Turkey Cheeseball Recipe

For this past Thanksgiving holiday, I decided to make a cheeseball. I don’t know why exactly, but I did. Thus I took to the internet for recipes that incorporated the cheeses available in my fridge. I found several recipes that let me know mixing feta with cream cheese and pepper jack would be just fine, but I decided to forgo a formal recipes in favor of just randomly throwing things together.

I did try to make the cheeseball look like a turkey using dried fruit and cooked bacon. It looked more like a duck, but I tried. I get an E for effort. A tip… use a thicker cut of. bacon. Mine was super thin and it didn’t want to hold it’s shape well.

Thanksgiving Turkey Cheeseball

• Difficulty: easy
• Print

A yummy cheeseball mixing cream cheese, feta, pepper jack, and Parmesan cheeses. The ball is decorated to resemble a turkey using dried fruits and fried bacon.

Cheeseball

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 5 oz feta, crumbled
• 1 wedge Laughing Cow Creamy Spicy Pepper Jack
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
• 1 cup pepper jack, shredded
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 tsp garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp dried lemon thyme
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Decorations

• 3 pieces of thick cut bacon cut in half on an angle
• 1 dried apricot
• 2 dried cranberries

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese, Laughing Cow, yogurt, and lemon juice until well combined.
2. Stir in herbs, feta, garlic, and dried cranberries. Make sure to get these things as evenly distributed as possible to avoid pockets of garlic and cranberries on the bottom only.
3. Add the green onions and shredded cheeses, stirring gently until combined.
4. Spoon into plastic wrap and roll into a ball. Chill for an hour, unwrap, and garnish as desired.
5. If you want to attempt the turkey as I have it made, fry your bacon until crispy (don’t overcook and burn). Set on paper towels or rack to drain of grease and cool.
6. Take out your chilled cheeseball. Take 5 pieces of bacon and place on ball in a staggered pattern to make it look like turkey tail feathers. The angled cuts should be facing up.
7. On the opposite side of the cheeseball, add your dried apricot slice to the middle, curved side up. Add the remaining piece of bacon right next to it to simulate the waddle.
8. Place your two cranberries above your apricot nose to make eyes. Return to fridge to chill until ready to serve.

My family is not feta lovers and some even dislike pepper jack, but they had half this cheeseball eaten before we sat down to dinner. That’s saying something. This was served with Wheat Thins and Ritz crackers and went well with both. You could also serve thus with pretzels and bagel chips. This stuff was awesome on toasted cranberry bagels or everything bagels, by the way.

My family also took apart the bacon tail and ate it with the cheeseball. Next time I think I’ll add chopped bacon directly to the cheeseball mix.

Advertisement