Tender Asian Glazed Meatballs are made with ground turkey and smothered in a homemade sticky Asian glaze. These homemade meatballs are so easy to make and will become a family favorite dinner or the perfect appetizer for game day.
Simple Sticky Asian Glazed Meatball Recipe
Asian Glazed Meatballs can double up as a delicious appetizer or an easy weeknight meal. These meatballs are cooked in the oven and then covered in a sticky Asian inspired sauce. I love when a recipe tastes amazing, but also has the option of being healthy. Made with ground turkey, these meatballs are lower in fat but still pack the same protein punch. There is no question that this recipe will become part of your family dinner rotation. If you love these homemade meatballs you are going to love our General Tso’s Chicken and our Beef and Broccoli Lo Mein. They all go well with white rice or our Homemade Chicken Fried Rice.
Ingredients for Asian Glazed Meatballs
- Ground Turkey: Ground turkey, pork, chicken, or even ground beef are all great options.
- Sesame Oil: Adds a delicious Asian flavor to your meat.
- Plain Bread Crumbs: I recommend using plain bread crumbs over seasoned.
- Ground Ginger: Fresh grated ginger can be substituted for ground ginger.
- Eggs: Eggs bind together the meatballs and are essential in making homemade meatballs.
- Minced Garlic: If you don’t have minced garlic on hand, you can substitute it with garlic powder.
- Hoisin Sauce: Hoisin sauce can be found down the Asian isle in your local grocery store. It adds that delicious sweet and flavor to the meatballs.
- Rice Vinegar: I recommend rice vinegar, but it can be substituted with apple cider vinegar.
- Honey: Honey adds a nice sweet flavor and also gives it that sticky texture.
- Soy Sauce: I recommend lite soy sauce to cut down on the salt content in this dish.
- Siracha Sauce: Add more or less to taste or it can be omitted all together.
- Rice For Serving: White rice, brown rice, or noodles are all great options for serving.
How to make the best Asian Glazed Meatballs
If your anything like me and love Asian flavors, you will probable have most of these ingredients in your pantry already.
- Preheat oven to 375 and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or tin foil.
- In a medium size mixing bowl combine ground turkey, 2 tsp. sesame oil, bread crumbs, 1/2 tsp. ginger, 1 tsp. garlic and eggs that are lightly beaten. Mix ingredients with your hands until they are all incorporated well.
- Scoop our 1-1/2 inch meat mixture and form into individual balls.
- Place meatballs on a prepared baking sheet and cook in a preheated oven for 20 minutes or until the inside is no longer pink.
- While meatballs are in the oven, prepare Asian glaze by adding hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, honey, 1 tsp minced garlic, 1 1/2 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp ground ginger, soy sauce, and siracha sauce to a large skillet and bring to a boil over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes or until sauce becomes slightly thick.
- Remove meatballs from the oven and place them directly into the Asian glaze and toss to coat meatballs well.
- Serve immediately over rice or noodles and garnish with sesame seeds and chopped green onions if desired.
Ingredient tips for making Asian glazed meatballs
Meat: I prefer to use ground turkey in this recipe because of the lower fat content in the meat. If your worried your meatballs might be a bit dry with turkey, you can always use ground pork, chicken, or beef, but keep in mind those meats do have a higher fat content.
Breadcrumbs: I recommend using panko bread crumbs because of the crisp texture that it adds to the meatballs.
White Vinegar vs. Rice Vinegar: Rice vinegar has a sweeter flavor whereas white vinegar is harsh and sour. Rice vinegar has a touch of sweetness and acidity which accompanies Asian flavors well. I don’t recommend substituting white vinegar in this recipe.
More popular Asian inspired recipes
- Sheet Pan Teriyaki Chicken
- Pineapple Chicken
- Baked Sweet And Sour Chicken
- Bang Bang Chicken
- Sesame Chicken
- Teriyaki Chicken Rice Bowl
Asian Glazed Meatballs
Ingredients
Meatball Ingredients
- 2 lbs. ground turkey
- 2 tsp. sesame oil, for meatballs
- 1 cup dry bread crumbs, plain
- 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- 1 tsp. minced garlic, for meatballs
Asian Glaze Ingredients
- 2/3 cup hoisin sauce
- 1/3 cup rice vinegar
- 2 1/2 Tbsp. honey
- 1 tsp. minced garlic, for sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp. sesame oil, for sauce
- 1 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1 tsp. siracha sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease baking sheet.
- In a large bowl combine ground turkey, sesame oil, bread crumbs, ginger, eggs, and minced garlic. Mix well with your hands until all ingredients are combined.
- Shape turkey mixture into 1 1/2" balls and place them on a prepared baking sheet. Cook for 20-23 minutes or until meat is no longer pink in the middle.
- While meatballs are cooking, combine hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, honey, minced garlic, sesame oil, ground ginger, soy sauce, and siracha sauce in a medium-large skillet.
- Bring sauce to a boil over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken slightly.
- Remove meatballs from the oven and place them in the Asian sauce. Coat meatballs well and serve over rice or noodles. Sprinkle sesame seeds and green onion on top for a garnish. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience. Getting feedback from you helps me and other readers too!
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Made this tonight, and it was fantastic. I followed the recipe to the letter, and made rice for my husband and riced cauliflower for me. Four meatballs were plenty for me, but I’m glad we had leftovers to freeze!
I’m so glad you both liked them. I love that you served yours with riced cauliflower, sounds delicious.
Very tasty meatballs. Easy recipe. My only criticism would be there wasn’t enough sauce so next time I will double it.
Thank you for your feedback, I would love to hear how you like it with extra sauce.
This is a keeper in my recipe book. Very easy to make and the family loved it.
I’m so glad you all loved it! thank you for sharing.
These are amazing! Served them with jasmine rice. They are so delicious that is made it hard to believe how good they are for you. I served them after the 50 minute cardio workout. Perfect dinner!
So glad you enjoyed them. Perfect dinner after a hard cardio session.
Very Good! Made them for a party so I used 1lb beef and 1lb pork.
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them.
A M A Z I N G!!!! This dish was truly delicious and super easy to make. I wanted this as a main course, so I julienned some onion, red pepper, carrots and broccoli and cooked them in a little sesame oil and served it all with jasmine rice. It was a great hit and that’s saying something with the picky eaters I have in my family!!
I’m so glad you love the meatballs. Thank you for sharing your additions.
I want to make this for a party and carry it. Would this recipe hold up if I cooked in a slow cooker?
Can’t wait to try this recipe. I want to make these and carry them to a party. Will this recipe work in a slow cooker, cooking in the sauce?
Yes, but I would recommend baking the meatballs first, and then adding them to the crockpot with the sauce.
The sauce for this recipe is KILLER! Make extra or thin with some fresh OJ like I did. I also grated some orange peel into it. With that said, my meatballs (HALVED RECIPE) were kind of tough. I like the idea of the veggies mentioned in an above post. Next time….and there will be a next time, I will stir fry various veggies and remove. I will saute lean ground turkey with seasonings, pour in the pre-made sauce and finally put the vegetables back in. We served with jasmine rice and gyoza tonight.
I love the addition of orange juice and orange peel. Thank you for sharing.
Excellent!!! I Will definitely make again.
Mary, I’m so glad you loved the recipe.
So easy, so yummy. The sauce was everything!!! Will be a staple in our home
I’m so glad you all loved it.
This was absolutely delicious! My family loved this recipe! I didn’t change a thing.
So glad everyone loved it.