Homemade Turkey Swedish Meatballs in Creamy Gravy

Pillowy soft, plush turkey Swedish meatballs bathed in a spiced creamy gravy is what dinner dreams are made of. This recipe delivers! The meatballs are tender and aromatic with allspice and nutmeg. The gravy is deeply flavorful with additional spice and heavy cream makes it a silky indulgence. Ladle these meatballs over mashed potatoes or noodles and your dinner dreams are a reality!

Homemade turkey meatballs might seem like a lot of work, but the prep is easy. This recipe makes enough meatballs to serve a crowd, or you can freeze your baked meatballs for a quick dinner in the future. 

And what’s not to love about a savory gravy over a base of hearty, buttery carbs? If that sounds delicious to you, try this Meatball Stroganoff or these Classic Pressure Cooker Mashed Potatoes next!

Ingredients for Turkey Swedish Meatballs

I include ingredient notes here when I think they’ll be helpful, including ways to source, any preparation tips, or why I've chosen a particular ingredient. Be sure to check out the recipe card below for the full list of ingredients and their quantities!

• White Bread - Simple sandwich bread or bakery french bread will do the trick here. Sliced bread is part of the panade, a mixture of bread and milk or other liquid that helps keep the meatballs moist and tender.
• Milk - Milk soaks into the bread for the other half of the panade. Use any type of milk you prefer here, dairy or non-dairy.
• Egg - One large egg helps to bind the meatball mixture so that they bake up into meatballs that can get tossed with the cream gravy without crumbling.
• Parsley - Chopped parsley adds a touch of verdant herbal notes to the meatballs, 
• Garlic - Finely minced or pressed garlic adds a mellow garlic flavor once the meatballs have baked.
• Ground Spices - Use fresh spices like black pepper, allspice, and nutmeg for the best flavor. You can often get better prices on these spices by shopping at your local Asian or Indian grocery store, but all of these spices will be found at a standard supermarket as well.
• Ground Turkey - Use ground turkey that is at least 7% fat, 93% lean for the best texture and moist tender meatballs. I often use a mix of 15% fat and 7% fat ground turkey, which is what you see pictured in the photo above.

Ingredients for Creamy Gravy

• Ground Spices - The same trio of pepper, allspice, and nutmeg are added to the creamy gravy so those spice notes weave their way through both the meatballs and the gravy. The spices are bloomed in oil over medium-high heat to get maximum flavor.
• Beef Stock - Use beef stock, beef broth, or even chicken stock or broth for the recipe.
• Flour - Flour is whisked into the beef stock to help thicken the creamy gravy.
• Heavy Cream - Heavy cream provides a rich and silky texture to the gravy. You can substitute half and half for heavy cream, but the gravy won’t thicken up quite as much.

Prepare the Meatballs

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Prepare two sheet pans by lining them with parchment paper so that you can cook all the meatballs at once without crowding them.

Tear the bread into small pieces and place them in the bottom of a medium bowl. Pour the milk over the bread and allow it to sit for 5 minutes to soak into the bread.

Smash the soaked bread into a wet paste with a fork. This mixture is called a panade and will keep your turkey meatballs moist and tender.

Add the egg, parsley, garlic, salt, nutmeg, allspice, and pepper to the panade.  Mix the ingredients together well with the fork.

Add the ground turkey to the panade mixture.

Stir everything together with a fork just until the mixture looks uniform. Over mixing will create tough meatballs.

Use a cookie scoop to portion the  meatball mixture into tablespoon-sized meatballs. Place them on the lined sheet pan about one inch apart. The mixture will yield about 45 meatballs. Space them out over the two pans. See more tips below for forming the meatballs.

Bake the meatballs in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, until the internal temperature is at least 165°F. I usually rotate the two pans from top to bottom racks halfway through the bake time for even cooking. Baked meatballs may “sweat” out a milky protein substance which will not affect texture or flavor of the finished dish.

Transfer the baked meatballs to a platter or plate to rest while you gather the ingredients for the gravy. You can also start the gravy while the meatballs are baking to save time!

Prepare the Creamy Gravy

Whisk together the flour and the cold beef stock in a bowl or jar. This helps to avoid any lumps in the gravy.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.

