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Ground Turkey Taco Skillet, an easy one-pan weeknight dinner using ground turkey, corn, pinto beans and salsa topped with tortilla chips and cheese.
Ground Turkey Taco Skillet
This reminds me of one my most popular ground turkey recipes, the ground turkey skillet only topped with chips and cheese which is never a bad idea! It’s basically a deconstructed taco, perfect for weeknight dinner! If you want more dinner ideas for taco Tuesday try Slow Cooker Beef Tacos, Cod Fish Tacos or these low-carb, Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps.
Why You Need To Add This To Your Meal Plan
This recipe is adapted from Dash of Mandi’s cookbook The Tex Mex Table. I slightly modified her recipe to make it a bit macro friendly. Like any taco, you can really top this with anything you like on your tacos. Some ideas you can try are sour cream, avocado or guacamole.
- Family-friendly: this skillet recipe is sure to please the whole family
- Budget-friendly: it’s an inexpensive dinner that won’t hurt your budget
- Quick: takes under 30 minutes to make and made in one pan!
What You’ll Need
This turkey taco skillet is basically a deconstructed taco topped with cheese nachos! Here’s what’s in it:
- Jalapeño – for spice
Onion – for flavor
Ground turkey – I like 93% lean but you can use 99% to make it leaner - Corn – you can use frozen, canned or fresh
- Pinto beans – any bean will work here
- Jarred Salsa – or use an 8 ounce can of tomato sauce
- Tortilla chips – use your favorite type, blue chips or baked chips work great
- Shredded Mexican cheese blend
- Spices: Salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, cayenne
- Optional Toppings: Cilantro, chopped tomatoes, pickled onions, lime wedges, and the optional sliced avocado, guacamole, and sour cream
Variations:
- Swap ground turkey for lean ground sirloin or chicken.
- For a spicy taco skillet, don’t remove the seeds or ribs from the jalapeño and use a spicy salsa.
- This is a mild dish, if you prefer your meals milder, omit the cayenne, remove the jalapeño seeds and ribs, and choose a mild salsa.
- Sub black beans for pinto beans.
- If you don’t want to serve the turkey mixture with tortilla chips, serve it over rice, quinoa, cauliflower rice, or chopped romaine to make it a taco salad.
- If you don’t want to make pickled red onions, use fresh red or green onions.
More Ground Turkey Recipes You’ll Love:
- Enchilada Turkey Meatloaf
- Easy Healthy Turkey Chorizo
- Baked Mexican Layer Dip
- Turkey Chili Taco Soup
- Turkey and Black Bean Enchiladas
Turkey Taco Skillet
Turkey Taco Skillet, an easy one-pan weeknight dinner using ground turkey, corn, pinto beans and salsa topped with tortilla chips and cheese.
Yield: servings
Serving Size: 1 1/2 cups
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1 jalapeno, seeds removed and diced
- 1 lb 93% ground turkey
- Salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ¼ tsp cayenne
- 3/4 cup canned pinto beans, drained
- 3/4 cup corn kernels
- 12 oz jarred salsa, about 1 jar
- 32 tortilla chips, about 4 oz
- 1 cup shredded reduce fat Mexican cheese blend
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro, for topping
- pickled red onions, for topping
- 1/4 cup chopped tomatoes, for topping
- Lime wedges
- guacamole, sour cream, avocado, optional for topping
Instructions
- In a large skillet over medium heat, warm the olive oil. When heated, add the onion and jalapeño and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the ground turkey and season with salt and pepper. Cook the turkey until it is browned, crumbling the meat into small pieces as it cooks.
- Add the chili powder, smoked paprika, cumin, cayenne, pinto beans, corn and salsa. Mix well. Let the mixture cook for 3 minutes.
- Lightly crumble the chips over the top of the turkey, then sprinkle the cheese over the top of the chips.
- Cover the turkey skillet with a lid and let it cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the cheese melts or place it under the broiler 2 to 3 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat and top the turkey skillet with chopped cilantro, pickled red onions, chopped tomatoes, plus optional toppings like avocado, guacamole or sour cream, if desired and serve with lime wedges.
