Turkey Taco Salad

It’s “Healthy Food Resolutions Month” again! Every year like clockwork — and Truck Month and Toyotathon — January shows up and makes us all feel bad about eating s’mores for dinner. Admittedly, January has a good point there. Marshmallows are bad for your teeth. But January’s advice is not good if all the healthy crap you eat tastes so god-awful that you just want January to piss off and light itself on fire so you can skip ahead to February and make s’more s’mores on the flaming hump of the month prior.

Turkey Taco Salad Recipe

I think you’ll like this lean and green turkey taco salad enough, though, to make it all year. I dolled up mostly-bland and always-lean ground turkey breast with tomatillos and onions to add some moisture and some more vegetable matter. The seasoning is simple and the whole thing comes together in literally 10 minutes. That’s the real reason you’ll be making this all year, I know. Ten minute meals leaves more time this year for my other resolutions: learn to walk on a tightrope, discover a new galaxy, fix global warming, and make my own pasta. Only one of those is true. Free turkey taco salad recipe if you can guess which!

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Turkey Taco Salad

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5 from 2 reviews

  • Author: Hilah Johnson
  • Prep Time: 5 mins
  • Cook Time: 5 mins
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 4 1x

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 teaspoon oil
  • 1 cup diced fresh tomatillos (about 2 large tomatillos)
  • 1/2 cup diced onion
  • 1 minced jalapeño (optional)
  • 2 teaspoons garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • Pinch of ground cinnamon
  • 1 pound ground turkey breast
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • For serving:
  • 8 cups torn lettuce leaves
  • 1 cup shredded cabbage
  • Sliced radishes, cucumber, tomatoes, avocado as desired
  • 1/2 cup salsa
  • Cheese, tortilla chips, sour cream if you like

Instructions

  1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
  2. Add tomatillos, onion, jalapeño and saute about a minute until softened.
  3. Add garlic and spices and cook another minute.
  4. Scoot the vegetable mixture to the edges of the skillet and break the turkey into the skillet. Use your spatula to break it into small chunks.
  5. Add the chicken broth and cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes or until the turkey is cooked through and no longer pink. Remove from heat.
  6. Arrange lettuce and cabbage into 4 bowls and top with whatever other salad vegetables you like. Scoop 1/4 of the turkey mixture on top of each bowl and serve with salsa, cheese, chips and/or sour cream.

Notes

Turkey taco mixture can also be served as soft or crispy tacos

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And in months other than January, feel free to smother it in cheese, sour cream, and Ranch dressing if you want. Serve it on a bed of Fritos and top it with some guacamole even. Shooot. January can’t even see you now.

9 Comments

  1. larry kimball on January 8, 2013 at 11:53 am

    This recipe rocks, Hilah! Easy, simple, great for a lunch when you have no time for lunch. I still favor the tortilla chips with it tho. A long time ago a local Mexican restaurant had a taco salad on the menu, and it was served in a giant deep-fried flour tortilla, and the tortilla was sweet and tender and flaky and easy to eat with the salad, just break it off as you ate. A meal for the not-so-faint-of-heart. I said that to say this: Those “Perfect Tortilla” molds they advertised on TV: FAIL! I got a set as a gift, the tortilla browns in the oven OK, but it is tough and hard to eat, you end up making a huge mess of the plate, the table, yourself. Your taco salad with tortilla chips, much better. Much. Thanks, Hilah, you did it again!

    • Hilah on January 8, 2013 at 3:47 pm

      Thanks Larry! Man, I always wondered if those baked tortilla shell things worked! Thanks for the tip. The ones in the restaurants are fried, right? I always thought they were deep-fried flour tortillas and that’s why they’re so light and flaky. Doesn’t seem like a healthy version in the oven would ever compare! 😉

  2. Bev Weidner on January 8, 2013 at 2:06 pm

    AHHHH! I’m dying right now because I’m shooting my post for next Monday, and what is it? TURKEY TACO SALAD. Please don’t hate! Also, feed me? Coo, coo.

    • Hilah on January 8, 2013 at 3:46 pm

      Great minds eat alike! If ya wanna, we can cross-link and encourage people to have a Turkey Taco Salad-off.

  3. Amber Boegly on January 10, 2013 at 10:55 pm

    Looks like a great recipe to toy around with. Maybe leave out the cinnamon, jalapenos, and cabbage and I’m sure it’d be great. I don’t get to cook with turkey cause pretty much all I find is either those turkey breasts or the pre-cooked turkey slices. Really irritating.






    • Hilah on January 11, 2013 at 8:34 pm

      I know it sounds kind of gross (and maybe it is) but I have minced chicken breast up in my food processor before in a pinch when the store didn’t have ground turkey. Then put the food processor bowl through the dishwasher. But maybe it’s still kind of gross. I’m not a very good judge of that sometimes. 😉

      • larry kimball on January 12, 2013 at 8:22 am

        Gotcha on the food processor minced chicken. Dishwasher set on hot will take care of that just fine. Also, the Italians made ‘chopped meat’ using 2 knives, before food processors. Kinda like Martin Yan, he uses 2 cleavers like there was no tomorrow! Good for chicken, turkey, garlic, yadda yadda yadda.

  4. Chris on January 13, 2013 at 12:28 pm

    Had to watch it twice because I was laughing too hard the first time through when you revealed your “secret ingredient” hahaha! Your personality definitely makes the show & the recipes I’ve tried have all been great !






    • Hilah on January 16, 2013 at 9:19 pm

      Heehee! thanks, Chris! I’m glad I keep you entertained AND well fed! 😉

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