Skip The Oven: This Easy Turkey Dinner Is Ready In Half The Time

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, many of us are gearing up to spend time with friends and family, and enjoy a delicious meal. For those who are hosting and doing the cooking, however, there is considerably more to the holiday. Aside from cleaning the house top to bottom, preparing a huge meal, including a whole turkey, can be stressful to say the least. Eschewing the turkey might take a major burden off your plate, but if you don't want to go fully historical with your Thanksgiving feast (the Plymouth settlers likely ate different game birds and venison) you might instead opt for oven-free, skillet-cooked turkey meatballs in a savory gravy.

Meatballs are an excellent option because you can stuff the flavors of Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing into them, minus the hours of cook time. In fact, if you consider a 20 pound turkey takes four to five hours to roast, and making turkey meatballs takes an hour, tops (depending on how long it takes you to roll them all out), you're saving yourself a lot of time. It also means your oven is completely free for all the delicious sides, like hopefully mistake-free green bean casserole and hot, pillowy rolls. Further, this is a great meal to pull out any time of the year when you want a Thanksgiving turkey-like dinner, without the fuss.

If you're looking for inspiration on what ingredients to use in your turkey meatballs, we have some suggestions (and it's worth noting that none of these ideas add any significant time to the meatball preparation). It's not the best idea to use straight ground turkey because it tends to be quite lean; as you can see in the video above, the creator also includes Italian sausage, which has much-needed fat to help keep the balls moist and tender. If you don't want to use sausage, though, you could take Ina Garten's advice and use prosciutto, or see if you can find ground turkey thighs, as opposed to breast meat, because it has a higher fat content.

Of course to get that real Thanksgiving dinner taste, you'll also want to use plenty of herbs. Sage has a savory, meaty flavor that will boldly season those meatballs, while thyme adds warmth and earthiness; both are often used in stuffing, and they'll pair nicely with your ground turkey and sausage as well. A little rosemary brings a peppery, piney flavor into the mix, and parsley brightens with its herbaceousness. 

For a sweet spin that adds another element of a popular Thanksgiving dish, toss in some dried cranberries that have been diced into little bits as well, or try pomegranate-infused Craisins. A touch of citrus zest, too, incorporates some sweetness and complexity.