Last Step:
Please leave a rating and comment letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business to thrive and continue providing free, high-quality recipes for you.Nutrition
Serving: 1 1/2 cups, Calories: 503 kcal, Carbohydrates: 43.5 g, Protein: 37 g, Fat: 23.5 g, Saturated Fat: 6.5 g, Cholesterol: 99 mg, Sodium: 1081 mg, Fiber: 5.5 g, Sugar: 9 g
Made this for dinner last night! Perfection! Even my picky 16yo devoured it!
Easy pantry meal! I swap out whatever meat I have on hand and it’s great for busy weeknights
Super tasty! Left off the tortilla chips and just used the mixture as a filling for soft corn taco shells. Everyone loved this dish and it was super easy and a great way to use up stuff in the freezer or veggie drawer. I add a chopped green pepper because I needed to use it up and I used a corn/onion/pepper frozen mix because that was what was in the freezer. Will definitely make again!
So easy to make and the whole family loved it. Some of us ate it as a stuff avocado half, some ate in homemade tortillas and some ate on lettuce and topped with all the things including cucumbers. This would be a perfect make once and eat twice – unless it’s my family! In that case, there were no leftovers. Wonderful quick, easy and tasty meal.
Glad everyone enjoyed it!
So delish! Loved it! I used the whole can of beans and a (low sodium) taco seasoning packet instead of the spices!
This recipe is delicious!! We top with sour cream, pickled onions, chopped tomatoes, the cheddar cheese and crushed chips after it is dished out on the plate. Started buying pickled onions when we tried this recipe. It doesn’t have a funny turkey taste. You honestly can’t tell it is turkey. Highly recommend and don’t be afraid of the pickled onions. They add a really nice flavor to it! They come in a jar and have a pinkish color.
My 14 year old son got up and hugged me after his first bite. Another winner.
LOVE that!!
Delicious and easy to make – even for a novice. I plan to keep this recipe!
Wow, how did I not see this recipe earlier? So glad it was included in this week’s meal planner – it was fantastic! Love it when a recipe exceeds your expectations – this one definitely did! It’s always great to find a good ground turkey recipe. My whole family loved it and will definitely plan to make again. The fresh ingredients added at the end really make it the dish. Thank you for the recipe!
Delicious and quick weeknight meal!
Absolutely outstanding! Perfectly balanced dish
I made the recipe pretty much as stated but added some mini peppers. I didn’t use any corn or cheese ( figured the consumer of dish could add it later) I had a cup of cooked rice that needed used up so I added that at the end of cooking along with some chopped spinach and cilantro. I’m using this as tonight’s supper and some meal preps!
Packed with flavor and fiber (used entire can of beans)! What a great, easy recipe! My picky MIL still has no idea I made this with ground turkey! This will be in my dinner rotations, and it’s also easy cleanup! I had a hard time getting the r-f cheese to melt, but the flavor is amazing…(I saved on a few WW points and just sprayed my skillet with olive oil spray, then sautéed the onion along with my turkey meat…) Thank you for another delicious recipe!
This was so easy to put together. The flavors are amazing! used Daiya dairy free cheese and used the whole can of pinto beans. Really amazing! Thank you!
My go to. Thank you
Sooooo very tasty. EZ to make and EZ to clean up. Wonderful flavors. Thank you!
This is on regular rotation. Loved by all.
This was delicious! It’ll definitely be on my regular rotation. I noticed when I put it in the recipe builder on ww it came out to 8 pts. Perhaps because 93% turkey is 0 now? So easy and yummy!
Is the cheese what causes it to be higher in points do you think?
Made this recipe last night for dinner and it was a big hit with my husband who is a very picky eater. He even complimented me on the dinner (doesn’t happen that often). Thank you!
Love it!
I’ve had this for dinner yesterday, breakfast this morning and then for lunch. This is one of those super simple recipes that just hits it out of the park. So much delicious flavor and texture. This is going to be a repeater for sure.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very easy and tasty!!
Wow, wow, wow! So yummy!
