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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.
Table of Contents
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.
Perfectly Delicious!
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Mandy.
Can you do this in a slow cooker?
This recipe wouldn’t translate well to a slow cooker. But it’s really simple and only takes 20-30 minutes! 🙂
I’m usually not a huge fan of the flavor of ground turkey but this dish is so good. Definitely adding it to my recipe book!
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Larissa.
Delicious!!!
Thank you!
Loved it! I cut the carrots in tiny squares, I used frozen peas at the end. And used organic white sugar and honey to acquire the taste I wanted. You explain it very well! Thanks!
Thank you Diana! Thanks for stopping by.
Made this tonight – SO GOOD! I used a bag of peas and carrots with it and it was delicious. Thank you!
You are so welcome Melissa! Thanks for stopping by.
I made it tonight for my family and we all loved it. I replaced the broccoli with Lima beans and did not use corn starch cause I didn’t have it on hand. It was just delicious. Thank you for sharing.
You are so welcome Melody! Thank you for sharing your feedback.
Delicious! I did use a little less sugar like some suggested with the sauce. It was easy and a great way to use ground turkey instead of the usual burgers or meatloaf. I will definitely make this again. I might even just make the sauce to put over leftover cooked chicken and vegetables.
Thank you Lorraine! Awesome feedback!
Will definitely make this again. I was looking for a way to use my pound of ground turkey I had on hand. It was delicious.
My boyfriend and I devoured this for our lunch today and we discovered a new addition to our work lunch recipe list!! Instead of making our own teriyaki sauce I already had a bottle of the kikkoman teriyaki sauce in the fridge so we used that instead. It was quick, simple, and delicious. Thank you for sharing
You are so welcome Macuil! Thanks for sharing your positive feedback.
Got a chance to make this for dinner tonight and it will be put on the regular dinner rotation from this point moving forward! I did alter it a bit (very easy to do I may add which is why I liked the recipe). For the broccoli I only used the broccoli stems, added a celery stock and only used 1 carrot. For the sauce I added a tablespoon of Korean chili sauce to give it a bit of slice to balance out the sweetness. It was a hit with the family!!
Nice! Thanks for sharing your feedback Tom.
Very solid weekday recipe. Used one tablespoon of each kinda of sugar and still felt plenty sweet to me. Didn’t have broccoli so we subbed in peas which worked great. This was plenty of food for the two of us with enough for a big lunch (over white rice).
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Ben.
This bowl was so yummy! Myself and husband really enjoyed it! We found it a bit salty so we were going to cut the amount of soy sauce next time. But this will forsure be a regular meal. Can’t wait to try this with noodles next time. Thanks for sharing
This was really delicious and easy to make and for once I had all of the ingredients on hand, which never happens.
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Karen.
I made the turkey teriyaki rice bowl last night and it was DELICIOUS! Tasted like something I would get in a restaurant. Will definitely make it again. Thanks!
You are so welcome Sara! Thanks for the positive feedback.
Hi. How much ground turkey do you use and what is a serving size? Thank you. ?
The recipe calls for a pound of turkey. The recipe makes approximately 5-6 serving which is about 4 ounces of turkey plus the veggies. All nutritional information is approximate and based on a division of the ingredients and serving size.
Made this tonight for my family and we all loved it. My husband doesn’t like broccoli so I replaced it with red and green pepper; other than that I followed the directions to a T. We served it over rice. I added almonds and sriracha sauce to the table for optional toppings.
That sounds delicious Angie! Thanks for sharing your positive feedback.
What is the serving size for the calories?
This recipe makes 5 servings. Serving size is based on 1/5 of the recipe and how much veggies you use. I am not a nutritionist but I try to provide approximate nutritional information
Can I use rice vinegar instead of the red wine vinegar for the sauce? And would it still be the same amount needed
Yes you can and yes it would be.
I made this tonight but my husband and I found it way too salty. Too much soya sauce. We were disappointed we were not able to finish the dish.
To each his own. Did you used Low Sodium soy sauce or regular? I have found that it can make an incredible difference.
This was delicious! The sauce was perfect and I love the hint of ginger! Great, easy and tasteful meal for the family…Thank you!
You are so welcome Susie! Thanks for stopping by.
Can the teriyaki sauce be frozen for future use in this recipe? (If yes, as a time-saver, I might double the quantity at the time of preparation.)
Yes you could freeze the sauce on it’s own.