This Thanksgiving turkey rice bowl is a festive and delicious weeknight dinner to enjoy during the holiday season.

This is the 2nd dish in my 15 easy recipes that are “good on grains”, are made with less than 15 ingredients, and take less than 45 minutes to make. You probably already have these thanksgiving spices in your fridge (sage, rosemary, thyme, parsley), and if not, you can totally still make this without the herbs.

Paired with some easy sautéed kale and quinoa rice, this dinner is well balanced, cozy, and delicious.

Chef Tips:

• Don’t overmix the meatball mixture. Overworking the batter can tend to lead to a tougher meatball mixture. A tender meatball may seem like it will fall apart while browning, but because we pour the gravy over the browned meatballs, you don’t need to worry about flipping the meatballs and breaking apart.
• Use a small ice cream scoop to portion the meatballs. I don’t bother rolling them after their portioned (I don’t mind an imperfectly round meatball!)
• Instead of gravy poaching directly from browned / raw, you can bake the meatballs at 400F for 10 minutes before finishing the meatballs in the gravy. We do this for large batches of turkey meatballs and is what we do when we meal prep at Jackie’s Supper Club!

Ingredients for the Turkey Rice Bowl:

Thanksgiving Turkey meatballs

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup parm cheese, grated
• ¼ cup panko breadcrumbs 
• 6 sage leaves, chopped
• 1 sprig thyme, removed from the stem
• 1/2 teaspoon rosemary, chopped
• 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

Gravy

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

For the Bowl

• 1 bunch lacinato kale
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons water 
• Kosher salt
• Black pepper 
• 2 cups cooked rice

Ingredient Notes:

• Feel free to substitute ground chicken for ground turkey.
• You can use any leafy green instead of lacinato kale. Make this in the same pot you made the gravy after a quick rinse.
• The thanksgiving essence comes from the use of fresh herbs in the meatball – the sage, rosemary, thyme, and parsley. If you don’t have access to fresh herbs, you could also use 1 teaspoon of turkey rub, or another type of “thanksgiving” spice mix you may have on hand. If you don’t use the thanksgiving herbs, this meatball recipe turns into my 5 ingredient weeknight turkey meatballs, which are also delicious!

High Level Directions

Prep the herbs – chop the sage, rosemary, and parsley. Add this to a mixing bowl along with the thyme. 

Prep the lacinato kale and mince the garlic.

Mix all the meatball ingredients together.

Use a small ice cream scoop (about 1 ounce) to portion the meatballs into ~20 meatballs. 

Make the gravy. Heat a medium pot on medium heat. Add the 2 tablespoons of butter and melt. Once melted, add the 2 tablespoons flour and whisk together for 2 minutes to eliminate the raw flour taste. Add the chicken stock and salt and increase the heat to medium high. Whisk until the gravy comes up to a simmer, about 5 minutes.

Brown the turkey meatballs.

Pour the gravy into the pan with the meatballs.

Add in the remaining meatballs that didn’t fit into the pan, and cook for 15 minutes, covered.

Cook the kale, then serve with the meatballs and rice.

Other easy weeknight dinner recipes:

• Tomato Ginger Salmon Curry
• Vietnamese Inspired Shaking Beef Bowl
• Bulgogi Beef Rice Bowl

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