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.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
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!
I follow this recipe to the T. It is sooo good. We have it once a week and my family loves it (me too!).❤
Absolutely love this recipe! Easy, quick and hearty meal to cook on a busy weeknight.
Love this recipe. We make it about once a week. It’s so easy to make, and on a busy week night it is better than takeout!
This is so good and filled with so much flavor 💗 I will be making this again and again 😉
Another 5 stars!! I made this *almost* exactly as written. Added a bell pepper and used an entire bag of frozen spinach bc I didn’t have another plan for it. Flavor was awesome. I had it all put together and on the stove and prep cleaned up in under 15 minutes. So easy. Will definitely make it again. I will omit the lemon zest. My 10 year old claims that’s what he didn’t like about it. 🙄
How would you use cauliflower rice instead of regular rice?
Honestly, you’d probably need to change the recipe quite a bit, and since you’d need to make so many changes I wouldn’t be able to offer a suggestion without testing it. The reason you’d need to change it so much is that rice absorbs liquid while cauliflower rice releases liquid. So you’d need to reduce or eliminate the broth in the recipe to make up for the fact that the cauli wouldn’t be absorbing it, but then you’d be missing all the flavor from the broth.
What about subbing quinoa? Would it throw off liquid ratio?
It might, but I’d have to test it to know for sure.
Really delicious an easy to prepare.
This was so yummy! I like the convenience of doing everything in one skillet, but I felt like the rice to turkey ratio was off (wanted more rice, less turkey) so next time I’m going to cook more rice in chicken broth separately. Also, I’m assuming that 19 oz ground turkey is a mistake? I have only ever seen it sold in 16 oz packages, and 16 oz was plenty.
Some brands sell ground turkey in 19oz. portions. I agree, it’s so weird and random. :P
Amazing recipe! Definitely a keeper.
Goodness gracious!! This recipe was so delicious and easy! Single girl here, and this will easily feed me for several meals (extra cost savings, easy, AND delicious? The ultimate win!). I live in a studio with no real stove, so I used an induction cooktop with my Our Place pan. The pan was the perfect size for this recipe in terms of depth and width. And the one pan recipe makes this a dream to clean in small spaces!
I added more greens (store was out of spinach, so I used mustard greens) and a smidgen more stock. Perfect!
Thank you for this delicious and easy recipe!! Can’t wait to finish my leftovers and make it again in the future!
Super delicious and simple! My husband gobbled it up with some yogurt. I think next time, I will add a little dill. This recipe is definitely a keeper!
This recipe is so good! I don’t like olives (gross) so I substituted with capers! Great light meal that reheats well!
This was delicious! I will definitely be making this again!
The only substitution I made was roasted red peppers instead of sundries tomato because I didn’t have any. Other than that, I followed to a “T” and it is now one of my FAVORITE dishes. Thank you for sharing it. This is also my first ever review for a recipe, so you know I really love it!
Wow! I originally decided on this dish to use up some ingredients, not thinking I would be particularly keen on the end result. But it was absolutely delicious! Second helpings delicious. We made it according to the recipe, except that I only had a lb of turkey, which was plenty for us, and we used some leftover queso fresco we had in place of the feta. Lots of tangy, salty, herby flavor with a touch of sweet tomato to round it out. Loved it!
Thank you very much for sharing this recipe. I ran out of idea on what to do with ground turkey and I found your recipe. We love Greek food and this is a keeper. Since I have a rice cooker, I transfer the mixture after they were all combined. Perfect! My husband said I can make it again for our group in the church.
My all time favorite budget bytes recipe!! I just made it again after a couple years and it’s even better than I remember. I threw in some banana peppers as well and it’s delicious. I can get all the ingredients for the recipe at aldi for under $20 and get 4-5 servings out of it which is such a good deal. Tastey!!