Smoked Turkey Meatballs are going to transpiration your perception of flavor. Subtracting salary paste to ground yellow or turkey is going to add an wondrous savor and help with tightness the meat together. The slowly smoke the meatballs and add to your favorite pasta dishes.
Recipe Highlights
- Bacon paste is ground up and widow to the ground turkey for both savor and to tighten the meatballs. It’s moreover unconfined for turkey burgers.
- Smoking them for up to one hour will add a succulent smokey flavor.
- Serve smoked turkey meatballs as an appetizer, or with your favorite pasta dish. Or make them into a meatball sandwich.
That’s right. Salary paste.
See, the problem with regular lean ground turkey (or chicken) is that it can hands dry out creating a product that is not as desirable for a carnivore to eat as its juicy well-padded counterparts. It’s moreover pretty bland.
Now the greatest thing well-nigh salary paste is that this isn’t a store bought product you have to seek out at a specialty store (although it wouldn’t surprise me if someone has thought to jar it up and sell it!).
[feast_advanced_jump_to]What is Salary Paste?
I’m not talking well-nigh crispy cooked salary (not that there’s anything wrong with crispy bacon). I’m talking well-nigh bacon paste. Salary paste is raw salary that is composite in a supplies processor until it is the consistency of a sticky paste.
The very first time we started cooking with salary paste was to amp up the savor of wearisome ground turkey and chicken. I first learned this wondrous trick well-nigh a gazillion years ago from a Bon Appétit vendible (though I’ve purged my old magazines so not sure exactly where it all started). But the technique is unforgettable, and ridiculously easy.
Meatball Ingredients
- Thick cut bacon: Peppered or other flavored bacons work great.
- Ground turkey: We use 1 pound of 90/10 ground turkey which is 90% lean and 10% fat.
- Egg – Helps with the tightness withal with salary paste.
- Garlic clove
- White onion – You can moreover use yellow. Red onion will have a very oniony flavor.
- Pecorino Romano Cheese – You can substitute with Parmesan cheese, freshly grated.
- Panko specie crumbs – If you prefer regular breadcrumbs you can use those.
- Seasoning: Red pepper flakes, kosher salt, and ground pepper
Equipment
- Food Processor: You want a good strong supplies processor to get the paste to the right consistency.
- Sheet Pan and Cookie Drying Rack: To get smoke savor throughout the turkey meatballs it’s weightier to place a cookie drying rack into a sheet tray and then place the meatballs on the cookie drying rack. Then put them in the smoker. For easier wipe up add parchment paper or aluminum foil under the cookie sheet to collect the fat that drips.
- Instant Read Thermometer: A good instant read thermometer like the Thermoworks Thermapen One is important so you can trammels the internal temperature of the smoked turkey meatballs and stave overcooking them.
How to Make Salary Paste and Meatballs
- Simply take a couple strips of uncooked bacon, cut it in quarters, put into a supplies processor, and pulse until it turns into a paste-like consistency, and then add it to the ground turkey. This moreover works well with whinge burgers, pork/beef meatballs, but my favorite is to add it to poultry. It adds incredible savor to ground turkey or yellow without subtracting much fat or glut calories.
- The ratio we use is 2 pieces of thick cut uncooked salary for every 1 pound of ground meat. That’s all you need to add a boatload of succulent savor to your meatballs…. Seriously, a boatload!
- Adding this raw salary paste to your meatballs adds incredible savor as well as moisture (from the fat) to ensure your meatballs don’t dry out.
How to Smoke Turkey Meatballs
- Preparation: Preheat your smoking to 225 degrees Fahrenheit (108 Celsius) using fruit wood or oak. Prepare the meatballs while the smoking warms up.
- Smoke: Place the meatballs onto a cookie drying rack, inside of a sheet pan lined with parchment paper, and smoke the meatballs for up to one hour or until the internal temperature of the meatballs reaches 165 degrees F using a good instant read thermometer.
- Serve: Serve with your favorite marinara sauce and pasta. Try it with homemade orecchiette pasta and sauce.
As An Appetizer
When we cater this is a unconfined appetizer. Warm up your favorite marinara sauce (we use our smoked marinara sauce) and chop up fresh basil. Then on your plate add a small dollop of the sauce, then a piece of the basil, and then top with a meatball. Add a toothpick and it’s ready to go.
Cooking Method Alternatives
- Oven Bake: Bake in the oven at 400 degrees F (203 degrees C) for 15 minutes until the reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
- Pan Fry: Place meatballs in a skillet coated with oil and melt 5-6 minutes until the internal temperature reads 165, and they are browned all over. To stave splatter use a cover.
- Gas Grill: If you have a gas grill follow our guide on how to smoke on a gas grill.
