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Jun 22
96

Korean-Inspired Ground Turkey

Korean-Inspired Ground Turkey close up

This easy Korean-Inspired Ground Turkey is a little sweet, a little savory, a little spicy, and full of delicious flavor! I’ve mostly seen similar recipes use ground beef, but I decided to lighten it up a bit by using lean ground turkey breast and less sugar. I think ground chicken breast would also be great, it’s just harder to find at my local grocery store right now. My husband snuck by and grabbed a spoonful of this while the turkey was cooling and blew his cover by exclaiming “oh wow, this is really tasty,” so I’ll call that a pretty rave review. I almost always have all the ingredients for this dish on hand, and it comes together in about 20 minutes making it a perfect weeknight meal. Better yet, a filling serving of this Korean-Inspired Ground Turkey is just 207 calories or 4 WW Points. To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!

This recipe makes 4 servings, and I measured them out in two ways so that you can choose your preferred method. I weighed the finished dish and it came in at just over a pound, so each serving would be around 4 ounces weighed. I also measured the finished turkey and it came out to 3 cups, so each serving would be ¾ cup.

Korean-Inspired Ground Turkey overhead

I like to serve this Korean-Inspired Ground Turkey over brown or white rice (as pictured) or with cooked vegetables, but it’s also great in lettuce wraps! My favorite lettuce to use for lettuce wraps is Boston/Bibb lettuce because the leaves are the perfect size and make great cups, but you can use whatever lettuce you prefer. When I east this dish as lettuce wraps I usually split my ¾ cup serving into three lettuce wraps. Filled with ¼ cup filling each. You can also of course add vegetables like cabbage, carrots, zucchini, or bell peppers.

Korean-Inspired Ground Turkey with rice

Looking for more tasty, lightened up Asian-inspired recipes? Check out my Chicken Lo Mein, Vegetable Fried Rice, Teriyaki Steak Lettuce Wraps, Thai Chicken Chopped Salad, Chicken Teriyaki Stir Fry, Asian Chicken Wonton Cups, Thai Turkey with Carrot Noodles, Cashew and Basil Chicken Lettuce Wraps, Teriyaki Chicken and Rice Casserole, Thai Chicken Skewers with Peanut Sauce, and many more in the Asian category of my recipe index!

Korean-Inspired Ground Turkey close up
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5 from 30 votes
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Korean-Inspired Ground Turkey

Savory, sweet, spicy, and full of flavor, this Korean-Inspired Ground Turkey is an easy, versatile recipe you'll be making on repeat!

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch
  • ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  • 1 lb uncooked 99% lean ground turkey breast, or ground chicken breast
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 teaspoons sesame seeds
  • 2 scallions, greens only, sliced

Instructions

  • Combine the soy sauce, brown sugar, cornstarch, ground ginger, red pepper flakes, and black pepper in a bowl and stir to mix. Set aside.
  • Add the sesame oil to a large saute pan or skillet and bring over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the ground turkey and stir to break them up and coat them in the oil. Cook the ground turkey for about 2 minutes, breaking up with a spoon, until it starts to break into chunks and “brown.” Add the chopped onion and stir together. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for another 4 minutes or so until the turkey is cooked through and broken into small chunks and the onions are softened. Add the garlic and stir together. Cook for another 30-60 seconds.
  • Stir the sauce from step one and add it to the pan. Stir to coat the meat and reduce the heat to med-low. Cook for another 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and top with sesame seeds and sliced scallions before serving.

Notes

To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!
WW Points per (3/4 cup or 4 oz) serving: 4 (Points calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)
Nutrition Information per (3/4 cup or 4 oz) serving:
207 calories, 12 g carbs, 7 g sugars, 5 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 28 g protein, 1 g fiber (from myfitnesspal.com)
MYWW SMARTPOINTS PER (3/4 cup or 4 oz) SERVING: (SP calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)
Green: 5 SmartPoints/ Blue: 3 SmartPoints/ Purple: 3 SmartPoints
Weight Watchers Points Plus:
5 per (3/4 cup or 4 oz) serving (PP calculated using a Weight Watchers PointsPlus calculator and the nutrition info below)
Adapted from Unicorns in the Kitchen and Crunchy Creamy Sweet

96 comments on “Korean-Inspired Ground Turkey”

  1. I always see ground turkey at the store but am unsure what to do with it. I am definitely going to buy it now and make this!

