This Korean Ground Turkey recipe is a fast, healthy, and convenient family weeknight dinner. With no prepping this meal comes together in only 20 minutes! Great served along with steamed vegetables, this is a meal you will come back to time and time again!
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So this recipe is a total cheater recipe, it is many times removed from the original Korean Beef that it is based after, so before anyone calls me out on it not be authentic I 100% realize this. I was most interested in coming up with a cheap, healthy, and fast version of this beloved dish that anyone can make. Korean Ground Turkey & Rice Bowls are so incredibly easy, it is a recipe that literally anyone could make and it is done fast, like dinner on the table in 20 minutes fast.
So why’d I do all these switches:
• I wanted to ditch the red meat and go with a leaner white meat option.
• Ground turkey where I live & shop (costal New Hampshire Market Basket’s) is way cheaper then ground beef. This might not be the case for everyone everywhere but I have come accustomed to grabbing for the ground turkey instead of beef.
• You can use very low fat ground turkey and it will still taste amazing, a lot of times ground turkey can be a little tasteless, not in this recipe the sauce adds so much flavor, to quote my husband, ‘I didn’t know you could make ground turkey taste this good’.
• I tried to keep the sauce simple but I did change out the traditional brown sugar for honey. I try to keep my family away from refined sugars and try to stick with natural sweeteners if necessary. In this recipe my husband actually preferred the honey flavor over the brown sugar flavor!
Overall I hope you enjoy these Korean Ground Turkey & Rice Bowls for a super quick weekday dinner or lunch!
How do I make Korean Ground Turkey?
With essentially no prep this meal comes together incredibly easy!
To start you will want to get your rice cooking, depending on your method or package instructions this will likely take longer than then it takes to cook the turkey, so get it started first. Follow the package instructions or hop over to my post about How to Cook Rice on the Stovetop for an easy method!
To get the turkey going you will heat a large skillet over medium heat. Crumble and brown the ground turkey 8-10 minutes until fully cooked. Drain out grease if needed.
While turkey is cooking, make the sauce. Add garlic, honey, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, red pepper flakes, and black pepper to a bowl. Mix together.
Once turkey is fully cooked add the sauce to the skillet. Cook 3-4 minutes until the sauce thickens/absorbs into the turkey.
To serve fluff and scoop rice into bowls. Divide the turkey over the rice and garnish with sliced green onions and sesame seeds.
Serve immediately and enjoy! Goes great with steamed broccoli or carrots.
TIPS & TRICKS:
• For the rice: use whatever rice (or grain) you prefer. In my opinion white rice tastes best but might not be the best option for you, choose brown rice or even cauliflower rice for a healthier option.
• This dish goes great with some steamed broccoli
• Remember to start your rice cooking before you start on the ground Turkey, it takes longer 🙂
• I have gotten a lot of feedback that people love to double the sauce, so by all means double the sauce!
Korean Ground Turkey & Rice Bowls
flavorful Korean style ground turkey served over steaming rice and garnished with green onions & sesame seeds
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 2 cups uncooked rice (white or brown)
- 4 cloves garlic, grated or minced
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- green onion & sesame seeds for garnish
Instructions
- Cook rice according to package directions.
- In a large skillet, over medium heat brown the ground turkey 8-10 minutes until fully cooked.
- While turkey is cooking, make the sauce. Add garlic, honey, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, red pepper flakes, and black pepper to a bowl. Mix together.
- Once turkey is fully cooked add the sauce to the skillet. Cook 3-4 minutes until the sauce thickens/absorbs into the turkey.
- Serve the turkey over the rice. Garnish with green onions and sesame seeds.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Amount Per Serving: Calories: 617.14Total Fat: 11.64gSaturated Fat: 2.79gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 14gCholesterol: 120mgSodium: 943.64mgCarbohydrates: 96.83gFiber: 0.32gSugar: 17.51gProtein: 30.33g
Nutritional data is automated, final nutritional information will depend on ingredients used and any changes made.
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Peace & Love
Lauren, The Schmidty Wife
(post updated 04/30/2019 to include additional information)
P.S. Looking for other quick dinners? Try my 20 Minute Chicken Stir Fry, One Pot Southwest Quinoa or my Thai Peanut Chicken & Veggie Bowls.
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This was so delicious! I could eat this meal every week. I love how easy it was to come together. I added a bit of shredded carrots for color.
My daughter has the hardest time with the texture of meats. Ground turkey has been a go-to, but we can only have ground turkey tacos for so long! I saw this recipe while googling “recipes with ground turkey,” hoping I would find a recipe that was going to be a keeper for our family. This was it! My daughter had seconds! Putting this into our meal rotation. Thank you!
I have made this numerous times, but never think to take a picture. It is one of our favorites. Love it.
This was a hit with my family. The fact that it takes less than half an hour was a hit with me. I might use a little less honey next time, but there will be a next time.
So glad you enjoyed it JC! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!
I am not a fan of ground turkey but a friend went shopping and bought some for my family… so I had to find a recipe that would suit my family’s tastes. This recipe worked and the sauce is very very similar (almost identical lol) to one of my own sauces I make for different dishes. I wouldn’t have thought to use it with the ground turkey had I not found this recipe. I did use less soy and fresh ginger. My family did enjoy this recipe and we now have a dish to eat with ground turkey.
I am so glad you found this recipe and now have it to use with ground turkey! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!
If you dont have sesame seed oil what can you use instead?
Hey, So the sesame seed oil does add quite a bit of unique flavor to this dish, so if you don’t use it it will change the taste, but in a pinch you could use any neutral oil like canola or vegetable oil it just won’t quite have the same taste.
This was super easy to make, and tasty. But it was a little dry. Needs some sauce or something. Also the texture of the mince and the rice end up very similar.. lots of chewing! Maybe it might be better with noodles. Also the recipe doesn’t specify, but definitely I recommend using light soy sauce not dark soy sauce, or the flavour will be too strong.
Awesome recipe. I sent this to my wife who wanted a “ground turkey” recipe. Easy to make, great tasting!
I have never before left a comment on an online recipe… but for this one, I HAD to. It was fantastic & the entire family LOVED it.
I made some adjustments:
I left out the red pepper all together simply because I personally don’t like it.
To my horror, once I was browning the meat and making the sauce, I discovered I did not have any ginger, which we ALWAYS have. So I decided to put in some onion flakes and a umami.
I too did double the sauce, after reading the comments, and the first thing my husband said was “I want more sauce! Next time, quadruple it!”
We will be making this one again. Hopefully next time with ginger.
Krissy you just made my day!! I am so happy you and the family enjoyed it 🙂
Made this tonight with added grated carrot and peppers…Everyone loved it! An excellent way to use your ground turkey.
I’ve been using this as a filling for Korean style tacos. It makes a very quick lunch or dinner. I like to add some thinly sliced cucumbers to the tacos as well. It’s become a regular in my menu rotation.
The idea of those tacos sounds absolutely amazing, I might have to try that!
We had ground turkey on hand that needed to be cooked and I wanted to try a quick recipe for dinner that was not tacos. Came across your recipe and thought I would give it a try. Several things that I really liked about it; easy to make, did not involve a lot of ingredients and most of the ingredients are staples that are on hand, and did not take much time to prep or cook, but most of all my family loved it! It is enough for 4 people, so my family asked that when I cook it again to double the recipe so they can have seconds!
Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe.
This comment just made my day! I totally agree with your family about doubling this recipe, whenever I make it we never have leftovers and I always wish we did! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!