OMG yum yum yum! This recipe is an instant new favorite! I’ve been all about the skillet and one-pot meals lately because I’m super busy, so today I made this Greek Turkey and Rice Skillet, which is like a deconstructed version of my Greek Turkey Burgers. The recipe is super simple and uses small amounts of super flavor potent ingredients, like feta and Kalamata olives, to deliver a big flavor punch without driving the price way up.
Lower Carb Options
I went a little lower on the carb to meat ratio than I usually do, which made the final cost per serving a bit higher, but that’s what fit my needs today. You can make this a super low carb meal by eliminating the rice and broth, doubling the spinach, and adding in some fresh diced tomatoes at the end (you won’t need to simmer since there’s no rice to cook, just stir and cook until heated through). A can of white beans or garbanzo beans would also be nice in there.
Keep Expensive Ingredients in Check
I love using small amounts of feta (and I’m talking small, like 1 oz.) to really punch up the flavor in recipes, but you can’t usually buy just one ounce of feta at a time. So, I buy an 8 oz. block of feta, cut it into four 2 oz. cubes, and freeze them. They thaw fairly quickly at room temperature and then I can use one or two ounces as needed. Like other cheeses, feta does get more crumbly after the freeze/thaw cycle, but I always crumble it over my dishes anyway so it’s not a problem. :)
Trouble Cooking Rice?
Just another couple of quick notes about this one skillet cooking method. You must have a quality thick bottomed pot for this to work. If it heats unevenly you may have some rice that gets scorched while other rice remains uncooked. If you often have trouble with cooking rice or these one pot methods, try cooking the rice separately in the broth, then combining it with the other ingredients in the skillet after cooking.
Greek Turkey and Rice Skillet
Servings 4 to 6 servings (7 cups total)Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.13)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.16)
- 19 oz. Ground turkey, 97% lean ($4.59)
- 1 tsp dried oregano ($0.10)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.02)
- Freshly cracked pepper ($0.03)
- 1 cup long grain white rice, uncooked ($0.66)
- 1/4 lb frozen cut leaf spinach ($0.42)
- 1/3 cup sun dried tomato halves (about 7 pcs), sliced ($1.00)
- 1/2 cup kalamata olives, sliced ($1.08)
- 1.5 cups chicken broth* ($0.21)
- handful fresh parsley ($0.25)
- 1 fresh lemon ($0.75)
- 1 oz feta ($0.56)
Instructions
- Add the olive oil and garlic to a large deep skillet and sauté over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, or until the garlic is fragrant. Add the ground turkey, oregano, salt, and pepper to the skillet. Continue to sauté until the turkey is cooked through (about 5 minutes).
- While the turkey is cooking, slice the olives and sun dried tomatoes. Once the turkey is cooked through, add the rice, frozen spinach (no need to thaw first), olives, and sun dried tomatoes to the skillet.
- Add the chicken broth and stir until everything is very well combined. Place a lid on the skillet, turn the heat up to medium high, and allow it to come up to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low or medium low, and allow it to gently simmer for 15 minutes. Use the lowest level of heat that maintains a steady simmer in the skillet.
- After 15 minutes, give the skillet a brief stir, replace the lid quickly, turn off the heat, and allow it to sit for an additional 10 minutes.
- While the skillet is resting, zest half of the lemon and slice it into wedges. Roughly chop the parsley. Give the skillet a final fluff and stir, then top with lemon zest, parsley, and crumbled feta. Serve with lemon wedges to squeeze over top.
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Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Greek Turkey Rice Skillet – Step by Step Photos
Begin by adding 1 Tbsp olive oil and 2 cloves of minced garlic to a large deep skillet. Sauté over medium heat for about one minute, then add 19oz. ground turkey (97% lean), 1 tsp dried oregano, 1/4 tsp salt, and some freshly cracked pepper. Continue to sauté until the turkey is cooked through. I used Honeysuckle White ground turkey, which inexplicably comes in a 19oz. package.
To the cooked turkey add 1 cup uncooked long grain white rice, 1/4 lb. frozen cut leaf spinach (no need to thaw first), about 1/3 cup dried tomato halves (about 7 pieces) sliced thinly, and about 1/2 cup Kalamata olives (sliced). I use sun dried tomatoes that are *not* packed in oil. I get them in little bags in the produce department and only use a small handful at a time in recipes. The rest store easily in my pantry.
Instead of buying a whole jar of olives, which usually runs $6-$7 dollars, I just grabbed a handful from the olive bar in my grocery store. I did a price calculation to compare the price per pound for the olive bar vs. the jar olives, and they were almost the same, so I opted for the “no leftovers” choice.
Also add 1.5 cups chicken broth to the skillet, then give everything a good stir until the ingredients are evenly combined. I use Better Than Bouillon to mix up the exact amount of broth that I need for recipes and the jar of concentrate stores easily in my fridge without spoiling. Super convenient.