  2. Oh my! I already know this will be in permanent rotation at my house! 

  3. Sounds great, always looking for more ground turkey/chicken recipes on WW!

  4. I saw a similar recipe last week and wanted to use ground turkey to lower the points. I’m so glad you posted your version of it! This is on my list for this week!

  5. This sounds delicious, I think I’ll try with Lakanto brown sugar, since I don’t have any regular brown sugar in the house.

  6. I just made this for dinner and it’s soooo good.

    • We liked this very much. It’s a quick and easy recipe. The only thing I will do next time will be to double or maybe rven triple the sauce because we enjoy enough sauce to cover our rice too.

  7. This is gooooooood! I left out the onion and garlic since I didn’t have any and just added garlic powder. It’s sweet, spicy, and salty. All the best things! I can’t wait for leftovers for lunch this week. 

  8. Oh my heavens! This was so good!!! Making it again tonight! 2x in one week. Family loves it!!!

  9. I made this tonight with baked peaches with crisp topping for dessert. Yum.. Both were so good!

  10. I made this last week and it was awesome! So full of flavor and easy for a weeknight dinner. I added a medium zucchini (diced small) and chopped mushrooms and served over cauliflower rice. This was the first time my husband said he didn’t mind the cauliflower rice.

  11. I made this for my week’s lunch meal prep. One day I used it for lettuce wraps and the other days I had it over cauliflower rice with string beans. The flavor is amazing! My kids (even the pickiest of the picky 12 year old) were hovering over me. They all had a taste and LOVED it. It will be in next week’s dinner rotation with some brown rice for them. Thank you for such an amazing, easy recipe. The only change I made was to lower the oil to 2 tsp. to make it 2 pts. instead of 3 on Blue. 

  12. This was so delicious! I loved it and so did my husband. Also came together really quick. Thanks for another great recipe!!

  13. This is my first time posting a comment on your site. I love all your recipes. This one is really good. Enjoyed it very much and will definitely make again and again.

  14. This was delicious!   Thank you for the recipe.

  15. do you strain ou the ground turkey before adding the garlic or keep in in there to mix with the brown sauce?

  16. This is amazing! I wish there was a way to give it 5 stars. My fiance almost skipped it because google showed that it didn’t have any reviews. I couldn’t believe it was turkey once he got done cooking. He’s not big on cooking, but this was easy for him to follow and we both love it! I’m so glad we made 3x the normal amount for the week, I’ll be looking forward to this everyday. We didn’t use 99% lean, ours had a little fat, so that could affect the flavor we got.

    Thank you!

  17. Made this tonight and it was very good. The kids asked me to make a double batch next week so they will have leftovers! Since it was such a simple recipe to prepare, I will be happy to oblige.

  18. Made this during the week and it was delicious.  I normally make it with beef etc and so fattening, so this was a great find for me.  Thank you.  Glad I found you.

  19. I was taught not to heat the sesame oil but add it at the end, although could potentially change the points. If done in non stick, will it work?

  20. Made this tonight. Husband is raving about it. Thank you for the awesome new part of the line up

  21. Thank you, this was fabulous!
    I only used one tablespoon of sugar and that was enough for me.
    Also, I used mushrooms which added yumminess and moisture.
    A great WW meal, and one if your’e not looking for that.
    For someone recently come into cooking, I’m super impressed.
    I will be back!

  22. Made this tonight. This was the best ground turkey recipe I’ve ever made! Wonderful flavor and made with easy pantry ingredients and in a flash! Thanks so much for posting this recipe.

  23. Wow! I googled, “ground turkey recipes”, and this was the first one to pop up. It was so delightfully easy and delicious! I used olive oil and omitted the seseme seeds AND green onions only because I didn’t have those ingredients, and it was still fabulous! Our family will be making it again soon!

