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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.
Made this for dinner last night and my 17 year old son LOVED it! Smelled fabulous. Having left overs tonight with lettuce cups.
Really yummy! I used brown sugar and then added honey to taste on the sauce. I also zested an orange peel. I would definitely recommend trying it with orange zest. Very yummy!
I LOVE THIS DISH AND SO DOES MY FAMILY! It is so easy to make and so healthy! Thank you!
did you ever figure out the calorie count on this? Just curious.
You can find this information using an app like my fitness pal.
We tried this for dinner last night. Everyone loved it! I used broccoli florets instead of chopped, thinly sliced the carrots, and added thinly sliced celery and bell pepper. I made the sauce as is and it wasn’t too sweet at all. 🙂
Instead of over rice I made lettuce wraps for a low carb option and used bean sprouts, onions and mushrooms instead of carrots and broccoli. Luckily my kids like vegetables so it was a hit.
Yes, I love this in lettuce wraps!
I made this tonight and the family loved it. I added a little more brown sugar. I think I will try this with chicken
Thank you so much. Very yummy
Liz
I haven’t tried the teriyaki turkey rice bowl yet but I’ve been looking for another recipe for ground turkey so I’m anxious to try it. thanks, Diane
So delicious! I subbed shredded brussel sprouts instead & it was so good. I’ll definitely be saving this recipe. So full of flavor.
Tried it last night. It was awesome. I did cut back the sugar and it tasted great. I’m thinking about adding chopped water chestnuts to the recipe. I think it will add a nice crunch to it. I had extra sauce, so I’m marinating chicken breast in it for another meal.
I added baby corn and water chestnuts for the kids.A success!
Was a hit with our family tonight! And my 12-year-old daughter enjoyed helping me prepare it! I served it with udon noodles – my kids compared it to an Asian “Noddles & Company” dish.
Thanks so much for posting this recipe. Came in handy while searching for a quick recipe after a long day of work. This was delicious!! My husband and I loved it.
The recipe was simple to make. I only subbed the broccoli for kale as I didn’t have broccoli on hand. This also made for wonderful lunch leftovers. Thanks!
Made this tonight and burnt my tongue because it was so good I couldn’t wait! So delicious and definitely will be laing this often.
This meal was tasty. I cut the brocolli and carrots a little chunkier cause my kids like brocolli and next time I think I’d add more. I couldn’t find my corn starch so I was going to make a rue to put into the pan and thicken it and ended up using one tsp of flour into the sauce and couldn’t wait to thicken it because my husband had to leave for work. So I ended up putting the sauce in meat mixture And let it simmer and it did well! Oh, I did add half a cup of water instead of a quarter.
Absolutely amazing! I served it with a peanut satee sauce and lettuce wraps. My family totally loved it, including my husband who hates ground turkey and my son who hates vegetables.
This was a wonderful recipe with deliciousness everywhere.
Tastes amazing. You know it’s a high quality recipe because you sauté the onions for a couple minutes, then add garlic. Garlic cooks faster, that small change makes a big difference! A+!!
I made this for the second time and it is awesome! I used frozen riced cauliflower and an extra carrot and it is a family hit. I serve it with rice noodles which really suits this recipe. Thanks!
Hi Kristin,
This is a great dish thank you for sharing!!
This was so good! Perfect flavor! I served with extra broccoli and Jasmine rice.