Place a lid on the skillet, turn the heat up to medium-high, and allow the broth to come up to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low or medium-low (the lowest temp where it maintains a gentle simmer), and let it simmer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, give it a quick stir, replace the lid, turn off the heat, and let it sit for an additional 10 minutes. After that the rice should all be tender and the broth completely absorbed.
While the skillet is simmering, zest the lemon and then cut it into wedges. Roughly chop the parsley. Sprinkle the lemon zest, parsley, and feta over the skillet once it’s finished cooking.
Serve with the lemon wedges to squeeze over top just before eating. NOM. I could seriously eat that whole thing!
So many colors and flavors in this Greek Turkey and Rice Skillet!
Made this tonight with some changes, and it was delicious. I used ground beef instead of ground turkey and fresh spinach instead of frozen. Then instead of adding in the rice and broth and cooking it all together, I cooked quinoa on the side and served it in a ‘bowl’ format with the ground beef mixture on top. It was really good. I also used dried tomatoes in oil (that was all I had), and they worked fine for me. I know I changed it up a bit, but your main recipe was definitely the inspiration and this goes on the repeat list for us. Very tasty, thanks for the idea.
This was so good! We doubled the spinach and ditched the olives, and basically scraped our plates clean. I would highly recommend this meal to anyone who needs something easy but is is over a simple rice and beans meal.
I made this using brown basamati rice but had to add a lot more liquid than it calls for. In fact, it is cooking right now and has been simmering for half an hour and the rice is still hard. I added another cup of liquid and I am keeping it covered. Maybe white rice is better or cook the brown rice separately.
Any idea how much I should increase cooking time by if using brown rice? Thanks!!
Brown rice usually requires more liquid and more cooking time. You may need to increase the liquid by about 25% and the simmer time will probably need to be at least 30 minutes. I haven’t tested it with brown rice, though, so these are just guesses.
This was delicious! Thank you for all that you do to bring these great recipes to us.
My husband doesn’t like kalamata olives so next time I make this I will use canned green olives for a milder flavor. However I love it as written and was happy to eat the olives he picked out. Haha.
I forgot to get fresh parsley so I added a tsp or so of dried (along with a few red pepper flakes) during the “fluff rice” step. I bet it would be good with the sweetness of sun dried tomatoes but we don’t like their chewy-ness so we used a similar amount of fresh cherry/grape tomatoes, sans juice and seeds.
So good!
Hi Beth, love your recipes! I use them almost exclusively! I have quite a bit of frozen shredded turkey from a Thanksgiving bird I picked apart last year. Do you think this recipe would be OK if I used the chunks of shredded turkey instead of ground? Would the flavor and texture still work OK? I’ve never used ground turkey before so have no experience with it.
Yes, I think you could do that! The chimichurri really carries most of the flavor here, so I think it would be safe to swap out the meat.
Is there a good substitute for the olives? Or just skip all together.
You can just skip them, or if you happen to have capers, a tablespoon of those would probably also be good and give that briny flavor.
Yum! I need to pick up a couple items – most is in my pantry/fridge/freezer.
Two things – any preference as to oil pack vs water pack vs dry for the sun dried tomatoes? Some recipes are really specific on the subject and others a bit looser – just curious. Also I got a chuckle out of the servings note – 26 to 6? Guessing that was meant to say 2 – 6 but this looks so good I would hazard a guess it would only make 6 servings with a big Greek salad on the side LOL <3
Thanks for catching that typo! :D I prefer dry tomatoes for this because I feel like the oil packed would give off too much oil. Sometimes the oil pack are good for dry dishes (like pizza or something), but since this one simmers with liquid the dry tomatoes work great because they get rehydrated as it cooks.
26 servings???
Yeah, I don’t know how that 26 ended up in there. Must have been some technical glitch. :P It’s 4-6 servings.
Beth, I have tried a few of your recipes–thanx so much, b’cauze they are eazy & quik & healthy & tasty. Your famous Greek Turkey & Rice sounds delicious. I welcome every opportunity to eat Kalamata olives.
Thank you much for your creative blog.
If I cook the rice separately (as you note at the top): would I saute the meat and then add the cooked rice & everything else all at once, & that’s it? No need to keep cooking everything together? I’m trying to think if the flavors would blend enough that way …
Yep, just add everything and then cook until heated through. The flavors will be a little less blended, but I think it will still be great.
Doing an unplanned run to the grocery store right now.
LOL…. I’m right behind :)
Inspiration strikes when visiting Beth’s blog!
My mouth is watering right now!!! :-)
Any substitutions for the sun dried tomatoes? I don’t like them. Or just leave them out?
I think fresh tomatoes would be great, too.
I used up some fresh cherry tomatoes I had on hand (I squeezed out the juicy insides and just chopped them like dried tomatoes would be) and it was great.
Do you think this would be just as good with ground beef (I have a package in the freezer!) or would it overwhelm the other flavors? It looks delicious and I’ll totally make a special trip the store for turkey if I have to!
Yes, I do think beef would still be great. :)