These Ground Turkey Tacos are saucy, flavorful and oh so easy in 30 minutes. Even if you are more of a ground beef tacos family, everyone will ask you to make this ground turkey taco recipe again and again!
We also love Instant Pot shredded chicken tacos, grilled chicken street tacos and even healthier fish tacos recipe, we love them all!
If you are looking for a 30 minute dinner idea, ground turkey tacos are IT. By no means these tacos are authentic but it doesn’t mean we can’t eat them!
I am sure no one in Mexico grew up with my buffalo chicken taco recipe or one skillet with radishes ground chicken tacos. But regardless, tacos are most requested for healthy dinner in our house!
My ground turkey taco recipe consists of lean ground turkey meat and just a few pantry staples. I loved the sauce so much that I even used it as a base in my turkey sloppy joes. So good!
Why This Ground Turkey Taco Recipe Works?
- Low sodium vegetable broth or chicken broth helps keep the turkey meat juicy rather than dry.
- A little bit of tomato paste adds another layer of flavor to otherwise bland poultry taste.
- Homemade ground turkey taco seasoning mix comes together quickly and results in low sodium healthy turkey tacos.
- 30 minute total time and flexible toppings means you can make these for dinner any night of the week, especially comes in handy on a busy weeknight.
Ingredients and Substitutions
You literally just need a tray of ground turkey and simple pantry staples. If you want leftovers I highly recommend to double the recipe.
- Ground turkey: Look for 93% lean ground turkey. 99% fat free meat will result in dry tacos.
- Onion and garlic: These aromatics add a lot of flavor and extra juice. So I do not recommend to use dry onion and garlic powders. Stick to fresh here.
- Turkey taco seasoning: I used 2 tbsp of my no sodium homemade taco seasoning mix. If you use store-bought and not low sodium taco seasoning, reduce salt by 1/4 tsp.
- Other seasonings: Onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. For spicy turkey tacos, double or triple amount of cayenne pepper.
- Tomato paste: You will need half a regular size 6 oz low sodium can of tomato paste. Ketchup would work too. Also tomato paste and broth can be replaced with 1 cup low sodium tomato sauce.
How to Make Turkey Tacos
- Saute onion and garlic with spices first to make them fragrant. If you add meat at same time, it will “boil” the veggies instead of frying them until aromatic. Need 3 minutes of your precious time here.
- Cook ground turkey for approximately 10 minutes. You will have to break it into pieces, stir constantly and you will see meat juices that you don’t have to drain.
- Make taco meat juicy with tomato paste, broth and a touch of sugar – watch dry meat crumbles transform into glossy taco meat you can’t wait to eat. A touch of sugar helps to offset acidity in tomatoes.
Recommended Taco Toppings
- Diced avocado or super easy guacamole
- Diced red onion
- Shredded lettuce
- Shredded cheddar cheese
- Whole milk yogurt or sour cream
- With Instant Pot refried beans.
This turkey taco meat is great to make healthy taco salad – add corn, beans, tortilla chips and veggies. Make turkey taco healthy lettuce wraps with Romaine lettuce, swiss chard leaves or boston lettuce. Stir in with cooked pasta, veggies and salsa for easy taco skillet.
Leftover brown rice or quinoa? Stir it in and make bowls with produce from your drawers. Sprinkle with cheese and I can assure you it will be glorious!
FAQs
Each contains important vitamins and minerals. Surprisingly, if we compare side by side 93% lean ground beef and 93% lean ground turkey, they both have equal amount of fat with turkey winning only in saturated fat department. However, if you compare 93% lean ground turkey to 85% ground beef, turkey is considerably healthier choices with less calories and fat.
We buy 93% ground turkey and 93% ground beef to add variety to our dinners.
Yes. Saute onion with spices, add remaining ingredients and do not stir tomato paste. Then pressure cook on high pressure for 7 minutes followed by Quick Release.
Turkey taco meat keeps and reheats beautifully! To reheat, all you have to do is add it to a skillet with a splash of water and simmer on low for about 5 minutes. Don’t forget to stir.
Making Turkey Tacos in Advance
You can double or triple turkey taco meat recipe or even freeze for easy weeknight dinner because it reheats beautifully.
- Fridge: Refrigerate leftover or cooked taco meat in a glass airtight container for up to 5 days.
- Freezer: Leftovers also freeze beautifully without freezer burns if stored properly. I love glass or reusable silicone bags even more.
- Instant Pot freezer meal: And last but not least but we turned turkey taco meat into a freezer meal in one of our Youtube videos. All you have to do is this and detailed instructions are located in a recipe card notes:
- Add all ingredients, except water, swoosh them around and freeze.
