe for details).

    A few notes about the ingredients:

    For the Turkey Meatballs

    1. Ground turkey: ground turkey gives the meatballs a great texture and poultry flavor. It stays perfectly moist with the help of the other ingredients and pairs great with the rich, spicy buffalo sauce.
    2. Breadcrumbs, egg, milk: these are the binding agents. They combine together to keep the ground turkey from falling apart and drying out. You can choose your favorite milk. I used almond milk for mine.
    3. Garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, parsley: each gives a unique flavor to the meatballs without overpowering the flavor in the sauce. Adjust the salt and pepper according to your family’s tastes.
    4. Worcestershire sauce: worcestershire sauce provides another flavor element to the meat. Though it might be a tad more expensive, Lea and Perrins is the only worcestershire sauce I recommend. Others tend to use corn syrups and other additives.
    5. Olive oil: a small amount of oil is used to pan fry the meatballs. If you prefer a different oil, you can use any flavorless cooking oil that can withstand high heat.

    For the Buffalo Sauce

    1. Frank’s red hot sauce: Frank’s is most commonly used in buffalo sauce, but if you prefer a different hot sauce, you can try that instead.
    2. Unsalted butter: the butter gives the sauce a great flavor, tones down some of the spice from the Frank’s, and helps the sauce stick to the meatballs. If you’d like the sauce to be a tad healthier, you can use a little less butter. 
    3. White vinegar, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce: all help to enhance the sauce. The vinegar gives it a slight tanginess, while the worcestershire and soy give it an umami, saltiness.
    4. Garlic powder, salt, and pepper: seasonings for additional flavor. Again, adjust the salt and pepper to your tastes.

    📓 Instructions

    For the Turkey Meatballs

    Combine all of the meatball ingredients, besides the olive oil, in a medium bowl. Mix them all together.

    Turkey meatball ingredients in a glass bowl.

    Scoop out around 20 meatballs. (I used about 1 tablespoon of the meat mixture for each meatball.) Set them aside.

    Raw meatballs on a baking sheet.

    Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, stockpot, or dutch oven over medium heat.

    Once the oil is hot, add in the meatballs. Brown the meatballs for a few minutes or until they are perfectly golden brown and lift up easily from the bottom of the skillet.

    Browned meatballs on a baking sheet.

    Flip them and brown on the other side for another few minutes. Remove browned meatballs from the stove and place them on a clean plate.

    For the Buffalo Sauce

    Add all of the sauce ingredients, besides the butter, into the empty skillet. Stir them to combine.

    Buffalo sauce ingredients in a dutch oven.

    Reduce the heat to low and allow the sauce to simmer for a minute. Carefully add in the butter and whisk to combine it with the rest of the sauce.

    Turkey meatballs in buffalo sauce inside a dutch oven.

    As the butter melts, add the meatballs back into the skillet. Coat them in the sauce.

    Cook the meatballs until they’re fully cooked in the middle, about another minute or two.

    If the sauce breaks, meaning the fat from the butter separates from the rest of the sauce, simply take the pot off the heat, remove the meatballs, and whisk the sauce to combine and thicken it again.

    Serve buffalo turkey meatballs covered in homemade buffalo sauce with a side of celery and carrot sticks, as well as creamy feta ranch for dipping.

    A buffalo turkey meatball on a toothpick dipped in feta ranch.

    ⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations

    Instead of ground turkey: you can use ground chicken, which has a little less poultry flavor. However, I would NOT recommend ground beef in this recipe because the additional grease and meaty flavor will overpower the sauce.

    For a blue cheese dressing: swap out the ¼ cup of feta for a ¼ cup of blue cheese crumbles instead.

    If you don't have buttermilk, you can simply double the sour cream instead.

    🔍 FAQs

    What can you serve with buffalo turkey meatballs?

    Buffalo turkey meatballs go extremely well with so many different side dishes! 

    Basically anything you’d typically pair with traditional buffalo chicken, like ranch, blue cheese, celery, or carrots, are all great options to help tame down some of the heat.

    You can also serve these meatballs alongside white or brown rice, quinoa, or other grains, on top of pasta or a garden salad, or served inside a pita, naan, or hoagie roll with the ranch dressing drizzled over top as a meatball sandwich.

    How do you make turkey meatballs that don’t fall apart?

    The secret to keeping turkey from drying out or falling apart is to have the proper ratios of fats, breadcrumbs, eggs, and liquids or milk.

    This recipe incorporates all 4 in some way or another, so that the balls are perfectly moist and juicy, with no crumbling.

    If you make a substitution, try to substitute with something of similar nature or texture. For example, if you don’t have breadcrumbs, you can use crushed crackers instead.

    Why are my turkey meatballs mushy?

    If your meatballs turn out mushy, it is possible that your measurements are off. If the balls seem too wet, you can slowly add in a bit more breadcrumbs to the mixture before pan frying them.

    Also of note, ground turkey is finer than ground beef and contains less fat, so it typically falls apart easier. For ground turkey or ground chicken meatballs and meatloaves, you may need additional binders, like eggs and breadcrumbs, to make up for the different consistency.

    Can you bind meatballs without egg?

    Eggs are a key element in keeping meatballs from falling apart, especially those made from turkey or chicken, instead of beef.

    However, if you want to leave out the egg, you can try to substitute with buttermilk, yogurt, mozzarella cheese, or a slice of bread lightly soaked in milk.

    💭 One More Tip

    Create a buffalo turkey meatball sub by splitting a medium-sized hoagie roll slightly down the middle, leaving only one side attached so the fillings don’t leak out. 

    Lightly toast the roll, then slather it on both sides with the creamy feta ranch. Add in a few meatballs, shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes, and onions.

