These baked, pepper jack cheese Stuffed Green Chile Meatballs are made with ground turkey, ground oats instead of breadcrumbs and a tomatillo sauce.
I wanted to make Chiles Rellenos the other day, but didn’t want anything deep fried. I also wanted to try using ground oats instead of breadcrumbs for a gluten free meatball. So I merged the ideas with ground turkey to make these Stuffed Green Chili Meatballs in Tomatillo Sauce.
These stuffed meatballs ended up being fantastic and with some homemade tomatillo sauce drenched over and then baked, these were super moist, soft and extremely flavorful.
With the abundance of green chiles lately I was excited to incorporate them, all roasted and chopped, into the meatball itself. I grilled them on the BBQ, removed the stems, and seeds and chopped them up. Allow them to cool down before mixing in the ground turkey. Feel free to used canned if you prefer.
While I was doing that I preheated the oven to 450°F. In a mixing bowl add the ground turkey, green chilies, ground oats (or bread crumbs), egg, Mexican oregano, garlic powder, salt and cumin. I had some string cheese sticks for snacking in the refrigerator and chopped them into small 1 inch chunks and inserted them into the meatball. They turned out pretty damn good.
I used a medium sized cookie scoop (or ice cream scoop if you have it, too) to start the meatball off and pressed the chunk of cheese into the scoop of the turkey mixture. It helped in that the cheese didn’t poke out the other side as  it did when I first tried these just in my hand. After wrapping the meat around the cheese, I popped it out of the scoop and rolled it into a smooth ball. This should make 16 meatballs.
I had made a beautiful green chile and tomatillo sauce the previous day and then changed my mind mid recipe and went another direction, so this came in handy, but feel free to use store bought if you prefer. Here is my recipe for my Tomatillo Sauce, it really doesn’t take that long to make and is much better than store bought to me.
Place the cheese stuffed meatballs in a greased 9×9″ baking pan. Pour the tomatillo sauce over the meatballs and then cover with aluminum foil to seal. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F and bake for 30 minutes with the last 5 minutes uncovered.
These Green Chile Meatballs were unbelievably moist, tender and so flavorful. The spiced tomatillo sauce napped over each meatball was thick and had just a hint of spice. I served this with some fresh grilled corn on the cob and called it a night. Enjoy!
This recipe was previously posted on Kevin Is Cooking in March 2016 and has been updated with new photos and a video.
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Stuffed Green Chile Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 4 oz canned green chilies
- 1/2 cup ground oats or breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp Mexican oregano
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 8 oz package Pepper Jack cheese Sticks (See Note1)
- 24 oz Tomatillo Sauce or Salsa (about 3 cups)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- In a mixing bowl add the ground turkey, green chilies, ground oats (or bread crumbs), egg, Mexican oregano, garlic powder, salt and cumin. Mix thoroughly with your hands.
- Next, cut 4 cheese sticks into 16 cubes, about 1/2 inch in size. Press each cheese cube into the scoop with turkey mixture and then mold the meat mixture around to completely cover the cheese cube.
- Place the meatballs in a greased 9x9" baking pan. Pour the tomatillo sauce over the meatballs and then cover with aluminum foil to seal. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F and bake for 30 minutes with the last 5 minutes uncovered.
Notes
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist's advice.
Is this 1/2 cup oats before or after being ground?
It’s a half cup of ground oats Jas, so after being ground.
Hi Kevin. I made these meatballs yesterday for the Bronco game. Great recipe, and easy. Thanks. I used lean ground beef. I’m not sure what ground oats are, so used quick cooking oatmeal. The meatballs rolled up perfectly and baked to perfection holding together beautifully. Love the cheese filling, I’ve never done that. I used 2 fresh roasted chopped Pueblo chile peppers and I also think 1 roasted chopped poblano would be good. I’m at high altitude and had to add about 5 minutes to cooking time. Again thanks for a great recipe.
Excellent! Thanks for coming back to let me know Lea Ann. I just pulse the oats in a food process sometimes so they are ground, your way obviously works too!
I’ve made these twice now; once with homemade salsa and once with jarred. Both turned out spectacular! I absolutely love that I can plop them in the oven and have them come out perfect! My husband LOVES these and makes nom-nom noises all through the meal!
I cannot, for the life of me, get these to cook with the time and temp given. I have no idea what to do. This is my second time making this. We love it in our home, I just want it to cook quicker than an hour. Maybe less sauce for me? I’ll have to experiment. Other than that, it’s yummy when it’s all cooked!! 😊
Sad to read you’re having difficulties, you’re the first to mention that Desiree. Could it be altitude, oven not correct temperature? Maybe try putting the meatballs in the oven uncovered and not sauced at the 450°F temp and cook 10 minutes, then sauce and drop temp as instructed and follow remaining instructions? Let me know!
So much flavor Kevin! These look awesome!
Thanks MaryAnn. I’m a lover of meatballs and the great thing is the possibilities in switching it up with them is endless. 🙂
These look just amazing. I like that you used the oats – i’ve never tried that before. I’ll have to give it a shot. And I LOVE a fresh tomatillo sauce!! Plus cheese…..I’ve totally got to make these.
I’m always thinking of ways my friend Mary, who is gluten free, can enjoy too. Thanks Danielle!
You gotta love a good tomatillo sauce. These looks GREAT, Kevin. Looking forward to making them again.
Thanks Mike. I think I love a green sauce over a red sauce actually. Tomatillos and chiles just hit the spot. 🙂
This is a winner for sure! Just made it for dinner (also made the tomatillo salsa) and we were so impressed. Not always a huge fan of ground turkey, but thought we’d give it a try. We used ground turkey thighs and the meatballs were juicy and delicious. This one will be in heavy rotation at our house, I can tell. We made extra salsa to freeze so we can whip it up on a weeknight!
This is a house favorite and reading this made my morning! Thanks for coming back to let me know Tessa!
Can you use ground chicken instead?
I think it would be fantastic Kathryn, yes. I’d go for it and please come back to let me/us know!
This recipe is yummy! Followed it exactly with delicious results.
Thanks a heap!
Always enjoy reading comments like this Martha. Thanks so much!
Hi Kevin! These look delicious and I am planning on making them this week for dinner one night. I was wondering: how many oz of pepper jack cheese do I need? I can’t seem to find the exact amount in the post and don’t want to mess up 🙂 thank you!
Hi Abby, I updated the recipe to reflect: Next, cut 4 cheese sticks into 16 cubes, about 1/2 inch in size. Press each cheese cube into the scoop with turkey mixture and then mold the meat mixture around to completely cover the chili/cheese cube. The cheese I get is a 16 oz bag, like string cheese sticks. I like to use Pepper Jack Cheese ones. If you can’t find them, use a block of cheese and cut into 1/2″ cubes. Hope this helps, enjoy and thanks so the heads up!
Thank you, Kevin! I’m excited to try this recipe 🙂
Thanks for stopping by Abby, these are terrific. 🙂
This is another I need to try! I love tomatillo’s, although they have only had them here once in my 8 years living here????. We tried planting the seeds, but nothing germinated. I do keep cand of green chili’s on hand though, the only thing I need to buy is the cheese, well and the corn looks good with????
I think often of going to other countries and setting up a Mexican import food business. I think even in some parts of the U.S. someone would make a killing! 🙂