I seriously never get tired of super easy stir-fry dinners! I mean, what’s not to love? With only a few ingredients, you can work in a TON of vegetables, and they’re super fast! Using ground meat makes them even easier because there’s no cutting or slicing raw meat (not a fan of this task). This Ground Turkey Stir Fry is especially great because it’s so versatile. Use whatever vegetables you have on hand, make it spicy or mild, and serve it with rice, noodles, or with shredded cabbage for a low-carb option. Scroll down for more deets on those options!
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“Made this for the family of 5 tonight – HUGE hit. Everyone – EVERYONE had seconds. This will be on repeat for us. I added a package of bean sprouts to add bulk and veggies. The sauce did NOT have to be doubled even though I added more veggies. If you’re debating whether or not to make it – do it. It’s fast and delicious!”
Katie
Ground Turkey Stir Fry FOR MEAL PREP
This Ground Turkey Stir Fry is another meal inspired by those “macro-friendly” meal delivery services that deliver individual, ready-to-reheat meals to your door. While those services are super convenient, they’re also super expensive and I know I can make similar meals at home for a fraction of the price. :) You can easily adjust the macros in this meal by increasing, decreasing, or eliminating any of these elements: turkey, vegetables, rice, or nuts.
Ground Turkey Stir Fry
Servings 5 (about 1 cup stir fry, 1/2 cup rice)Ingredients
Stir Fry Sauce
- 1/4 cup soy sauce ($0.20)
- 1/2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil ($0.13)
- 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.02)
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes (optional) ($0.02)
- 1 Tbsp water ($0.00)
Stir Fry
- 2 bell peppers ($1.72)
- 4 green onions ($0.38)
- 2 oz. spinach (two large handfuls, or 1/4 of an 8oz. bag) ($0.65)
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil of choice ($0.08)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.08)
- 19 oz. ground turkey* ($3.78)
For Serving
- 1/4 cup chopped peanuts ($0.31)
- 2.5 cups cooked brown rice ($0.68)
Instructions
- Make the stir fry sauce by stirring together the soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, brown sugar, red pepper, and water until the sugar is dissolved. Set the sauce aside.
- Dice the bell peppers and slice the green onions.
- Heat the cooking oil in a very large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the ground turkey and minced garlic. Stir and cook until the turkey is cooked through and no water is left pooling on the bottom of the skillet (8-10 minutes).
- Once the turkey is cooked and the moisture has evaporated, add the bell pepper and green onions to the skillet. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes more, then add the spinach and continue to cook just until it is about half wilted (1-2 minutes).
- Pour the stir fry sauce into the skillet. Continue to stir and cook the turkey and vegetables until everything is coated in sauce and the spinach is fully wilted (about 2 minutes more).
- Serve about 1 cup of the stir fry mixture with 1/2 cup rice and a sprinkle of chopped peanuts over top.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
- Pyrex Glass Meal Prep
- Stainless Steel Pots and Pans
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to Make Ground Turkey Stir Fry Step-by-Step Photos
First, make the stir-fry sauce so it’s ready to go. Stir together 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil, 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and 1 Tbsp water. Stir until the brown sugar is dissolved. BTW, I’ve really grown to love Whole Foods’ 365 brand Shoyu soy sauce. It’s very affordable and has great *flavor*, rather than just being salty.
Next prepare the vegetables. Dice two bell peppers (I used red and yellow for more color), and slice four green onions. I am also using about 2 oz. fresh spinach (2 large handfuls or about 1/4 of an 8oz. bag). No preparation is needed for the spinach.
Add 2 Tbsp of your favorite cooking oil to a large skillet and heat over medium. Once hot, add 19oz. ground turkey and 2 minced cloves of garlic. Stir and cook until the turkey is cooked through and all of the moisture has evaporated out of the skillet. Soupy stir fry is not good. :)
Add the diced bell peppers and green onions to the skillet. Continue to stir and cook just until they begin to soften (about 2 minutes). Don’t let them cook too much because they will continue to cook over the next few minutes as more ingredients are added. Add the spinach to the skillet and cook for 1-2 minutes more, or until the spinach is about half wilted, like in the photo.