  24. This was so delicious, my family loved it. I had a 1.5 pound package of ground turkey so I increased the other ingredients and also added some Chinese black vinegar. Served with short grain Sticky rice and roasted cauliflower and broccoli. Great dinner and super easy!

  25. I had a lot of ground turkey in the freezer and wanted to make something different. I asked Google and found this one. My family LOVED IT! It was so easy to prepare and very quick. It also gave me a chance to use the ground ginger that has been in my spice rack for a long time. I will DEFINITELY check out other recipes on this site and I will DEFINITELY make this again.

  26. It was delicious! Perfectly simple and super quick. Thank you so much:) 

  27. Thanks for your comment- going to try this recipe today

  28. Wow! This dish was amazing! My husband could not stop raving about it.  The flavors are fantastic. Making it again next week with ground chicken and going to try with lettuce wraps. 

  29. So I made this with 96% lean ground beef (only because I didn’t have turkey in the house) and WOW! Amazing. I accidentally put a little more cornstarch than the recipe called for and was worried, but this hit the spot. Grabbing turkey this weekend to make the points consistent with the recipe here 

  30. I had my doubts about this because of the ground meat, but I made it anyway and I did not change anything from original recipe. It was absolutely wonderful and I will definitely make it again.

  31. This recipe is excellent! I made the recipe as written except added some sliced and precooked carrots. So delicious – sweet, salty and spicy!

  32. Oh my… this was totally delish!!!! My super picky husband went back for seconds! I added some sweet mini peppers and a jalapeno after the ground turkey and onion was cooked. Toasted the sesame seeds under the broiler for a few seconds (be careful if you do this as they can easily catch on fire!). Added a little diced red onion since I didn’t have any scallions. Served over cauliflower rice. Thought for sure my husband would turn his nose up at that, but he really liked even that!
    Thanks for such a great, easy, low-cal recipe!❤️
    P. S. This was so good, I decided I HAD to comment–have never done that on any other blogs before!

  33. Wow!  Found this when laying on the couch after a 5 hour bike ride, trying to figure out what take out to have that out be ‘healthy’ (not going to happen). I did have ground turkey in the fridge and some veggies and all the ingredients for this dish!  

    Decided to try this and WOW!  I added in some other veggies to get my 5 a day but kept the sauce the same. Ready in less than the time it would have been for delivery and WAY more healthy!  

    I am going to keep this recipe and play with it. It is amazing as is, but sky is the limit!!!

    Thank you for the new recipe and saving me from TAKE OUT!  Eating healthy is very important….this is a WINNER!!!

  34. Made this for dinner tonight – so good! Thanks for posting!

  35. We are not huge fans of ground turkey but I made this to try something new and it is amazing!!!!!

  36. I tried this and fell in love. I seriously hurt myself from eating so much of this.

  37. Yay! A new yummy ground turkey recipe! We loved it. I added chopped red peppers and served over rice. 

  38. Eating as I type. AMAZING! Only thing I did differently was add fresh ginger when adding garlic. I might cut down on the sugar next time. These were great as romaine lettuce wraps. Will be a regular on our weeknights!

  39. We LOVE this recipe, best of the 3 we tried from different unnamed sites. I make a double batch as 1lb is NEVER enough

  40. I just made this and it is absolutely delicious. I love anything with Asian flavors and you can serve this over rice, or riced cauliflower.  I want to use the sauce in other stir fries, really good!  

  41. Good morning, this is not a comment it is a question and I didn’t know where to put it in, so sorry. Can you and how do you freeze this recipe?

    • Honestly, I have never frozen this because we always gobble up the leftovers at my house! Once it’s completely cool you could probably try freezing it with a vacuum sealer or in a ziploc freezer bag as airtight as you can get it. Hope that helps!

  42. Great recipe, although I added chopped peanuts for a little extra flavor and crunch. Just like my local favorite Asian restaurant! Will definitely make again.

  43. Fantastic and easy to make. Thanks!

  44. Ok so I am Asian.    I love curry rice.    Didn’t know what to do with my ground turkey.    This was amazing and so easy.    Just make it. 

  45. I just finished cooking this. Taste wonderful and so easy to prepare.

  46. This was so good. I didn’t really expect much flavor from such a simple recipe with just a few ingredients but I was pleasantly surprised.