We didn’t add corn since my boyfriend doesn’t like it, but it tasted sooooo good. I’m thinking of making this for when I have friends over, it was super easy and quick.
I had it with avocado, tomato, pickled red onion and sour cream.
Much love from Norway!
My picky family loved this! It was so flavorful, yet easy and very inexpensive for a family of 4. I swapped out the pinto beans for black beans. Definitely will be putting into our rotation.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Delicious and filling! Tortilla chips were soggy. Next time I will crush them and add over cheese just before serving.
This is wonderful! It is so tasty and filling! I like the fact that there are veggies in it, and also it’s one pot! I’m doing Weight Watchers 2025, so I followed it to the letter!
Very tasty quick meal. Had a nice level of spice and lots of different textures.
This is so easy and absolutely delish. We loved it with avocado and and sour cream. Another great and healthy dinner from Skinnytaste.
I can’t get enough of this skillet! It was an instant favorite in our house.
I just made this recipe, it’s delicious. I didn’t have corn or tortillas chips but that wasn’t missed, I will be making this dish from now on.
Delicious! I wouldn’t change a thing. Perfect for Cinco de Mayo!
Delicious! Loved the pickled onion with it too. Great flavor and hearty.
This is so easy! I have made this more than any other Skinnytaste recipe. My husband doesn’t like beans so I substitute with more corn. I make this just about every week.
Very tasty, will put this into my rotation. Hubby just went back for 2nds. I think this would be really good on top of a lettuce as a taco salad.
Quick, easy, and delicious. My 3 year old even loved it.
I have made this more than any other recipe. My husband loves it. He doesn’t like beans so I omit them and double the corn. Very easy to make!!!
Awesome and easy!
This comes together so quickly, and it’s very tasty!! It’s a family favourite in our house!!
This was delicious like nachos in a bowl. Definitely one of my favorites. I only wish I had doubled the recipe for more leftovers.
Family loved this one.
I made this tonight to rave reviews! And my husband gave this recipe a new name — Upside Down Nachos. 🙂
Lol, glad he enjoyed them!
Quick and tasty weeknight meal. Just the right amount of spice for us. If it’s too hot for you, check what kind of chili powder you’re using.
This was delicious! Just the right amount of heat. I was afraid it would have a turkey taste but you couldn’t tell it was ground turkey. I loved it!
This recipe is so quick and easy and it’s made with things I usually have on hand. We love this recipe so much in my house! Don’t skip the pickled onion, they are so good! This is def in our regular rotation.
This dish is definitely not mild like it says in the post, with 1 tbsp chili powder. You sure the recipe is right?
This was really good but 1 tablespoon of Chili Powder is a lot!!! Next time going to use less because it was almost too spicy hot. But still delicious!!! 😋 thanks for this wonderful recipe!! 😊💕👍
Love this! The only change I made was to eat the tortilla chips on the side instead of putting them in the dish. This has become a family favorite in our house!
This dish is a hit in our house!
One of my favorite week night dinners!! Easy and delicious.
My family loves this dish! It has become part of the regular rotation of favorite meals in our household. Quick, easy and yummy!
If anyone is hesitating to make this they shouldn’t! I thought it would be a simple and probably boring meal. It wasn’t! My whole family loved it and said it tasted a little like upside down nachos. I love how versatile it is too!
Absolutely delicious! Used black beans instead of pinto as that is what I had. Turned out great.
This recipe was absolutely delicious and will be a new staple in our house. This was probably one of the fastest skinny taste recipe I have ever made. I loved the ease of it being in one pan. We already had some pickled red onions in our fridge, and they were absolutely delicious in this. I wouldn’t skip them next time. Sooo good!
Wonderful recipe!
I made this tonight with the beans & chips on the sides ( for my teen) and we devoured it! I loved how easy it was to get on the table. Will be making it many more times.
Just made this! So yummy! I omitted the chili powder because I just can’t seem to get just a little bit of this stuff with making it too spicy for me! I also only put an 1/8 of a top of cayenne pepper. Came out perfect! Not spicy at all! Agree with another reviewer where have the pickled onions been all my life! It definitely puts the dish over the top! Super quick to make! I almost called for pizza tonight…but so glad I made this instead!
