Easy Turkey Taco Rice Bowls with Salsa-Lime Sour Cream

These turkey taco rice bowls are an easy weeknight dinner with seasoned ground turkey, caned black beans and frozen corn, rice, fresh veggies, avocado and a simple salsa-lime sour cream.

This is exactly the type of dinner I love making for our family because I can pile everything into a bowl for myself and serve the exact same ingredients separately for the kids. No separate kid dinner required.

The salsa-lime sour cream takes about a minute to make and is what pulls everything together. It’s creamy, a little tangy and chunky from the salsa.

Why You’ll Love These Turkey Taco Bowls

• Easy to customize. Use the vegetables and toppings you already have or that your family likes.
• Kid-friendly without being “kid food.” Serve everything separately and let kids build their own plate.
• Lots of good stuff in one dinner. You’ve got protein, beans, vegetables, avocado and rice all in one meal.
• Great for leftovers. Keep the warm and cold ingredients separate and assemble another bowl for lunch the next day.
• The dressing is incredibly easy. Sour cream, salsa and lime. That’s it.

Ingredients

For the Seasoned Turkey

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 2–3 tablespoons water

Note: I usually mix up a larger batch of this seasoning and keep it in the pantry so I don’t have to measure everything every time. For now, I’ve included the individual spices here. A separate seasoning recipe is coming!

For the Black Beans + Corn

• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup frozen corn
• Salt, to taste

For the Bowls

• Cooked rice
• Chopped romaine
• Chopped tomatoes
• Shredded carrots
• 1–2 avocados, diced or sliced

For the Salsa-Lime Sour Cream

• ½ cup sour cream
• 1/3  cup chunky salsa
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp syrup
• 1-2 tbsp water to thin

How to Make Turkey Taco Rice Bowls

1. Cook the turkey.
Add the ground turkey to a large skillet over medium heat. Cook, breaking it apart with a wooden spoon, until it begins to brown.

Add the chili powder, paprika, cumin, garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper. Pour in 2–3 tablespoons of water and stir everything together. Continue cooking until the turkey is cooked through and well coated in the seasoning.

2. Make the black beans and corn.
Add the drained black beans and corn to a skillet. Season with salt and cook over medium heat until warmed through.

3. Make the salsa-lime sour cream.
Add the sour cream, chunky salsa, lime juice and salt to a bowl and stir until combined. No blender or food processor necessary—I like keeping some of the texture from the salsa.

4. Build your bowls.
Add rice to each bowl, followed by the seasoned turkey and black beans and corn. Add romaine, tomatoes, shredded carrots and avocado, then spoon the salsa-lime sour cream over everything.

How I Serve This to My Kids

This is one of my favorite types of family dinners because I don’t have to make a separate version for the kids.

Instead of assembling everything into a bowl, I put the ingredients separately on their plates: rice, seasoned turkey, black beans and corn, avocado, carrots and tomatoes. They can eat everything individually or mix together whatever they want.

It’s the same dinner, just presented differently.

Substitutions & Additions

You can easily adjust these bowls based on what you have. Try shredded cheese, chopped cilantro, extra salsa, lime wedges or crushed tortilla chips on top.

You can also swap the rice for another grain or leave it out altogether and turn this into more of a taco salad.

Make Ahead & Storage

You can prep almost all of the components ahead of time. Cook the rice, chop the vegetables and make the salsa-lime sour cream earlier in the day.

Store leftover turkey, rice and the black bean-corn mixture separately from the fresh vegetables and dressing. That way, you can reheat the warm ingredients without ending up with warm lettuce and avocado.

Other proteins to add to a taco bowl

Easy Instapot Shredded Chicken

Easy Instant Pot Pinto Beans

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