  47. This was a great meal. It was quick and easy to make, made of things I have on hand, and very tasty. Definitely a keeper.

  48. I am so impressed with this recipe! Great for meal prep lunches to take to work. I plan to add some pickles that are marinating in the fridge at the moment. Flavors are awesome and no odd ingredients that require a special trip to the store, many thanks!

  49. We cannot believe how easy and delicious this was. Really a great recipe for those who love a bit of spiciness and Asian flavors (we increased the red pepper a bit).

    This recipe is a keeper!

  50. Made this tonight and it was a huge hit with my girls. My very hard to please 14 year old said I absolutely had to make this again. Didn’t have low sodium soy sauce and will pick that up for next time. I had never cooked ground turkey before – perfect recipe to try it. Fast, easy and delicious!

    • just add water to regular soy sauce to get *low sodium*. That’s what the manufacturer does lol, or so says my Korean MIL.

  51. Have you ever tried Gochujang in this?

  52. the best! definitely will try again 🙂

  53. I was looking for a recipe to make with ground turkey and stumbled upon this one. I had everything but scallions so I decided to try it. Delicious and easy to make. 

  54. I just made this for the family, and we are all on board!  simple and so quick!  I had fresh ginger on hand, grated it up and was delicious!  Quickly sautéed some spinach for some greens, and went along great.  I can totally see this in a lettuce wrap, that will be up next!5 stars

  55. This was delicious! We doubled the sauce and put it on stiry-fry veggies. All in a bowl with sticky rice and it was the perfect dinner.5 stars

  56. This was super easy and tasted fantastic. Even left over was delicious. Hubby and I loved it and I will absolutely include this in a regular rotation.5 stars

  57. We doubled the recipe and needed to triple the sauce but we just made the third batch really quick after we stirred it all in. Also, trying to use up what we have already so we used ground pork and it was great! 5 stars

  58. I used brown rice and added some stir-fry veggies! Flavor was so good!5 stars

  59. This is so good!  A quick and easy weeknight meal, and I appreciate you sharing the WW points for all of your recipes.  Thank you! 5 stars

  60. This was delish! It’s so hard to make ground turkey taste good but I really liked this. I halved the sugar to bring down the WW points, and added a splash of rice vinegar at the end to brighten it. I can’t eat chili pepper so left that out and bumped up the black pepper a bit. Really good over rice, topped with broccoli. 5 stars

  61. This was sooo good. My kids enjoyed it and kept on asking for more! Looking forward to leftovers. Served it with the rice but also with steamed cabbage and broccoli. Deeeelicous!!!5 stars

  62. This is so good! I substituted Swerve Brown Sugar for the brown sugar and only used 1 tsp sesame oil to make this 2 points on green!

    Thanks for the recipe!5 stars

  63. I made this today, using mild Italian turkey sausages that I squeezed out of their casings. Served over leftover plain mashed potatoes, with bright green steamed broccoli rimming the plate. Looked good and tasted great!5 stars

  64. This dish was super easy and delicious.   I made it with ground chicken.  My whole family loved it.5 stars

  65. So good and so easy. Perfect for a healthy weeknight meal. I served mine as lettuce wraps and put some of those little crispy wontons on top for crunch. Served with a side of soba noodles.
    This will definitely be on repeat.5 stars

  66. Love this recipe!  I usually grate a small zucchini and add it along with the onions. It bulks it up and  serves more people. I always double the sauce also!  One of my favorites!!

  67. This was so delicious!   Definitely going to be enjoying this again and again! I went with lettuce wraps.  I added a can of diced water chestnuts and used a teaspoon of grated fresh ginger.  I love ginger and the crunch of water chestnuts. Thank you!!5 stars

  68. This looks really great and easy to make. I’m going to make it for next week’s meal prep using ground chicken since that’s what I have. I also plan on pairing it with a mix of brown rice and cauliflower rice and some stir fry veggies 🙂

  69. This recipe is amazing! I just started cooking a few months ago, and it was the first recipe I’ve ever done. The sauce is amazing, and I used San-J instead of soy sauce, and it was incredible! My mom loves this recipe now, we’ll both be using it for a long time to come!5 stars

