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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.
Just made this, using Costco’s frozen stir fry vegetables, whole family loved it! This will be a go- to recipe because it is so easy, and the ingredients are simple and likely to have on hand.
That’s awesome Elysia! Thanks for stopping by.
Just made this for lunch today. We really liked it and it will be in the rotation now. I halved both sugars as you and others suggested, used frozen broccoli, and diced up a red bell pepper. So good! Thanks!
Came out amazing couldn’t believe I just made teriyaki sauce . I’m learning but it taste amazing
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Jennifer.
Hi can we use frozen veggies?
Sure! You can omit the cooking time for the veggies and juse make the sauce.
Just tried it! Very easy, I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!!! New favorite recipe!
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Robbie.
Can you use frozen broccoli?
Yes, but thaw it first and try to strain out as much water as possible. Otherwise it can cause the sauce to become watery.
Favorite family meal!
Nice! so glad you and your family loved it. Thanks for stopping by.
I love this recipe. I have been making it for months now and can’t get sick of it! I also tried it with different meats but so far turkey tasted the best. Thank you for sharing it with me!
You are so welcome Katarina, thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time to leave some positive feedback.
Super easy, tasty, and delicious! I am personally not a huge fan of teriyaki sauce, so I did as recommended and used 1T of each white and brown sugar. Come to find out I ended up adding the other 1T of each sugars. ? The recipe is really good as is. I did use fresh ginger as that’s what I had on hand, and added some white pepper to the ground turkey. But that was it. Hubby loved it too, (he doesnt like veggies) he ate seconds and some for lunch the next day. ?? thank you for sharing.
You are so welcome Melissa, thank you so much for taking the time to share your positive feedback and experience.
I loved this recipe. It was very easy to follow and it tasted delicious! Whenever I try new recipes I always make another meal just in case they don’t like it. And if they do, no cooking the next day. This meal went so fast in my home that they want it again tomorrow! Thanks so much. Can’t wait to try another one.
You are so welcome Justice, thank you so much for taking the time to leave some positive feedback. (what a great idea, 2 meals just in case.)
My two year old usually hate stuff like this and lovveeed it! We did quinoa instead as we had no rice and used peppers and zucchini. Will definitely be making again! Thanks for the great recipe! Might try with noodles next time 🙂
That’s awesome Karlee! Thanks for stopping by and leaving your positive feedback.
Im making this tonight. But i dont have all the ingredients. But i have teriyaki noodles so im gunna make that amd add ground turkey. Super excited but next time ill be using your ingredients. Thank you for this.
You are so welcome Lilly! Thanks for stopping by.
I made this last night for my husband and 2 year old and they liked it. I used store-bought teriyaki sauce and used 1 cup, which was WAY too much – too salty (but we do like salt, haha). I’ll definitely make it again, but next time use 1/2 cup of store-bought sauce. It’s a great recipe – very simple, since I used the store-bought sauce and the food processor to chop the broccoli and carrots. Thank you for the recipe!
So happy that you and your family loved this recipe Rebecca! Thanks for stopping by and leaving your feedback.
Used a pre-made sauce but we really enjoyed this meal. It was so simple and we will put it in our rotation.
Thank you Michelle for stopping by!
Add a teaspoon (or more if you like) of Sriracha to the sauce and was just enough spice/heat to this meal really kick. 🙂
Also used ground pork instead of turkey. Thanks for the recipe.
You’re so welcome Jay! thank you so much for stopping by!
Absolutely delicious! For me, everything was balanced and I didn’t deviate from the posted recipe. Cannot wait to make this again!
That’s awesome Christopher! So glad you enjoyed it!
Delicious! I didn’t have cornstarch or another starch powder so I just omitted the water and cornstarch. Not as thick as normal teriyaki but the flavor was solid! I’ll have to double the recipe next time as I almost didn’t get a bowl! Great for hungry kids and a hungry husband!
Nice! So happy that you and your family loved this recipe!
LOVED this … Perfect combination of flavours. Made a double batch of meat and veggies but only had enough soy sauce for one sauce batch and it was perfect. I also used coconut sugar instead of white and went with a helping T instead of 2T (brown sugar as directed). Used arrowroot powder in lieu of corn starch and that was also fine. Added chopped celery too. Just yummy – already looking forward to leftovers for lunch!!!! Will make this again!
I love that you were able to make it work for you Bailey! Thanks for stopping by.
Absolutely delicious! Making this for the third time
tonight!
Nice! Thank you so much for stopping by Shelli!
This is perfection! I’ve made it twice now, both times with picky eaters involved, and they asked for SECONDS! I never have enough for leftovers because it gets DEVOURED. We’re not a beef eating family AT ALL, so I’m always happy to see a recipe where turkey can shine like this instead having to only be a substitution. Thank you for coming up with something so simple, yet tasty!
You’re so welcome Joell! thank you so much for stopping by!
So yummy!! The flavors melted perfectly and complemented each other. Very easy prep and minimal clean up. Definitely going in my rotation. Don’t keep scrolling it’s what you’re having for dinner tonight!
Thank you Dar for the sharing your positive experience.
I was eager to try this recipe until I read the nutrition list, 1200 + mg. of sodium for one serving, and this is using lower sodium soy sauce! This is an excessive amount of sodium for anyone to eat. I try to keep my entrees at 500-600 mg per serving. Is there any way to substitute for the soy sauce? Maybe low sodium beef or chicken broth?
You could certainly cut the amount of soy sauce in the recipe. Or replace half of it with Worcestershire sauce mixed with water (3 tablespoons Worcestershire + 1 tablespoon water) for a lower sodium option. That would cut about 300-400 mg of sodium. So you would use 1/4 cup of low sodium soy sauce and the Worcestershire option I mentioned.