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This Simple Ground Turkey Skillet Dinner recipe makes dinner a breeze! Only one pan needed and ready in about 25 minutes, loaded with bell peppers and lots of flavor. It will be a hit for the entire family!
Getting a good dinner on the table quickly on busy nights can be so tough. Coming up with new meals the family will love–another difficult task. But this ground turkey and pepper skillet dinner has kept our family satisfied and it’s SO EASY to make!
It’s a perfect easy weeknight dinner that whips up in no time. You will love this one!
Ground turkey is a favorite ingredient in our home. Between this recipe, Ground Turkey Teriyaki, these Spinach Feta Turkey Burgers, Ground Turkey Stroganoff and this Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Skillet, there are lots of options for delicious, quick and easy meals!
Why You Will Love This Ground Turkey Pepper Skillet Dinner Recipe
- Ready in under 30 minutes. Let me tell you this is a quick meal. It is ready in about 20-25 minutes! You can grab pre-chopped peppers and onions, or frozen to save even more time–never underestimate the power of convenience foods in cooking.
- Cooks in one pan! I love a good one pan or one pot recipe and this is a skillet meal that whips up so easily. If you add in some minute rice that is even less dishes to deal with! The less mess, the better!
- Very easy to modify and vary. this easy ground turkey recipe can be fine tuned to meet what the whole family really needs. Made gluten free, dairy free, sub ground beef or ground chicken, modify the spices, add other veggies and so many other options!
- Freezer friendly! I always love a meal that I can freeze. This one works well as leftovers but you can also freeze leftovers for up to 3 months for when you need something ready to go.
Ingredient Notes
- ground turkey: I like to opt for a less lean ground turkey for a juicer, more flavorful meat. You are welcome to use whatever you like, but I find the 85/15 to be the very best. You could also use some lean ground beef if preferred.
- tomato paste: this will thicken up the mixture a bit and make it a bit heartier
- tomato sauce: NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH MARINARA. This is the thin tomato sauce that usually comes in a can that is in the grocery with the canned tomatoes, etc. Speaking of tomatoes, you can certainly stir in some diced tomatoes when making this ground turkey skillet recipe!
- Worcestershire sauce: this adds a rich level of flavor that almost reminds me of stuffed peppers–this dish is definitely similar to that type of recipe!
- seasoning: a touch of oregano (you could certainly use Italian seasoning!), crushed red pepper flakes, sea salt and black pepper. Along with the garlic, this is perfect!
- cheese: this is optional but strongly recommended. Mozzarella or your favorite cheddar shredded over top is so delicious! The mozzarella reminds me more of stuffed peppers.
- rice: make sure it is cooked. Minute rice or leftover rice are definitely great options. Use your favorite, brown rice or white rice, either works great!
Step-By-Step Instructions:
Step 1: Heat a large skillet to medium-high heat and add a drizzle of olive oil. Sauté the peppers and onion until the onions start to become translucent. Add in the garlic and stir to combine.
Step 2: Shift the veggies to one side of the pan and add in the ground turkey.
Step 3: Heat, stirring occasionally until the turkey is cooked through.
Step 4: Change heat to low and add in spices, Worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce and tomato paste and stir to combine. Stir in the optional rice if desired and adjust seasoning and tomato sauce to your preference.
Step 5: Stir in the cooked rice if desired and adjust seasoning and tomato sauce to your preference.
Step 6: Simmer for a couple minutes and then serve topped with cheese and chopped fresh parsley.
Recipe Tip
- Use whatever color bell peppers you have. I don’t always have a green and yellow pepper so I use what I have. The day I planned to photograph this recipe again, the grocery subbed a red bell pepper for my yellow pepper so that’s what is in the photos! Still great!
- 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 large 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. A cast iron skillet or any nonstick skillet will work great.
Other Ways To Serve This Recipe:
The original recipe did not have the addition of the rice in the recipe. It was only a serving suggestion. But I found myself adding it most times and decided it was a great idea.
If you want to skip the rice, try serving this turkey veggie skillet these other ways:
- stuffed in a baked potato
- or in a baked sweet potato
- over cauliflower rice
- over quinoa
- on a bun more like a sloppy Joe sandwich
- spooned over buttered noodles
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 tbsp olive oil
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 1 yellow bell pepper, diced, (red or orange will work great too!)
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 3-4 tbsp tomato paste
- ¾-1 c tomato sauce
- 2 garlic cloves, minced, use ¾ tsp garlic powder if not available
- 1 ½ tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- ½-1 tsp dried oregano, Italian seasoning will also work well
- ¼-½ tsp red pepper flakes
- ½ tsp cracked pepper
- ½ sea salt
- 1 – 1½ c cooked rice, the rice can be omitted if desired
- 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 cook for 1 more minute.
- Push veggies to the side of the pan 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 3/4 cup tomato sauce, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, oregano, red pepper and salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
- If adding rice, stir the rice in and adjust to add more tomato sauce as needed. Adjust seasoning to taste.
- Serve with freshly chopped parsley, and plenty of shredded cheese!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I made this tonight – one dish for my in-laws, and one for my wife and I. DELICIOUS! My only modification was skipping the tomato sauce and using a can of diced tomato, and doubling the garlic. Otherwise, this was a quick, simple, and nutritious meal!!! Thank you!!
Amazing!!
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.
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!
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 !
Agree– I like this for when I don’t feel like doing all the work! Glad you enjoyed it Holly.
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 🙂
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!
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!
Glad you found a work around! This is one of my favorite recipes of all time!
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
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!
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!!
Thanks so much Karen! This is one of my all time favorite meals so it means a lot! Thanks!
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
So happy to hear!! This is one of our faves—will be trying with the steamed potatoes next time. Thanks!!
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.
Yes–totally like an un-stuffed stuffed pepper recipe. And I love having leftovers for this one!
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????
Smart thinking on the veggie prep–it certainly adds up. Now I want to try it over baked potatoes as well. Thanks so much!
Main meals in a skillet are the best!
Yep, one dish and done!