  70. This recipe delivers on so many levels- why didn’t I try it sooner?! So quick and easy after work and a work out when I was starving and so much delicious flavor. I made it with white rice and it was the perfect compliment to the spicy (but not too spicy) flavor of the dish. I was excited to take leftovers for work tomorrow but my husband finished it off. Next time, I will double the recipe. Thanks Emily Bites for another excellent recipe to help me on my WW journey with a recipe we can ALL enjoy!5 stars

  71. This was so delicious and so easy to make! Super quick and simple weeknight meal!! 5 stars

  72. This is so good! I only used 1 T brown sugar as someone else suggested and found it sweet enough for me. I added red peppers and diced up water chestnuts. So good. A bit sweet and spicy and great flavor! 

  73. Made this tonight, absolutely fabulous! Another great recipe from Emily!5 stars

  74. This is in our regular rotation and it’s SO GOOD. With brown rice and broccoli along with it, it’s super friendly on my Personal Points (0 rice, 0 for 99% ground turkey). Plus it’s so easy to make and my husband loves it. You should definitely make it!5 stars

  75. Delicious- it’s so hard to find recipes everyone in the family really likes especially lighter recipes.  This one is a winner!  5 stars

  76. I LOVE this recipe. It’s my go to when I want a nice Asian dish.  I usually serve it with any Asian veggie dish and either rice or cauliflower rice. So so so good!5 stars

  77. Such an easy, filling and flavor filled dish! 5 stars

  78. This was fantastic – my whole family enjoyed it. Has such great flavor!5 stars

  79. Everyone loves it. I had to double the recipe to make sure there is enough for second or third helpings. The 14 month old just shovels it down and wants more. LOL. It’s great with jasmine rice and steamed garlic broccoli. 5 stars

  80. Excellent.  Period.  So nice to find a quick and delicious recipe for ground turkey that isn’t Tex-Mex!  Going to share with my daughter who prefers ground turkey over any other ground protein and who is easily put off with too much slicing, dicing and bazillion ingredients.  Good wholesome food.  Thank you!5 stars

  81. Delicious!  I would probably cut down on the pepper flakes next time because one of my kids found it too spicy-but everyone else liked the recipe just the way it was written.  5 stars

  82. You are such a great cook! This is outstanding and so easy to make! All of your recipes are always so good! Thank you!

  83. This recipe is so quick, easy, and delicious! Since discovering it, we’ve been making it weekly paired with brown rice and a roasted veggie (broccoli, green beans, and brussel sprouts are all great). It’s a healthy, filling, crowd-pleasing staple in our house. Made it exactly as written and it has a good kick of spice, but if your kids don’t like spicy foods, you can omit the red pepper flakes and top with sriracha. Thank you for a great recipe!5 stars

  84. Add your favorite rice and cucumber salad to round out the dinner.5 stars

  85. One of my families favorite recipes. I have made this many, many times now. Thank you for the deliciousness!

  86. Forgot to rate it5 stars

  87. Tastes great. But when I put in the nutritional information at the end of the recipe into my WW app, the points came out to 5 not 2. So which is correct?

    • Hi Judith, WW has zero point foods, but those foods still have calories. fat, etc! So you can’t really depend on calculating the points of a recipe that contains zero point foods from the nutrition information. Ground turkey breast is a zero point food. 🙂

      The post above contains a direct link to the ingredients inputted into the WW site’s recipe builder to determine the Points using the WW system. If you click on the link you’ll be able to view the points per serving as well as how they were calculated. Hope that helps!

  88. This is my second time making this. I love it. It’s flavorful and easy to make. 5 stars

  89. I followed this recipe pretty close. I don’t use exact measurements. Added a little extra soy sauce, because I love it, and added a few dashes of rice vinegar. Cooking the turkey in sesame oil was awesome. Never thought of it. Be careful of its low burn point. All around, a great recipe I will definitely make again. TBH, the ground turkey mix itself would be great in lettuce cups. I cheated with rice, I had a box of Rice-a-Roni Fried Rice that I used under the Turkey. 5 stars

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