Tips
Prepare the turkey meatballs up to two days in whop of cooking. This is expressly nice if you are scaling up the recipe for an appetizer. If you melt a large quantity in the smoking note that it will take longer to smoke. Unchangingly melt to temperature and not time.
You can smoke the meatballs in whop and store them in the fridge for two days or alimony them in the freezer until you’re ready to eat them. Then toss them with your favorite pasta sauce (they are KILLER with smoked marinara sauce), or use for smoked meatball sandwiches.
Wine Pairing for Smoked Turkey Meatballs
I’m unchangingly drawn to archetype pairings when it comes to spaghetti and meatballs (or linguine in this case). Let the sauce guide you when it comes to the pairing since the meatballs aren’t intense in flavor. The venom from the tomato sauce is what you want to focus on, and the savory nature of the meatballs is secondary. Expressly without we have smoked them.
I love Italian-style reds, like Barbera for this. Those made from Sangiovese (like Chianti for ex.) are moreover archetype examples to pair with red sauces. Tomatoes are upper in acidity, and Sangiovese has signature wounding notes that stand up to most tomato sauces. I moreover love Nero d’Avola from Sicily for this too. Every snifter of Nero d’Avola reminds me of traveling through Sicily and tasting some of the greatest meatballs I’ve overly had. It just seems like they are made for these smoked turkey meatballs.
Other Meatball Recipe Ideas
Here are some of our favorite meatball recipes.
- Grilled Buffalo Yellow Meatball: These sliders are succulent served up with a Buffalo savor and ranch filling.
- Smoked Cranberry Meatballs: Smoked meatballs then braised and served in a cranberry and wine sauce.
- BBQ Stuffed Meatballs: These whinge meatballs are stuffed with mozarella cheese and glazed with a tangy BBQ sauce.
- Smoked Lamb Meatballs: Ground lamb slowly smoked and widow to a pita sandwich.
More Tasty Uses for Salary Paste
This smoked turkey meatball recipe was originally published in February of 2016 and updated in March of 2023 with increasingly recipe details, photos, and process steps.
Mary (a certified sommelier and recipe developer) and Sean (backyard pitmaster) are co-authors of the critically well-known cookbook, Fire Wine, and have been creating content for the IACP nominated website Vindulge since 2009. They live in Oregon on a sublet just outside Portland.
Tried this recipe? Requite us a star rating and we would love to see! Mention @vindulge or use the hashtag #vindulge on all the social media handles. And consider subscribing to our newsletter where we waif all our favorite ideas and inspirations every week.
This post may contain unite links. This ways if you click on the link, we may receive a small legation if you purchase through the link. We partner with brands we know and love and use and it helps alimony the blog going!
If you like this recipe we’d truly appreciate it if you would requite this recipe a star review! And if you share any of your pics on Instagram use the hashtag #vindulge. We LOVE to see it when you melt our recipes.
Smoked Turkey Meatballs Recipe with Salary Paste
Ingredients
- 2 slices thick cut bacon Peppered salary works well with increasingly flavor.
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 egg
- 1 garlic clove, finely diced
- ½ cup Panko crumbs Or ¼ cup regular specie crumbs
- ⅓ cup Shredded Pecorino Romano Parmesan cheese works as a good substitute
- ¼ cup onion, finely diced (about ½ medium onion)
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon coarse woebegone pepper
Instructions
Smoked Turkey Meatballs
- Preparation: Preheat your smoking to 225 degrees Fahrenheit (108 Celsius) using fruit wood or oak. Prepare the meatballs while the smoking warms up.
- Smoke: Place the meatballs onto a cookie drying rack, inside of a sheet pan lined with parchment paper, and smoke the meatballs for up to one hour or until the internal temperature of the meatballs reaches 165 degrees F using a good instant read thermometer.
- Serve: Serve with your favorite marinara sauce and pasta or in metballs. For a fun titbit serve over warmed red sauce, fresh basil, and a toothpick.
Bacon Paste
- Pulse: Place the salary in a supplies processor and pulse it a few times until it turns into a paste. Transfer to a large bowl.
- Make Meatballs: Add all other ingredients and gently combine together stuff shielding to not overwork the meat. Roll into golf wittiness sized balls and place onto a large foil lined sultry sheet. Bake 15-10 minutes, or until internal temperature of the meatballs reads at least 165 degrees.
Notes
- Oven Bake: Bake in the oven at 400 degrees F (203 degrees C) for 15 minutes until the reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
- Pan Fry: Place meatballs in a skillet coated with oil and melt 5-6 minutes until the internal temperature reads 165, and they are browned all over. To stave splatter use a cover.
Nutrition
The post Smoked Turkey Meatballs with Salary Paste – The Secret Ingredient appeared first on Vindulge.