Add olive oil to the heated pan and then the allspice, nutmeg, salt and black pepper. Cook the spices for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly, to bloom them and heighten their aroma.

Stream the broth and flour mixture into the spice mixture gradually, over about a minute. Stir constantly and then allow the mixture to thicken and come to a bubble.

Stir the heavy cream into the gravy. Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer.

Allow the gravy to cook for 3-5 minutes until it thickens and is silky smooth.

Tumble the baked meatballs into the gravy. Gently toss them to fully coat each meatball. You can reduce the heat to a minimal simmer now until any other sides are prepared and you are ready to serve.

Tips for Shaping Meatballs

A cookie scoop is the best tool for making quick work of portioning the meatballs. If you are shaping them by hand, you may find the mixture is too wet to easily form the meatballs. Chill the meatball mixture for 20-30 minutes first and use wet fingers to form the balls for better success.

Substitutions and Variations

The substitutions listed below have been tested in this recipe and work well. If you successfully make any other ingredient substitutions, let us know in the comments!

• Add Dill - Chopped fresh dill can be added to the meatball mixture or sprinkled over the top of the gravy-drenched meatballs.
• Swap Garlic for Onion - Finely chop half a medium onion and add it to the meatball mixture in place of the garlic.
• Use Ground Chicken - Ground chicken can be used in place of the ground turkey, but ground chicken tends to be even leaner than turkey. Check the fat percentages and choose a higher fat percentage if you have an option. This will keep your meatballs moist and tender.

Equipment

A few kitchen items will make preparation of these turkey Swedish meatballs and creamy gravy even easier.  Here are some notes:

• Cookie Scoop - A cookie scoop makes portioning the meatballs a cinch.  I don’t even roll the meat into balls, just pack the scoop and release it to the baking sheet!  Cookie scoops are obviously great for cookies, too, but they make scooping ice cream, portioning out sticky things like peanut butter or frosting, and transferring wet batters (like muffins and cupcakes) to baking tins easy. Scoops are labeled with their size based on how many scoops you’d get in a quart of dough. My favorite is a #50, which holds about 1.25 tablespoons.
• Whisk - I have what may be an excessive number of whisks to choose from, but an 8-inch whisk I got years ago as a wedding gift is my favorite for both whisking the flour into the stock as well as ensuring a smooth gravy.
• Sheet Pans - I use sheet pans in two sizes, a quarter sheet pan (9” x 13”) and a half sheet pan (13” x 18”). For this recipe, two half sheet pans are perfect for baking all the meatballs at once. Sheet pans are so versatile in the kitchen. Buy a good quality set and you’ll be using them for years. Mine have a very dark “patina”, so no judgement if yours look the same.

Serving Suggestions

Pile your turkey Swedish meatballs bathed in that spiced creamy gravy onto a platter and garnish them with thinly sliced chives or finely chopped parsley or dill. Serve them over mashed potatoes, buttered egg noodles, wide pasta like pappardelle, zoodles, or rice.

Swedish meatballs are often served with lingonberry jam, but that’s not something we see in stores in our area. Another option is to serve the meatballs with cranberry jam. Add a simple steamed vegetable like broccoli to round out your plate.

Make this Recipe Kid Friendly

Kids may enjoy the meatballs on their own without the gravy, or you can offer to serve a spoonful of gravy on the side for dipping.  Try serving the meatballs with a preferred dipping sauce, too! Ketchup, barbecue sauce, or ranch dressing might be all it takes to get reluctant eaters to try this recipe.

For more tips on how to get the whole family eating with some joy at the dinner table, check out this post on Keeping Peace with Picky Eaters.

Storage

Store meatballs in the gravy in an airtight container for up to three days. You can also freeze the baked meatballs before adding them to the creamy gravy. Freeze them in a single layer on a sheet pan and then transfer them to a zip top bag once they are frozen. Frozen meatballs can be stored for up to three months.

Make-Ahead Options

You can make the turkey Swedish meatballs ahead of time and bake them off before storing them in the refrigerator or freezer. Prepare the creamy gravy the day you want to serve the meatballs and heat them by adding them to the prepared gravy along with an extra ½ cup of beef stock. Simmer the meatballs and gravy together for 20 minutes or so to heat everything together.