Pressure Cooker Turkey Meatballs (Instant Pot)
Turkey and stuffing all rolled into one delicious meatball. Serve over creamy mashed potatoes and gravy and you have an easy to make turkey dinner. These Pressure Cooker Turkey Meatballs have all the flavors of a big turkey dinner without all the work.
Genene Abraham is the meatball guru that came up with this fun Thanksgiving Meatball recipe. She’s been working on perfecting it for several months so it would be ready for the big day.
She is a moderator for my new Facebook pressure cooker group, The Electric Pressure Cooker Group, and we’ve teamed up on other popular recipes, Pressure Cooker Chicken Parmesan Meatballs in a Creamy Ranch Sauce and Pressure Cooker Stuffed Green Pepper Casserole.
Making Pressure Cooker (Instant Pot) Turkey Meatballs – Thanksgiving Meatballs
An Instant Pot is one of the most popular brands of electric pressure cookers. They are easy to use and your Instant Pot can help you create these delicious Pressure Cooker Turkey Meatballs!
Genene used her homemade cornbread stuffing, but I went the easy route and just bought some cornbread stuffing mix at the grocery store. The stuffing mix has plenty of spices, so I just added parsley, salt and pepper to the meatballs.
You’ll use an egg to bind the ingredients together. Then refrigerate the meatballs for 30 minutes so they hold their shape better while cooking. Then you pressure cook the meatballs for just five minutes.
After pressure cooking, you can quickly brown the meatballs in a skillet. Browning is optional, but it does add flavor and makes a nicer presentation when served.
Use the turkey broth in the pressure cooking pot to make a flavorful gravy while you’re browning the meatballs. Or, you can transfer the broth to the skillet after the meatballs are browned and make the gravy in the skillet. That way you can scrap up some of the brown bits from the bottom of the skillet.
Serve your Thanksgiving meatballs with creamy pressure cooker mashed potatoes and a little cranberry sauce.
I was impressed with how flavorful these meatballs are. You really do get all the flavors of Thanksgiving dinner in one bite.
For those of you who don’t have time or prefer not to have a big Thanksgiving dinner, this is a great alternative. Although, you don’t have to serve them just for Thanksgiving, they’d be great all year round.
Thanks Genene for sharing the recipe with me and my readers. My family loved it!
Pressure Cooker Turkey Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground turkey
- 1 cup seasoned cornbread dressing
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1 14.5 ounce can turkey broth
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 3 tablespoons water
Instructions
- In mixing bowl mix ground turkey, dressing, parsley, salt & pepper, and egg . Form into golf ball size meatballs. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Add the turkey broth to the pressure cooking pot. Spray a trivet or steamer basket with non-stick cooking spray. Place the trivet into the pressure cooking pot and place meatballs on the trivet. Lock the lid in place. Cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. When timer beeps, do a natural release for 5 minutes, then use a quick pressure release to release the remaining pressure.
- Heat a large skillet on high heat. Add vegetable oil and quickly brown meatballs on two sides.
- Select saute on the pressure cooker and bring the turkey broth to a gentle boil. In a small bowl, dissolve cornstarch in water and add to the pot. Simmer until gravy thickens. Add plenty of salt and pepper to gravy to taste.
- Remove the pressure cooking pot from the pressure cooker and add the meatballs to the sauce and stir to combine. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.
- Serve over mashed potatoes. Garnish with additional parsley if desired.
More recipes you might like:
Pressure Cooker Pumpkin Pie, Pressure Cooking Today
Sweet Potato Casserole, Pressure Cooking Today
Homemade Cranberry Jelly, Pressure Cooking Today
Low-Carb and Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Side Dishes, Kalyn’s Kitchen
Instant Pot Mashed Chipotle Sweet Potatoes, Boulder Locavore
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My family loves these i once made them and didn’t have any broth so used water an soy sauce instead and served it over rice with gravy. It was good too. I tried using bread crumbs but they were bland even though i added extra seasoning.
Thanks Robin – glad they were a hit with your family. Sounds like a great way to use what you have on hand.
I have made these three times using ground turkey and they are wonderful every time. However, with the salmonella scare and recall on ground turkey, I wanted to make these for Thanksgiving but not use ground turkey. I decided to try ground veal since it should have a mild flavor. I made this for Thanksgiving and everyone loved them and said they couldn’t tell any difference from the ones made with ground turkey. So, if you ever can’t get ground turkey or want to try something new, ground veal will work.