    Serve with a side of celery or carrot sticks and homemade chips.

    A hand dipping a buffalo turkey meatball in feta ranch with glasses of beer, celery and carrot sticks, and a jar of toothpicks off to the side.

    🍴 Related Recipes

    • Chicken Kofta Kebabs
    • Healthy Sweet and Sour Pineapple Chicken Meatballs
    • Healthy Ground Chicken Meatloaf with Vegetables
    • Cheesy French Onion Ground Chicken Meatballs

    Share your cooking with me! If you make this recipe, I'd love to know! Tag @yourhomemadehealthy on Instagram or leave a comment with a rating and some feedback at the bottom of this page!

    📖 Recipe

    A buffalo turkey meatball on a toothpick dipped in feta ranch.

    Buffalo Turkey Meatballs with Creamy Feta Ranch

    Buffalo turkey meatballs are a unique twist on a game day classic, yet perfect as a weeknight dinner. They're spicy, saucey, and absolutely delicious!
    5 from 4 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Appetizer, Main Course
    Cuisine: American
    Prep Time: 10 minutes
    Cook Time: 10 minutes
    Total Time: 20 minutes
    Servings: 5 servings
    Calories: 580kcal
    Author: Alana Lieberman
    Cost: $20

    Equipment

    • skillet, stock pot, or dutch oven

    Ingredients

    For the Meatballs

    • 1 lb ground turkey (can also use ground chicken)
    • ½ cup breadcrumbs
    • 1 egg
    • 2 tablespoon milk of choice
    • 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
    • ½ teaspoon dried parsley
    • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
    • ½ teaspoon onion powder
    • ½ teaspoon salt
    • ¼ teaspoon black pepper
    • 2 tablespoon olive oil

    For the Buffalo Sauce

    • ¾ cup Frank's red hot sauce
    • 2 tablespoon white vinegar
    • 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
    • 1 teaspoon soy sauce
    • ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
    • ¼ teaspoon salt
    • ¼ teaspoon black pepper
    • a few dashes of cayenne optional, for additional heat
    • ½ cup unsalted butter

    For the Creamy Feta Ranch

    • ½ cup mayonnaise
    • ¼ cup sour cream
    • ¼ cup buttermilk
    • ¼ cup crumbled feta
    • ½ teaspoon lemon juice
    • ½ teaspoon onion powder
    • ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
    • ¼ teaspoon salt
    • ¼ teaspoon black pepper
    • ¼ teaspoon mustard powder
    • ½ teaspoon dried parsley
    • ½ teaspoon dried dill
    • cayenne optional

    Instructions

    For the Turkey Meatballs

    • Combine all of the meatball ingredients, besides the olive oil, in a medium bowl. Mix them all together.
    • Scoop out around 20 meatballs. (I used about 1 tablespoon of the meat mixture for each meatball.) Set them aside.
    • Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, stockpot, or dutch oven over medium heat.
    • Once the oil is hot, add in the meatballs. Brown the meatballs for a few minutes or until they are perfectly golden brown and lift up easily from the bottom of the skillet.
    • Flip them and brown on the other side for another few minutes. Remove browned meatballs from the stove and place them on a clean plate.

    For the Buffalo Sauce

    • Add all of the sauce ingredients, besides the butter, into the empty skillet. Stir them to combine.
    • Reduce the heat to low and allow the sauce to simmer for a minute. Carefully add in the butter and whisk to combine it with the rest of the sauce.
    • As the butter melts, add the meatballs back into the skillet. Coat them in the sauce.
    • Cook the meatballs until they’re fully cooked in the middle, about another minute or two.
    • If the sauce breaks, meaning the fat from the butter separates from the rest of the sauce, simply take the pot off the heat, remove the meatballs, and whisk the sauce to combine and thicken it again.
    • Serve buffalo turkey meatballs covered in homemade buffalo sauce with a side of celery and carrot sticks, as well as creamy feta ranch for dipping.

    For the Creamy Feta Ranch

    • Mix together all of the ranch ingredients in a small bowl.

    Notes

    1. Instead of ground turkey: you can use ground chicken, which has a little less poultry flavor. However, I would NOT recommend ground beef in this recipe because the additional grease and meaty flavor will overpower the sauce.
    2. Frank's is commonly used for buffalo sauce, but if you prefer a different hot sauce you can give it a try.
    3. For a blue cheese dressing: swap out the ¼ cup of feta for a ¼ cup of blue cheese crumbles instead.
    4. If you don't have buttermilk, you can double the sour cream instead.
    5. Turn the meatballs into a complete meal by serving them alongside white or brown rice, quinoa, or other grains, on top of pasta or salad, or wrapped in pita, naan, or a hoagie roll for a buffalo meatball sandwich.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 580kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 26g | Fat: 48g | Saturated Fat: 19g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 12g | Monounsaturated Fat: 15g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 155mg | Sodium: 2057mg | Potassium: 390mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 785IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 114mg | Iron: 2mg
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      Recipe Rating




    1. Josh

      October 30, 2022 at 8:28 pm

      5 stars
      These were fantastic!!! I loved the bold flavor and it was a wonderful addition to our tailgate this weekend. I will definitely have again!!

      Reply
      • Alana Lieberman

        November 01, 2022 at 10:08 pm

        Thank you!!

        Reply
    2. Nancy Baron

      July 19, 2021 at 11:07 pm

      5 stars
      These meatballs were delicious! Also loved the creamy feta ranch!

      Reply
      • Alana Lieberman

        July 20, 2021 at 11:26 am

        So glad you enjoyed them! The homemade ranch is definitely a favorite of mine too.

        Reply

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