Turkey Taco Bowl

This Turkey Taco Bowl is a super easy dinner and does well for meal prep. You can also swap the ground turkey for leftover turkey meat from Thanksgiving dinner.  

Who doesn’t love a good taco bowl? Filled to the brim with warm rice and beans, savory meat, spicy condiments, and creamy toppings, it’s one of my favorite meals. It’s also one of the best comfort foods and so easy to make. This recipe uses ground turkey, which is flavored with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. You can also adapt this recipe to use leftover turkey from Thanksgiving when you’re feeling tired of leftovers. Of course, this works for any type of ground meat or meat substitute as well.

Ingredients

Rice: You can use any rice you like, but to make this recipe even faster – you can use instant rice (brown or white). It’s just rice that is parboiled, so it cooks faster (usually within 10 minutes) on the stovetop.  

Lime juice: You’ll use some of the juice to season the cilantro-lime rice, and you’ll use the remaining juice to season the turkey.

Cilantro: This gives the rice and the turkey a nice fresh taste that goes perfectly with the lime juice.  

Turkey: This recipe calls for ground turkey, but you can also use leftover turkey from Thanksgiving to give leftovers new life. Of course, you could try other ground meat or meat alternatives instead, if you prefer.  

Chipotles in adobo sauce: Chipotle peppers are smoked jalapenos in a richly flavored adobo sauce. These come in a can in the Latin section of the grocery store. You’ll use one pepper from the can as well as a tablespoon of the sauce itself.

Seasonings: This recipe uses garlic cloves, chili powder, cumin, oregano, and salt/pepper. All of which are the basis of many Latin/Mexican-inspired dishes.

Toppings: Use whatever toppings you like. Some of my favorites are black beans, corn, cheese, sour cream, jarred salsa, avocado or guacamole, fresh tomatoes and/or peppers, and extra limes for squeezing on top of the bowl.

How to Make Turkey Taco Bowls

Once you have your rice cooked according to its package’s instructions, you’ll season it with lime and cilantro. To cook the meat, you’ll start by sauteing the garlic and the chipotle pepper in its adobo sauce. You’ll then add your ground turkey to cook and break it up with a spoon until it’s thoroughly cooked. If you’re using already cooked leftover turkey meat, you’ll just need to cook it long until to become warm. The meat is also seasoned with garlic, chili powder, cumin, and oregano while it cooks. Once it’s done, you’ll squeeze the rest of the lime juice on top. After layering the rice in the bowl with the meat on top, you’ll layer on any toppings you want to use. And that’s it – you have a Turkey Taco Bowl!

How to Meal Prep a Turkey Taco Bowl

If you’re using this recipe for meal prep, I would layer the rice, turkey, black beans, corn, or anything you would want to reheat up in the bowl when the time comes. I would put any dairy (like cheese or sour cream), avocado (or guacamole), jarred salsa, fresh tomatoes, and extra limes in a separate container to be added to the taco bowl once it’s reheated. Of course, you’ll store everything in the fridge until you’re ready to reheat.

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