Turkey Meatballs

By CruelK8E

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds (about) of ground turkey
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 1 small onion, chopped (smaller pieces are better)
• 1 big clove of garlic
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
• 1 beef bullion cube, crushed
• 3/4 cup Breadcrumbs (about 3/4 cup, but please, approximate! see below)

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from honestchef.blogspot.com

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 425. Spray a glass casserole dish with cooking spray, and set aside. Put all ingredients into a large bowl, but only 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs. Now, you gotta get your hands dirty, or should I say, one hand dirty. Mix with your non-dominant hand, and once everything is thoroughly combined, test to see if you grab a handful if it can stay in a ball without sticking to everything. If it cannot, you need more breadcrumbs. Use your clean hand to add more breadcrumbs 1/4 cup at a time. You shouldn't need more than 1 and a 1/2 so, keep that in mind. Then, take both hands and form into balls. Line up in the pan, and bake in your oven for about 35-40 minutes. They should be nice and brown on the outside, and you shouldn't see any pink juice coming from any. See also my tip below for testing doneness in turkey (and see photo below for a visual).

Tips for turkey meatballs:

1. These need to cook at a higher temperature, for longer than regular meatballs. This is because they must cook all the way through to be safe to eat (no one asks you for how you want your turkey cooked, right?). You should designate one as your "tasting meatball." You will need to cut it when you think it is done and look inside immediately. If you wait like, even 5 seconds, it will "cook" more and look brown when it is not really cooked. I get pretty panicky when I see pink turkey meat, so use this trick to avoid worrying about that.

If you want to save some, put them in the freezer in a Ziploc bag once they have reached room temperature. To reheat, put them into the sauce while frozen and warm them up slowly over about 20 minutes while you're cooking your pasta.