Healthy BBQ Turkey Meatball Sandwich

The name of this post is already a mouthful...how can I even start describing these? Ummmm....AMAZE-balls....literally....balls! :) haha Well I thought that was funny.

I love anything meatballs, but they have to be ground chicken or turkey since I do not eat hamburger or pork. But do not let that stop you! These have so much flavor that you won't even notice that they are ground turkey.

The ingredients are simple: ground turkey, one egg, breadcrumbs, onion, some seasoning, and BBQ sauce. But the taste  is not simple. My husband and I scarfed the whole batch...oops! I'll blame it on my husband, I only had one sandwich (not!)

Okay let's get going. Here is what you need:

1. Mix all the ingredients together and then let chill for at least an hour. Let me let you all in on a little secret. I have researched and researched on the best way to cook meatballs because I have the common problem of my meatballs falling apart or them being burnt on the outside but still gooey on the inside. So here are some of my tricks on making a good meatball:

1. Make sure your meat mixture is chilled before rolling it into a ball.
2. Make sure it is not to "wet" or "soggy." To fix this problem don't add a lot of liquid ingredients. If you do however need to add liquid ingredients then add more bread crumbs then what is stated.
3. Make sure that if you include onions that they are really finely chopped. The smaller the better. If they are big it will force your meatball to crack open.
4. If you choose to cook your meatballs on the stove, cook them on medium heat for a longer time. This way they don't burn so much on the outside and cook all the way through.

About #4. I do not cook my meatballs on the stove anymore. It is too hard and takes too long. Standing there over a hot stove, constantly turning the meatballs so they don't burn is not fun. I either bake them or boil them. I will post a recipe where I boil them sometime. But baking is so much easier! You roll in a ball, place on baking sheet and pop in the oven. Then you only have to rotate once!

2. Okay, so after you have mixed all the ingredients and it has chilled, roll them in 1" to 1.5" diameter balls. I have found that placing them on parchment paper on top of your baking sheet makes for such an easy clean-up!

3. Heat your oven to 375 degrees and bake for 35-40 minutes rotating them half way through your baking time. For me I flipped them at 20 minutes.

4. Next, pull them out of the oven but keep the oven on. You are now going to cover them in BBQ sauce and then put back in the oven for 5 more minutes.

5. Place in a roll or just on sandwich bread and yum yum yum! Try not to eat as many as I did though :)

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 40-45 minutes
Yields: 25-30 meatballs

Ingredients:

1 pound of ground turkey
1/3 cup of finely chopped onion
1 egg
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (or more if your mixture is too wet)
1 teas. garlic powder
1 teas. chili powder
1/2 teas. paprika
1/2 teas. pepper
1 tbsp. BBQ sauce

You will also need more BBQ sauce later on when you dip or coat each meatball with the sauce and put back in oven for 5 more minutes.