
We’re all about saving our appetite until the main event, but sometimes, we want just a little something to snack on as we wait for Thanksgiving dinner. Whether you’re hosting this year or want to win at your Thanksgiving potluck (or Friendsgiving), this turkey cheese ball is the most adorable app that you can add to your spread. This cheese ball is not only the most eye-catching appetizer you can add to your holiday menu, but it’s surprisingly easy to create. Here’s everything you need to know:
The cheese ball:
We create our cheese ball (and our turkey’s body) with cream cheese, goat cheese, softened butter, fresh herbs, and garlic powder. We recommend letting your cream cheese and goat cheese come to room temperature before mixing to guarantee that everything mixes together easily. We went simple with this cheese ball, but feel free to get creative with it. Boursin cheese and white cheddar would be welcome here, add in your desired seasonings to taste, or feel free to switch out the toasted pecans for chopped walnuts, breadcrumbs, chopped bacon, or even leave it plain.
Decorating the turkey cheese ball:
We used carrots, pecans, pretzels, and bell peppers to create the iconic look of this Thanksgiving turkey. Carrots become the feet, eyes, and tail, yellow and red bell pepper become the face and beak, pecan halves are the wings, and pretzels and pretzel sticks complete the tail. Just like the cheese ball itself, feel free to sub out ingredients for what you have on hand!
Serving a turkey cheese ball:
We love to serve this turkey cheese ball with crackers, but you can also use the decorations as dippers too! Add more veggies and pita chips to your plate, and you’ve got a crowd-pleasing party app on your hands to keep your guests snacking until the big meal.
Made this recipe? Let us know how it went in the comments below!
Ingredients
For cheese ball
- 2
(8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
- 4 Tbsp.
butter, softened
- 6 oz.
goat cheese
- 1/2 tsp.
garlic powder
- 1/3 cup
freshly chopped chives
- 3/4 cup
freshly chopped parsley
- 1
sprig thyme, stem removed, plus more for serving
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
For decorating and serving
- 1 1/4 cups
pecan halves, toasted, divided
Red and yellow bell peppers
Orange and white carrots, julienned
Pretzels
Crackers
Directions
- Step 1Combine cream cheese, butter, goat cheese and garlic powder in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until smooth. Add chives, parsley, and thyme leaves and pulse a few times until well combined. Season with salt and pepper. Form mixture into a large ball.
- Step 2To make the turkey body, Pulse ¾ cups pecan halves in a food processor until finely chopped. Roll cheese ball in pecan crumbs and chill for at least 1 hour to allow the cheese ball to set up.
- Step 3To decorate: Make the tail by sticking pretzels, pretzel sticks and multi colored julienned carrots into the tail end of the turkey. Slice carrots to make the turkey feet. Cut a red bell pepper into a large triangle to make the face of the turkey and place on cheese ball using a toothpick or pressing into the cheese ball. Slice a smaller triangle from a yellow bell pepper and attach to the red triangle to make the beak using another toothpick. Slice a thin carrot crosswise to get 2 rounds, for the turkey eyes and place onto red triangle with toothpicks. For the wings, stick pecan halves into the sides of the body, overlapping each other to make a wing shape.
- Step 4Serve cheese ball turkey on a platter along with crackers.

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