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The delicious, sweet teriyaki sauce and the (kind of) hidden veggies in this Teriyaki Turkey Rice Bowl makes this one of those healthy ground turkey recipes that your whole family will love!
We love quick and easy Asian inspired recipes, and have quite a few here on the site! Some of our favorites are included in our monthly dinner rotation, like Egg Fried Rice and Crockpot Orange Chicken.
I love Asian inspired dishes, and Teriyaki is a family favorite. The sweet and savory richness of the sauce really compliments the flavors of the turkey. Plus it’s loaded with veggies, which means my kids are eating them! You can pair this with steamed rice or noodles, or even wrap it up in a Lettuce Wrap.
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Ground Turkey Teriyaki Rice Bowls
Ground turkey recipes are always a winner in our house, like Turkey, Kale and Rice Soup, Turkey Taco Stuffed Shells and Spicy Turkey Meatloaf. These Teriyaki Turkey Rice Bowls always top the list of favorites.
My kids are not fans of vegetables. Well, quite frankly that is an understatement. They hate them. So I have had to get clever with how I add veggies to our meals.
The ground turkey is juicy and the teriyaki sauce is sweet and flavorful. Add in all the wonderful veggies and you’ve got a perfectly complete meal that makes great leftovers.
Why We Love This Recipe
- It’s a quick and easy, a healthy alternative to ground beef, and an easy substitution in tons of recipes like chili and spaghetti sauce.
- We include lots of veggies and dice them up small so it’s very kid friendly and a great way to get kids to actually enjoy eating their vegetables.
- You can easily customize this recipe to include your favorite veggies or add a different base like rice or noodles.
How to Cook Ground Turkey
Ground turkey is a light, bright pink color when it’s raw or uncooked. As it cooks the color will change from pink to a light brown color. Seasoning is important, since it has a very mild flavor that takes on whatever flavors you add. It’s delicious with just a little garlic, onion and salt added but you can also add it to chili, spaghetti, tacos and more by changing the seasoning.
How to Make Teriyaki Turkey Rice Bowls
- Cook the ground turkey. After cooking the meat with some onions and garlic, grate few carrots and chop some broccoli very fine, and toss them in with the meat. This gave the illusion that there weren’t very many vegetables in there, but they couldn’t avoid what they couldn’t see! *Note – if you are serving this as a rice bowl, you’ll want to start cooking the rice before you start cooking the meat.
- Make the teriyaki sauce. The teriyaki sauce is made from scratch and is incredibly easy. Some readers have commented on the amount of sugar in the sauce, and you can see in the recipe notes that you can reduce to your liking. Teriyaki sauce is typically sweet on it’s own, but you can adjust the levels based on your needs. It will still taste great!
- Assemble the rice bowls. The teriyaki sauce is combined with the meat and veggies and simmered for a few minutes to let the flavors blend and get all happy. Then scoop it on top of white or brown rice, noodles, into lettuce cups or even flour tortillas for some Asian-Mexican fusion!
How to Serve
Sprinkle some sliced green onions and sesame seeds on top before serving. It’s a pretty garnish and add a little flavor, too.
My kids love to eat their rice bowl with chopsticks. If you don’t have any, you can find them here, or try these adorable training chopsticks for kids.
How to Store Leftovers
- Refrigerating leftovers: This dish will keep for 3-4 days in the fridge if properly stored in an airtight container. Reheat in the microwave or on the stove.
- To freeze, allow to cool completely, then pour into a freezer bag or airtight container. Freeze for up to 6 months. Thaw in the fridge and reheat as described above. Freeze rice or noodles separately from the meat.
Recipe Variations
Feel free to customize this recipe to fit your own personal tastes. Use cut up veggies and sauté or steam them before adding them to the turkey and sauce.
Some other veggie options:
- Bell peppers
- Snow peas
- Water chestnuts
- Bok choy
- Bean sprouts
- Zucchini
- Corn
- Cauliflower
- Water chestnuts
I have received lots of comments over the years on how much people love this recipe, but also how they change it up and make it their own for something truly unique and delicious.
