This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
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.
Made this tonight. Very good, esp. the sauce!
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Douglas.
This is a delicious meal. I served it over jasmine rice (our favorite). I did cut back both sugars to half the amount listed and I was a little worried about the 2 tbsp. of red wine vinegar as that seemed like a lot. Well, it wasn’t a lot as it just blended in nicely with the other ingredients. My husband commented “This is really good.” I really don’t hear that too often. This is a delightful recipe.
Awesome feedback Joan! Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Kristin, this is a very tasty meal that we all enjoyed making and eating. I used a bag of broccoli, carrots and cauliflower we had. I used white rice since we had not had any for months and we had quinoa the night before. I will try quinoa or farro next time. Thanks
You are so welcome Steve! (Awesome feedback) thanks for stopping by.
What is an option for rice in the Ter. Bowls to cut down on the carbs?
Cauliflower rice would be a great option.
My family including very picky kids love this recipe!! I’m making it tonight going to try cutting the sugars in half ??
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Jenn.
I made the turkey teriyaki rice bowl for dinner tonight and I was concerned about the fact my husband is extremely picky. He had seconds!!
Nice!! Thanks for stopping by Chris.
Great recipe. Made as is. Love that you can swap out whatever you have on hand.
Great feedback Teena! Thank you so much for stopping by.
Wow! Pleasantly surprised with this recipe. So very tasty! I too cut both sugars in half and thought it was great. No complaints. Added some red pepper as I had one I needed to use. Gave it great taste and great pop of color. Thank you!
You are so welcome Kathryn! (Great Feedback) Thanks for stopping by.
This was very very very good I couldn’t ask for a better dinner to eat than this, for some reason it better than the real teriyaki at the Chinese places.??
Nice! Thank you so much for stopping by Asianae.
I made this tonight and it was a huge success! Thank you. My daughter couldn’t believe there were vegetables in it and my son, who likes “plain” things, said it was perfect because it wasn’t too saucy! It is getting put into rotation.
You are so welcome Carolyn! Thanks for stopping by.
I made this recipe tonight and it my family loved it! The only modifications I made was to add mushroom and served it over cauliflower “rice.” YUM this recipe is a keeper. 🙂
Nice! Thanks for the feedback MM.
Does the serving size include the rice? Or is this just for the ground turkey?
Hi Rebecca, A serving is is approximately 3/4 cup of rice and one cup of the meat/veggies mixture.
This recipe was super good! Only thing I would change is precooking my veggies before adding them into the stir fry, I like my veggies softer. Flavor wise though it was great, I will definitely be making again!
Awesome feedback Sophia! Thanks for stopping by.
This was a huge hit with my family! I highly recommend trying this recipe out.
I did half the recommended sugar amount and my family said it was perfect.
That’s awesome KLA! Thanks for stopping by.
Could you use honey instead of sugars?
Sure.
This recipe is super easy and yummy! I doubled the recipe and instead of carrots I added Zucchini and a yellow bell pepper plus some broccoli. I used one pound of ground chicken and one pound of ground Turkey. My husband and son had second helpings. This will be added to my list of yummy recipes.
Awesome feedback Dayna! Thank you so much for stopping by.
Made this and we loved it!!! We did cut down on the brown sugar and sugar. Thinking if there is a chicken version?
You could swap out ground chicken. Of you could make my Teriyaki Chicken Bowl.
Tried it and it was very good!
Nice! Thanks for stopping Ale.
I followed the recipe exactly and it was a complete success! The whole family loved it!
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Holli.
Just cooked this on 1/11/21 it was the bomb.com. Trying not to eat that much pork and beef so ground turkey is my main meat. Needless to say it can get boring sometimes. This was a wonderful way to spice things up!
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Shekinah.