This Simple Ground Turkey Skillet Dinner recipe makes dinner a breeze! Only one pan needed and ready in under 30 minutes, packed with vegetables and lots of flavor. It will be a hit for the entire family!
This recipe was originally published September 2018. I updated the post in March 2020 to add new photos, video and copy to make the post more helpful for readers.
I have to let you in on something.
I do NOT like cooking dinner.
It's my least favorite meal to plan and my least favorite meal to make. By the end of the day all I want is something simple and no fuss. I would be happy with a bowl of cereal some nights even.
What I really need in my life is no nonsense dinner recipes that literally can be whipped up in minutes and with barely any effort.
This Ground Turkey Skillet Dinner is exactly that.
This recipe has been around in our dinner rotation for about a long time now but I only recently thought to bring it to the blog. Between this one and this Ground Turkey Teriyaki, I think we may be set over here!
It has been our life saver recipe--the dinner that comes together easily and makes everyone happy. I get no complaints from any of the boys and Anthony even takes leftovers to work for lunch sometimes--that is if I don't eat them first!
What makes this Ground Turkey Skillet recipe so simple?
- The most time consuming part is cutting up the peppers and onions, BUT you can make it even quicker some nights by using frozen, or pre-cut veggies. Our grocery has an onion/pepper mix so that comes in handy at times.
- Then there is also minute rice, a beautiful thing for nights when you need it most.
- One main pan is really all you need for this Ground Turkey Skillet dinner. Unless you make your rice in a pot, then two!
If you eliminate the time it typically takes to cook a pot of rice and cut veggies, you are talking dinner in about 15 minutes. Cook up the turkey and veggies, add in the spices, tomato sauce and simmer for a few minutes and Ta-Da! Dinner!
Not a lot of good dinners come together that quickly. Sometimes the small shortcuts you can take are the difference between a home cooked meal and takeout.
How to make this skillet dinner:
I have added a video in the recipe card to really guide you but here is the easy as 1,2,3 version.
- Heat the peppers and onion until the onions start to become translucent. Add in the garlic and stir to combine.
- Shift the veggies to one side of the pan and add in the ground turkey. Heat, stirring occasionally until the turkey is cooked through.
- Add in spices, Worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce and tomato paste and stir to combine. Lower heat to simmer for several minutes before serving.
That is IT and why I love this recipe so so much.
Notes and Pro-Tips:
- Use whatever color bell peppers you have. I don't always have a green and yellow pepper so I use what I have. And I have never had a problem one bit.
- You don't have to use turkey. Your favorite ground beef or even ground chicken should also work great in this ground turkey skillet as well.
- Use a big skillet--10-12 inch is great. In the video I used an 8 inch skillet and I kept having ingredients fly out of the pan. Just made it a tad annoying.
Try these other simple dinner recipes:
- MEDITERRANEAN STEAK BITES WITH YOGURT SAUCE
- PARMESAN CRUSTED CHICKEN SHEET PAN DINNER
- SUN-DRIED TOMATO, SPINACH AND FETA TURKEY BURGER
- CHICKEN AND BISCUIT SKILLET
- CHICKEN STUFFED POBLANO PEPPERS
- MAPLE BACON WRAPPED PORK CHOPS
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Simple Ground Turkey Pepper Skillet
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
- ½ red onion, diced
- 3-4 T tomato paste
- ½ c tomato sauce
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 ½ T Worcestershire sauce
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼-1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼-1/2 teaspoon cracked pepper
- 1 T olive oil
- sea salt to taste
- shredded cheese for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Over medium high heat, heat olive oil. Add onions and peppers and heat 2-3 minutes until softened. Add garlic and allow to heat for another minute.
- Push veggies to the side of the pan ( allow that side of the pan to be off the burner) and add ground turkey and brown turkey until cooked through, mixing the veggies back in with the turkey.
- Once turkey is cooked through, turn the heat to low and add in tomato sauce, tomato paste, worcestershire sauce, oregano, red pepper and salt and pepper. Stir well and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Serve over rice and garnish with shredded cheese and fresh parsley if desired!
Notes
- Â Nutrition information not including rice and cheese.
- Use whatever color bell peppers you have. I don't always have a green and yellow pepper so I use what I have. And I have never had a problem one bit.
- You don't have to use turkey. Your favorite ground beef or even ground chicken should also work great in this ground turkey skillet as well.
