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26 Quick and Easy Ground Chicken Recipes

Ground chicken is a versatile, lean protein perfect for quick weeknight dinners and easy meals. These recipes are flavorful and most prepared in 30 minutes or less!

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Ground Chicken Recipes

Why You’ll Love These Ground Chicken Recipes

Easy to Use – Can be used in a wide range of recipes and is an easy substitute for recipes calling for ground beef or turkey.

Healthy – A lean source of protein while providing a valuable source of vitamins and minerals such as B vitamins, selenium, and phosphorus.

Versatile & Tasty – Whether you’re making burgers, chili, meatballs, tacos, or stir-fries, ground chicken easily takes on the flavors of many dishes.

Affordable – Chicken is generally more affordable than other types of meat and ground chicken can be even more cost effective because it’s easier to produce and can use a variety of less expensive chicken cuts.

What Is Ground Chicken?

Ground chicken is made from boneless chicken meat, such as drumsticks, thighs, ribs and breasts, which has been ground or chopped. It can include dark or white meat, or a combination of both, plus skin with attached natural fat trimmings (no extra fat added), but not other parts, such as giblets or organs.

Types of Ground Chicken

Here are a few common types of ground chicken you’ll find available:

  • Breast meat: Only contains chicken breast meat that is leaner and fewer calories than dark meat but drier and not as flavorful.
  • Chicken breast with rib meat: Often more affordable than only chicken breast meat and is considered an extension of the chicken breast only darker and a bit higher in fat content.
  • White meat: Similar to chicken breast meat but can also include tenderloins, wings and back portions.
  • Thigh meat: Only contains dark meat from the chicken thigh, resulting in more protein, flavor and moisture than white chicken meat but a higher fat content.
  • Dark meat: Similar to thigh meat but also includes dark drumstick meat.
  • Chicken meat blend: A mixture of both dark and white meat such as drumsticks, thighs, ribs and breasts, which offers a balance of lean meat, moisture and flavor.
  • Chicken trimmings: Similar to a blend, these are the leftover pieces of meat that has been trimmed off when it is cut to size and ground or chopped.
  • Skinless: Prepared and labeled skinless, if that is your preference.
  • Boneless: This label has very little meaning as all ground chicken for human consumption is prepared boneless.
  • Extra lean ground chicken: Labels will often range from 98% lean, 2% fat to 97% lean, 3% fat.
  • Lean ground chicken: Labels will often range from 96% lean, 4% fat to 95% lean, 5% fat.

Ground chicken labels are not required to include the type of meat cut but if identified, only those cuts can appear on the label.

It’s important to check the label to identify the type of ground chicken cut or blend, what it contains and how the chicken was raised and stored. What the label doesn’t list is also a good indication of the type of ground chicken, as typically you’ll only find desirable product descriptions, unless required. USDA labeling requirements are mostly limited to listing the nutrition, with or without seasonings, if it was frozen or previously frozen and accurate and truthful descriptions.

Ground chicken can have dizzying amount of labels including farm raised, pastured, cage free, California raised, free range, humanely raised, organic, vegetarian fed, mechanically separated, minimally processed, kosher, halal, allergen free and gluten-free. Labels can also include what ground chicken doesn’t contain such as no antibiotics, artificial ingredients, preservatives, hormones, by-product, or added water.

26 Quick and Easy Ground Chicken Recipes

These ground chicken dinner ideas promise lean meat and flavor, while most can be prepared in 30 minutes or less!

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Monique McArthur
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