- Ground turkey recipes are the tastiest when the meat is seasoned properly. Add some heat to this dish with some Sriracha or red pepper flakes.
- Not fans of rice? Use noodles instead. You can even use spaghetti noodles to mimic a lo mein and toss in some cabbage to saute it with.
- Feel free to cut the amount of sugar in this recipe. It won’t affect the flavor but it will swing more towards the savory side.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you absolutely can! Ground turkey recipes can easily swap ground beef, pork or chicken. You will want to make sure to drain it really well since ground beef lets out a lot of liquid, but it will work just as well as the ground turkey.
When you purchase lean ground turkey at the store, it has a “sell-by” date. Your meat will likely last 1-2 days past this date if properly stored in it’s original packaging in your refrigerator. To further extend the shelf life, freeze it within 1 day past the sell by date. To maximize freshness, wrap the packaged turkey in foil and place in a freezer bag. Follow these steps to ensure you always have fresh meat on hand for all of your favorite ground turkey recipes!
More Ground Turkey Recipes
- Creamy Cheesy Turkey Taco Pasta
- Turkey Taco Soup
- Spicy Turkey Meatloaf Recipe
- Smoked Sausage and Zucchini Skillet
Teriyaki Turkey Rice Bowl
Ingredients
Teriyaki Sauce
- 1/2 cup Less Sodium Soy Sauce
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar or less as desired
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar or less as desired
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons warm water
Ground Turkey
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup diced onion
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 pound Ground Turkey
- 1 cup finely chopped broccoli
- 2 large carrots peeled and grated
- 2 green onions diced, for garnish
- 4 cups cooked white or brown rice divided
Instructions
- Mix soy sauce, ¼ cup water, red wine vinegar, sugars, garlic and ginger in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir with a whisk until sugar is dissolved.
- In a small bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons warm water and cornstarch until cornstarch is completely dissolved.
- Heat sauce over medium high heat. Slowly whisk in cornstarch mixture and simmer until thickened. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add diced onions and cook until soft.
- Crumble ground turkey and garlic into the pan and cook until turkey is about half cooked. Add grated carrots and chopped broccoli and continue to cook until turkey is no longer pink.
- Pour teriyaki sauce over cooked turkey and vegetable mixture and stir. Simmer for about five minutes to combine the flavors.
- Spoon meat over rice or noodles. Garnish with green onions and serve immediately.
Notes
- Teriyaki Sauce is generally sweet. However, feel free to cut back on the amount of sugar in the sauce. 1 tablespoon of each would suffice if you prefer a more savory than sweet flavor.
- The nutritional information is based on serving this teriyaki turkey over white rice. Use brown rice or just less rice to reduce calories and carbs.
- Feel free to customize this recipe with your favorite vegetables.
- A note about SERVING SIZE: A serving is approximately ¾ cup of rice and one cup of the meat/veggies.
- The serving sizes are approximate and will vary depending on a variety of factors, like how much you cook your veggies down and what size your cuts of vegetables are. As a meal, this recipe will make 4-6 servings.
Kids and family love this.
I searched “ground turkey recipes” because it was late and I needed we make something quickly to keep my boyfriend and friends from the urge to buy takeout and this was a huge hit! Not only was the food great, but we have fun doing it together. We subbed broccoli for peas and all agreed that water chestnuts or cashews would be a great add-in for next time (because we’re totally making it again). Thanks for helping us create a great meal!
Thank you for sharing your success Ariana! So glad you enjoyed it and I love your idea for adding cashews!
This is such a great, simple recipe ~ thanks! It’s in regular rotation at our house.
So glad you enjoyed it Kim!
I don’t have red wine, could we substitute with white wine?
The Red Wine Vinegar has a distinct flavor, but in a pinch you could swap for white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar.
I have both, thank you. Already prep everything about to start making it ?
I made this tonight and it turned out great. I reduced both sugars by half and it was still sweet enough for us. We are attempting to reduce our sugar intake. Most recipes I reduce the sugar content in half.