Would this be the same amount of points using 93% ground beef?
not sure
Ok, I made this tonight for my family and wow! It is delicious and so so easy for after a long day of work! Thank you!!
Another win! A great ground turkey dish that comes together super quick. This one will definitely make it back to the rotation!
Absolutely delicious! Quick and easy to make. Stores well too!
Amazing ! Was looking for a ground Turkey recipe and this fit the bill ! Easy and tasty!
made this with a little twist.. left out the chips and utilized it to make mini bowls & rice for meal prep. will def be staying on the menu.
Are you no longer using WW points system?
Super easy, quick meal on a busy night for the family. It’s all gone. Not a single leftover!
We liked this! Hits a lot of marks: easy, quick, inexpensive, decently kid friendly. It also lends itself well to leftovers or meal prep if you keep the chips separate until ready to eat.
I made this, and we all loved it! It’s so good, definitely going into rotation. The jalapeño didn’t make it to hot at all, it was just right.I followed other’s suggestions and put the chips on the side.my husband had two servings.
Where have quick pickled onions been all my life??
We loved this recipe but the onions put it over the top
The only thing I added was a little Tajin
Made it using ground beef(93% lean) the family loves it!
Delicious and comes together quickly! Family loved it and devoured. Thanks, as always, Gina. 🙂
This is a wonderful recipe. I feel like I’m having beef nachos ( in this case turkey 🙂 )from a restaurant!
Can someone please tell me the WW points? Thx!!
You need to hit the WW personal points button up near the top of the page.
This is delicious, but what is driving the calories and fat?
This calculated to 15 pp for me on the WW app. I halved the serving, so I could still enjoy it
So good! Only change I made was adding a diced red bell pepper at the beginning lol. I bet refried beans could work really well too.
This was delicious. My daughter even ate leftovers the next day (which is not normal for her). I used a can of rotel plus a little salsa because I didn’t have enough salsa on hand. Otherwise, followed recipe. It was great!
So good!!! We made this last night & it was delicious.
DELICIOUS!!!! Followed the recipe exactly and wouldn’t change anything. Can’t wait to make again!!!
awesome
Delicious!! Made it tonight and the family loved it! Lots of flavor. I will definitely be making this again! Very easy and super quick.
Loved this recipe but would recommend adding the tortilla chips as a condiment after the factif you anticipate leftovers.
Tried this tonight as written and was amazing! whole family loved it!
Really tasty!
There are just two of us, so we had leftovers. I lifted the chips off the leftovers and put them in fridge separately.
In the future, I will make the entire recipe, but only top 1/2 of it (likely on our plates) and then do the same in a few days.
Loved this but next time I would make just enough so there are no leftovers. The tortillas got soggy (which is no surprise) and didn’t warm up well for me (texture thing).
How much smoked paprika? It’s not listed in the ingredients.
it says 1 tsp
Made this for dinner tonight, and it was a big hit!! So flavorful! I only used black beans, as we are not big fans of corn, but it was still delicious. Topped with green onions and greek yogurt. So easy, and so good!
LARA asked in a reply to another message how to pickle the onions. Search for the Skinnytaste recipe for Air Fryer Roasted Cauliflower Tacos which includes pickled onion instructions.
What salsa do you use?
any chunky jarred salsa
How much smoked paprika should be added? The amount is not listed.
1 tsp, fixed now. 🙂
The smoked paprika still doesn’t show up in the print version of the recipe.
Try it now, it should show. 🙂
Smoked paprika is mentioned In the instructions but not on the ingredient list. How much would you suggest?
1 tsp
How do you pickle the onions?
What did you change from Mandi’s recipe? Thank you!
Can you make this ahead of time and refrigerate?
The meat yes, without the chips.
Looks so good! Saving this to make soon
2 questions:
What chips do you use?
Can we make ahead for lunch meal prep?
I used tostitos, you can make it ahead then add the chips later and melt the cheese. Yes!
Is there a recipe for “quick pickled onions”? I can’t wait to make this!
I was just going to ask that! 😂 good thing I looked in the comments first.