I want to make these for a Christmas dinner with the grandkids and was wondering if cooking them in a pressure cooker is really needed? Couldn’t I Brown them first then let them simmer in the turkey gravy to finish?
Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Angie – You could absolutely make them that way. Enjoy!
I made these and they were a big hit! Everyone loved them! And bonus…I got an Instapot for Christmas!
That’s exciting! Have fun 🙂
Ohhh I want it! Yum!
I made these for Thanksgiving and they were a huge hit. My granddaughter went back for seconds! My only concern is that these meatballs were quite a bit more dense than my regular meatballs. Do you think I used too much stuffing mix? They seemed kind of dry so I did add a tiny bit of water when I was mixing them. The flavor was wonderful but the texture was a bit dense. Any suggestions?
Thanks Ann – so nice to hear they were a huge hit! Yes, next time I would try reducing the stuffing if they were too dry.
Thank you. My husband wants me to make them again “very soon”.
Can I mix the dry cornbread dressing as directed, then take a cup to add to the turkey?
Sure if you’d rather do it that way. If it’s too wet, just add more cornbread dressing.
Thank you very much Barbara
I substituted oatmeal ( ground up in a mini-food processor) and used Trader Joe’s 21 spice blend for the seasoning.
The meatballs were fantastic. And I ‘ll definitely make them again and again! Thanks for the recipe!
How fun! Thanks for sharing your changes Bonnie 🙂
I’m very intrigued by the steamer basket pictured. Does that fit in the Instant Pot? What size is it, do you have a place it can be purchased?
Hi Lynne – it’s a great steamer. It came with my 6 quart Fagor pressure cooker and is available on the Fagor website https://www.fagoramerica.com/shop2/accessories
It is reasonably priced. Are there other recipes when I could use this pot?
I love the sound of this recipe. I can’t wait to try it. You said that Genene used her homemade cornbread stuffing, but you used a stuffing mix from the store. Would it be necessary to use a little liquid in the meatballs to compensate for the dryness of the mix vs already made stuffing? I hope that makes sense, but when I make my own cornbread dressing, it has some liquid in it to help mix it together and definitely is not dry like the store bought mix would be. I would use the store bought mix for this. Thanks.
Thanks Ann – I added an egg to mine and that was enough to compensate for the dryness of the mix. No additional liquid is necessary. Enjoy!
Did you use the dry stuffing mix straight out of the package or did you prepare it according to the package directions and then use a cup of the prepared stuffing?
Dry right out of the package.
THANK YOU!
Hi Barbara – this sounds great and something I’d like to try. I’m stumped about the ‘seasoned cornbread dressing’. It that something that comes in a box or something you’d prepare in advance of making this? I’m not familiar with it. Can you suggest a substitution for this like panko breadcrumbs or????? Thanks!
Hi Sooz – there’s a picture of the cornbread dressing that I used near the top of the page. It’s widely available in US grocery stores. You could also make your own cornbread dressing. Perhaps Carol can share hers? Or, you could substitute dried breadcrumbs with stuffing spices https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/stuffing-in-the-pressure-cooker/
Hello Sooz, Barbara asked that I comment just to give the difference in her stuffing and mine. The directions that Barbara has given in just adding egg to the premade Cornbread bag Stuffing should work well. I can’t give you a small scale recipe for mine as I mix up a very large batch and freeze in quart size freezer bags so I can cook it when I want to. Can you make cornbread and sub that for the bagged mix?
We eat the Cornbread Dressing with Chicken and Fish throughout the year. https://www.copymethat.com/r/fToTwTf/cornbread-dressing-in-the-ip/
Yum!!! I always have ground turkey in the freezer and get tired of using it in the same recipes over and over. This gives me a new option. Can’t go wrong with turkey and stuffing-and meatballs! Thanks Barbara and Genene! 🙂
Hi Barbara,
There’s a mistake in the recipe, calling for ground chicken instead of turkey. I thought you might want to know. Also, is it possible to sauté the meatballs in the Instant Pot first, before pressure cooking? It might save using up another skillet to clean up later. Just wondering…
Thanks for all the wonderful recipes you post on your site!
Thanks for the heads up Sydney I updated the recipe. Yes, you could brown the meatballs before pressure cooking if you prefer. Let me know how it goes. Thanks!