Quick Healthy Turkey Patties Recipe For Breakfast (15 Minute Recipe)

With this recipe for healthy turkey patties you can enjoy a delicious and satisfying spiced breakfast “sausage” in minutes – or make ahead and freeze for a wonderful meal-prep option! Not only are these patties easy to make and taste fantastic, but they are also packed with protein to fuel your day. Give yourself and your family a healthy and quick breakfast with this high protein addition to your breakfast menu.

Looking for more easy breakfast ideas? Try my restaurant copycat Mediterranean Scramble here, the best – and easiest – Eggs Benedict here, or this High Protein Egg Bake!

I have been making my version of these turkey patties for many years after seeing the original in the classic Silver Palate cookbook.

I changed up the spices and measurements, and made the patties smaller so they would cook quicker.

One thing didn’t change, though – the great flavor that turns lowly ground turkey into a sausage-like breakfast patty. Only without all the sausage fat (not that there’s anything wrong with that, lol – just in moderation…).

This has been a go-to recipe for me for years because of three main things:

1. The flavor from all the spices and herbs.
2. A 15-minute prep and cooking time (for a pound of turkey).
3. How good they are to freeze and meal prep – and reheat with ease.

Recipe Ingredients

You’ll need the following ingredients to make these wonderful, healthy turkey patties recipe:

Ingredient Notes & Substitutions

• Ground Turkey: Using ground turkey breast will reduce the fat further, but the basic ground turkey’s higher fat will give make the patties a bit more like sausage. Ground chicken is a good substitute, and you could even use lean ground beef if you’d like.
• Breadcrumbs/Oats: Use rolled oats as a binder to keep this gluten free, either quick oats or regular (I do chop regular oats a bit to make them smaller). If not needing gluten free, use any breadcrumbs you have – bonus points if you keep homemade bread crumbs in the freezer for recipes like this!
• Seasonings: The recipe combo produces a lovely flavor that is reminiscent of sausage, but you can of course adjust to your tastes. The garlic and onion are essential in my mind, though.
• Oil: this is used for pan frying the patties, so you can use whatever you like for this.

How to Make Healthy Turkey Patties: Step by Step

Here are a few helpful visual instructions – the full instructions with exact ingredients can be found in the printable recipe card below.

Step 3: Brown the patties on each side a few minutes, flattening as needed, and then cover the pan and cook a few minutes more until thoroughly cooked through and no longer pink.

Pro Tip: Use a large electric skillet or griddle to be able to cook the whole batch at once. If using a smaller skillet, cook the patties in two batches.

Storage & Reheating

Storage: Store the patties in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Reheating: Heat 30 seconds to a minute in a microwave, 2-3 minutes in an air fryer or toaster oven.

Freezing: These patties freeze wonderfully! Store in a freezer baggie or container for 3-4 months.

Make Ahead Tip: Cook up a batch – or double batch – when you have time, cool and freeze. When ready to eat, simply pull from the freezer and microwave about a minute until warmed through. Or, thaw overnight and reheat in an air fryer or skillet for a few minutes.

Are Turkey Patties Healthy?

Ground turkey, typically sold as 93% lean with 7% fat, contains less overall fat than standard ground beef, especially less saturated fat. It’s about the same as lean ground beef unless you get a ground turkey breast only, which is super lean. So you could buy the leanest ground beef and come out about the same as the typical ground turkey.

However, this recipe is healthier because the patties are more like pork breakfast sausages with their spice profile and added egg. Compared this way the patties are a much better option, fat-wise, than typical breakfast sausage patties.

Here’s the general nutrition breakdown:

• Typical pork breakfast link (more the size of these patties vs. the larger breakfast patties): 60-70 cal; 5-6g fat; 3-3.5g protein
• This recipe for healthy turkey breakfast patties, per patty: 46 cal; 2g fat; 7g protein

The difference in protein alone is a big plus for this easy, 15 minute recipe!

Homemade = Healthier

A wonderful benefit of any homemade substitute is that you are controlling the ingredients and portion sizes so it’s easy to make a recipe healthier.

For this recipe, we are using the basic lean ground turkey, lots of spices to bring flavor in place of the fat, AND making the patties small to help with portions, all while upping the protein.

Now you can understand why I’ve been making these for so many years – and once you taste them, you’ll be sold!

What to Serve With Turkey Patties

• Make Ahead High Protein Eggs with Cottage Cheese
• Easy Make Ahead Baked Scrambled Eggs
• Asparagus and Ham Egg Cups with Easy Hollandaise Sauce

I hope you love this healthy turkey patties recipe! If you make it, be sure to leave a rating so I know how you liked it!