Turkey Meatballs with Piri-Piri Sauce

Recently a friend asked if I could give her ideas for make-ahead meals.  She wanted meals she could just heat up after work.  Meatballs are always a great idea.  Having meatballs in your freezer gives you a lot of versatility.  A good meatball can be the base for so many quick meals.  They can be added to pasta sauce, to soups, to gravies and, to a stir-fry.  

This recipe for  Piri-Piri meatballs is made with ground turkey but feel free to use beef or pork or a combination of both.  They make a great lunch or dinner.  I like them on a bed of raw spinach with some yogurt or stuffed in a warm pita with tzatziki sauce or on a bed of rice with sautéed veggies.  These meatballs, and sauce, are super delicious and definitely make-ahead and freezer friendly no matter how you choose to prepare them.

First the sauce.  Piri-Piri sauce is a Portuguese-South African sauce usually made with the African Bird's Eye Chili.  While that type of pepper is not available in my local grocery store, a red Fresno chili or another red hot pepper will work as a substitute.  Typically this sauce is used on grilled or roasted chicken, but I find this sauce delicious on almost anything.  

1 cup of roasted red peppers (the jar ones are fine), drained
1 red pepper, seeded
1 garlic clove
3 Tablespoons of olive oil
2 Tablespoons of red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon of paprika (regular or smoked)
1/2 teaspoon of granulated sugar

​Place all items in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Done.

For the meatballs.  Like I said I used ground turkey but ground chicken would also be great.  Just remember if you are using ground poultry, use the dark meat or at least 70% dark.  All-white meat poultry doesn't have enough fat in it and will make the meatballs dry.  


2/3 cup of breadcrumbs 
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced or grated
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon of paprika (regular or smoked)
1-1/2 lbs. ground turkey
1 egg, beaten
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
3/4 cup of plain yogurt
3 Tablepsoons of piri-piri sauce

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  

In a large mixing bowl combine the breadcrumbs, garlic, salt, cumin and, paprika. Next add the ground turkey, beaten egg, olive oil, yogurt and, Piri-Piri sauce.  Gently fold all the ingredients together.  You want to incorporate all of the ingredients but you don't want to over mix.  Over mixing will make the meatballs dense and dry. 

Once mixed, use a tablespoon or a small scoop to form (roll) meatballs and place them on a lined baking sheet.  Bake in the oven until the meatballs are firm, cooked through, and register 160 degrees with a meat thermometer.  

If you are freezing the meatballs, just let them completely cool on the baking sheet and then place the baking sheet in the freezer.  Once frozen, you can add the meatballs to a freezer bag.  Freezing them this way allows you to just take out as many as you like without having to defrost the entire bag.