Finally, pour in the stir-fry sauce. If your brown sugar wasn’t completely dissolved and some remain on the bottom of the bowl, make sure to scrape that into the skillet. Stir and cook everything for 1-2 minutes more, or until everything is coated in sauce and heated through.
And that’s it! It’s literally that easy.
Serve about 1 cup of the ground turkey stir fry with 1/2 cup cooked rice and some chopped peanuts over top. Enjoy!
Tips & Suggestions!
- Reduce the recipe cost by increasing the vegetables and decreasing the amount of ground turkey
- Use ground beef, pork, chicken, or crumbled tofu or tempeh in place of the ground turkey
- Swap the ground turkey for diced turkey, chicken (like what we use in our chicken stir fry), or tofu. Be sure to cook the meat all the way through!
- Other vegetable options: mushrooms, broccoli, carrots, bean sprouts, snap peas, green beans, water chestnuts, bok choy, zucchini
- Top with cashews or sesame seeds in place of the peanuts
- Make it spicy by stirring a tablespoon (or TWO 🔥) of sriracha or chili garlic sauce into the stir-fry sauce
- Use low-sodium soy sauce to reduce the salt amount
- Add some freshly grated ginger to the stir-fry sauce for extra zing
- Add cooked noodles to the stir fry at the end instead of serving over rice
- Add more spices to taste
- Try cauliflower rice instead of brown rice
- Add a bag of coleslaw mix to the stir fry to bulk it up without adding carbs, similar to my beef and cabbage stir fry, instead of serving it with rice or noodles.
How to Store Ground Turkey Stir Fry
This recipe works great for meal prep, but I suggest only storing in the refrigerator rather than the freezer. Freezing will cause the vegetables to soften further and seep more water. This dish will stay good in the refrigerator for about four days.
This was very delicious! I added some minced garlic and powdered ginger to the sauce. I was only sad that I didn’t double the recipe. I will definitely be making it again!
Delicious somewhat simple quick recipe for meal prep. Highly recommended!
This recipe is AMAZING!! I make this at least once a week! My husband loves when he knows I’m making this for dinner. It’s easy, healthy, and delicious! I’m not sure why people are saying it lacks flavor. You can always add your own spices if you don’t like it 🤷🏼♀️
It was really good and so easy! Thank you
Recipe turned out very dry not enough sauce was use so the flavor was very bland. Would’ve made more sense to use some spices on top of the ground turkey or in addition to the sauce. Very disappointed with this recipe.
Good flavors, but the sauce was too runny and soup-like.
Made this last night and am already looking forward to the leftovers! So simple and tasty, and you could definitely play around with the veggies if you are trying to use something you already have on hand. Made it exactly as written with only one substitution–in place of the red pepper flakes I stirred in about 1/2 tsp. chili crisp for a little extra heat. Thank you so much for a great recipe!
Kinda bland, will try to thicken up the sauce next time. Love the different colors and how healthy it is!
Found this recipe very dry and lacking depth of flavor.
Easy make which is great with time crunch days. Tasty but with a few tweaks can certainly make it you own and enhance. Great share!
Whips up quickly. Way too salty, but just need to reduce the sauce. Lacks depth, but I don’t know how to fix it. Overall enjoyable, thank you for sharing. I will keep it for the future.
This was quick, easy, and delicious!! I omitted the bell pepper because I’m not a big fan and I didn’t have peanuts, but followed everything else completely. I can’t wait to try this with the peanuts the next time I make it…perfectly balanced flavors in the sauce. So good!
Very quick and delicious! I followed the exact recipe and we all loved it! Could always change out the veggies for your faves, but we love peppers and spinach:) Thanks so much for sharing:)
Wow this was surprisingly so tasty and super simple to make!
I didn’t grow up eating ground turkey, and haven’t known what to cook with it besides tacos and chili. This stir-fry was so easy and tasted great, it’s a definite addition to my turkey recipes now! 7 yr old son and hubby loved it! Thank you for sharing a great recipe!