How Manny servings dose this make please?
It makes 3-4 servings.
Hi!
I was just wondering how this does with freezing (if you’ve tried that) for making make ahead meals?
I love this recipe, it is so good!
I haven’t tried that, but I think it would freeze fine.
This was very delicious but I cut the sugar drastically! I use 2T or brown and1T of white. It was still really sweet. My kids loved it too. Thanks!
I just made this tonight. It was delicious. I didn’t have any broccoli in the house but did have half a red, half a yellow, and half a green pepper. So I did onion and peppers and left out the carrots and broccoli. It was absolutely amazing and my boyfriend loved it. Asked for leftovers for lunch and to add to the rotation in our meals for sure!! Thanks for sharing.
That’s great! It’s super versatile and you can definitely swap out different veggies or even proteins!
I’ll admit, I started out thinking I wouldn’t like this. Because, in the past I haven’t like ground turkey. But this was DELICIOUS! My kids inhaled it and I wasn’t far behind them. I might have to change my mind about ground turkey. 🙂
I love how easy it is and that it’s a homemade teriyaki sauce. Super delicious and I’m excited about the leftovers for lunch!
So glad you liked it! Ground turkey is like chicken in that it takes on any flavor you give it!
I’m just wondering, around how long does it take to make this? 20 mins? And I bet this would taste delicious with ground chicken!
Yes, 20 minutes is about right – hope you enjoy!
Made this tonight, used beef instead!! Was awesome! And easy! My new favourite sauce!!
This is delicious! Made it for dinner tonight, and it was even better than I expected. It’s very filling, so I have plenty for leftovers. Keeping this on my regular dinner rotation. Thank you for posting this!
So glad you enjoyed it! The meat mixture is delicious in lettuce wraps too, which is perfect for leftovers!
I’m looking forward to making this but I was wondering why you had two sets of minced garlic in the recipe? When do I use the 2 teaspoons and when do I use the 2 tablespoons?
The teaspoons is for the sauce and the tablespoons are for the meat mixture. Sorry that wasn’t more clear! 🙂
Made this for the family tonight and it was a hit! It is now going to be added to our rotation. The only change was that I used less sugar and I omitted the carrots simply because we didn’t have any! Both my kids devoured it with rice and husband and I loved it, too! Loved that it was a meal that gave you low carb/yes carb choices. Many thanks!
Just made this for dinner and my family of 6 loved it! I want to share it with my mom who follows weight watchers. She needs to know the calories, fat, fiber, etc. info. Any idea on the specs of this delish dish?
Hi Amber,
Unfortunately I am not a nutritionist so I hesitate to attempt to give out nutritional information. However there are many nutrition calculators available online. Good luck!
Ok, thanks!
Amber if you put all the ingredients into your app you should be able to get the smart points for this
Perla
Just made this for dinner and am in heaven! It so good!!! I like a little heat so I added some cayenne pepper to it.
This will be going into rotation. Thanks!
Oh what a great idea! Glad you enjoyed it!! It’s one of my all time favorites. 🙂
this seemed a little overwhelming, but it wasn’t!! easy to prepare, and so yummy!! will make again!
I know it looks like a lot of ingredients, but that’s just for the sauce – you could always use a bottled teriyaki sauce if you wanted! But I’m glad you gave it a shot. It’s one of my favorite meals to date!!
My husband & I enjoyed this recipe – great as leftovers too! Thanks for sharing.
Made this for my daughter yesterday for dinner and she said, “mommy this is the best meal in the world!” It was pretty tasty if I say so myself.
That’s great!!
Thank you, Kristin for this recipe! My 9 year old granddaughter will only eat mac & cheese. Since I had a frozen ground turkey breast in my freezer and had all these ingredients on hand I made it for her and she absolutely loved it!
Thanks,
Jane
This sounds delicious and will be a meal (with leftovers for work lunch) this week! I know just how you feel about trying to sneak veggies into your kids…mine were the very same way! Thanks for sharing!