- Then cook from frozen on high pressure for 12 mins.
- And then thicken with slurry.
More Favorite Mexican Recipes
- Carne asada tacos
- Turkey taco soup
- Shrimp tacos
- Healthy taco pasta
- Baked tacos
- Bang bang shrimp tacos
Ground Turkey Tacos
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground turkey, 93% lean
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp oil
- 2 tbsp taco seasoning, low sodium
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin, ground
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Ground black pepper, to taste
- 3 oz tomato paste, low sodium
- 3/4 cup chicken or veggie broth, low sodium
- 1 tsp any sugar, I used maple syrup
- 10 corn or whole wheat flour tortillas, for serving
- Avocado, tomatoes, lettuce, cotija cheese, red onion and lime, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat large ceramic non-stick skillet on medium heat and swirl oil to coat. Add onion, garlic, taco seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper, and saute for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add ground turkey and saute for 10 minutes, stirring and breaking into small pieces with spatula often.
- Add tomato paste, broth and a touch of sugar. Stir bring to a boil and simmer for 1 minute.
- Warm up tortillas on another hot skillet or in a microwave.
- Serve hot in a tortilla with your favorite taco toppings like avocado, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, red onion, lime and guacamole.
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate leftover taco meat in a glass airtight container for up to 5 days. Reheat with a splash of water in a skillet by simmering on low heat for 5-10 minutes. Don’t forget to stir.
- Freeze: For up to 3 months. I love these reusable silicone bags for this purpose. You will have to thaw meat prior reheating: on a counter for 6-8 hours or in the fridge for 24 hours.
- Ground turkey: Look for 93% lean ground turkey. 99% fat free meat will result in dry turkey tacos.
- Onion and garlic: I do not recommend to use dry onion and garlic powders. Stick to fresh here.
- Taco seasoning: I used 2 tbsp of my no sodium homemade taco seasoning mix. If you use store-bought and not low sodium taco seasoning, reduce salt by 1/4 tsp.
- Tomato paste: You will need half a regular size 6 oz low sodium can of tomato paste. Ketchup would work too. Also tomato paste and broth can be replaced with 1 cup low sodium tomato sauce.
- To make Instant Pot Freezer Meal: Add all ingredients, except broth, to a freezer bag – I like to use reusable 1 gallon silicone bags. Swoosh things around to mix tomato paste with turkey to prevent burning. Freeze for up to 3 months. Cook from frozen with 1/2 cup broth on high pressure for 12 mins. Release pressure using Quick Release.Whisk 2 tbsp cold water with 2 tbsp cornstarch and add to Instant Pot. Press Saute, stir and cook until taco meat has thickened.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
The only taco recipe I use! Love them and I even use the leftovers to make stuffed peppers. My husband is on a low sodium diet so that’s how I found this recipe and so thankful I did! Please keep the low sodium ones coming!
So nice of you to say, so happy you loved it! Thank you for the rating!
Came out so Gud
I love how it has that wet consistency because of the Paste I believe..
Thx Olena 🥰
Yes! So glad you loved it!
Hi Olena! I made my own chili powder, taco seasoning and turkey tacos last night and it came out wonderfully. Very yummy, tasty turkey tacos! However, I was confused about step #3 in the recipe. Here you state “Add tomato sauce, water and a touch of sugar.” But no where in the list of ingredients is the amount of water specified that should be used. I am using 1 cup of tomato sauce, could you let me know how much water you recommend I use in step #3? Thanks so much, I plan to make several more of your recipes. Tony
Hi! Sorry on the confusion on that, it is supposed to read tomato paste and chicken/vegetable broth which aligns with the ingredients. Using 1 cup tomato sauce should work as a substitute.
Love the idea of adding tomato paste to cancel out that poultry flavor! This is guaranteed to be what my turkey tacos have been missing!! Excited to try this version very soon =)
Can’t wait to hear how it goes!
I’ve not made Tacos since my children were young and they are all grown up with their own families.
I recently picked up some ground turkey and when I received your email with your recipe for Ground Turkey Tacos I decided to give it try.
It was simple to make and very delicious. My husband loved it and told me to be sure to keep this recipe so that I can make it again..
That’s awesome! So glad you enjoyed it Bonnie!
I tried this recipe with my roommates tonight, we all agreed it was better than the tacos our mother’s made growing up! 10/10 it was a hit. I will make my tacos like this always.
Awesome Brianne!
Question for Calories is the 137 the count for 1 serving or for the 10 servings? Sorry if this is a silly question! Excited to try this though!
Serving size is 1 taco for 137 calories 🙂 Enjoy!
Made this a month ago and it was again tasty and delicious! Making it again this week?
So great to hear Marie 🙂