- Use a big skillet--10-12 inch is great. In the video I used an 8 inch skillet and I kept having ingredients fly out of the pan. Just made it a tad annoying.
Alex says
Very good, however for optimal results (IMO), use only green peppers, use less worsteshire maybe 1/2 tablespoon, add a little onion powder, garlic powder and salt to both the veggie mixture and to the ground turkey while cooking, increase the tomato paste to at least 1 full can or 4 heaping tablespoons, and use only enought tomato sauce to permit easier mixing of the ingredients. Or water. You only need a little pit. The first time someone made me a recipe like this with tomato paste instead of tomato sauce, I was floored by the results. This is the first recipe I've come across that uses more tomato paste than the average turkey skillet. Add plenty of fresh ground black pepper an limit ground red pepper to 1/4 teaspoon. Omit the oregano, the flavors of the green peppers and vinegary tomato paste and garlic will really shine without the need for oregano which would make it taste like tomato sauce. The structure of this recipe is really good, but the ingredients ratios need adjusting. Just think: All green pepper, more tomato paste, and add a little garlic powder and onion powder to taste. Be careful of salt a little goes a long way when using worsteshire.
Lorie says
Thank so much for all of the details! I am sure this will be helpful for others. I am a huge oregano fan--gotta have it in mine!
Holly says
This is such an awesome alternative to my favorite recipe which is usually is very time consuming! I’m so happy this can be completely done in 30 mins! Thank you so so much for sharing this !
Lorie says
Agree-- I like this for when I don't feel like doing all the work! Glad you enjoyed it Holly.
Holly says
Thanks so much for this recipe! You’ve given me so many great healthy meal ideas 🙂 Also I truly appreciate you sharing the macro nutrition facts. I’m a type 1 diabetic & recipes can be so hard without that info .I’m making this tonight! I was wondering, do u usually use 93/7 ground Turkey when u make this? I’m sure it will be great either way but was just wondering for nutritional
Content sake . I will give an update on how it turns out 🙂
Lorie says
Hi! I use the 85/15 Turkey so the nutrition for 93/7 will have different numbers for sure. Not too far off though. Hope you enjoy it!
Samantha says
I made this for tomorrow's dinner. I didn't have tomato sauce or paste so I improvised with diced tomatoes & a bit of ketchup. Omg it's good!
Lorie says
Glad you found a work around! This is one of my favorite recipes of all time!
Cooker says
Just okay. I make spaghetti with many of these same ingredients (minus Worcestershire sauce) so felt like eating spaghetti sauce on top of rice. Not an overly impressive dish for my family
Lorie says
Sorry to hear that! These are the same ingredients we always used for stuffed peppers so that is why we love pairing it with the rice. Thanks for the feedback!
Karen Barnes says
I googled this recipe using the ingredients bell peppers, ground turkeys and tomato sauce. I'm so glad I did! This recipe was simple to make and delicious! No leftovers! To cut out carbs, you can use cauliflower rice. This recipe will definitely make it into our rotation! This is also great for meal prep! Thanks so much for sharing!!
Lorie says
Thanks so much Karen! This is one of my all time favorite meals so it means a lot! Thanks!
Elizabeth says
I’ve made this as is once and really liked it. We are on Whole30 currently and I looked back thru old recipes to see if there was something I could modify… this was very easy to do with some coconut aminos and sugar free fish sauce rather than the Worcestershire. Goes well with steamed yellow potatoes
Lorie says
So happy to hear!! This is one of our faves—will be trying with the steamed potatoes next time. Thanks!!
Elizabeth says
Really tasty. I probably would double the recipe next time so we have leftovers. I added a cup of prepared couscous (plain, made with chicken stock) near the end and served it with steamed red potatoes with butter and fresh dill. Reminds me of stuffed peppers.
Lorie says
Yes--totally like an un-stuffed stuffed pepper recipe. And I love having leftovers for this one!
Jennifer Selby says
My family loved it!!
Tripled recipe which was time consuming cutting up peppers , onion garlic. I made wide egg noodles to serve it on as well as made baked potatoes to have option to put it on???????? Both were delicious I liked the baked potatoes was more filling. Sure rice would be good too. I think if you cut up vegetables ahead on another day it would help not to be so much work????
Lorie says
Smart thinking on the veggie prep--it certainly adds up. Now I want to try it over baked potatoes as well. Thanks so much!
Liz says
Main meals in a skillet are the best!
Lorie says
Yep, one dish and done!