Firecracker Ground Chicken Bowls
These firecracker ground chicken bowls are easy, delicious, and make the perfect weeknight meal. It’s made with a homemade firecracker sauce and is gluten and soy free.
What is Firecracker Chicken?
Firecracker chicken is traditionally fried pieces of chicken covered in a spicy sweet sauce made from buffalo sauce and brown sugar. The combination of sweet and spicy sauce with the fried chicken makes for a delicious combo, but we can make it at home even easier and healthier! I also have a recipe for firecracker salmon lettuce cups, but this sauce is amazing with chicken!
These firecracker ground chicken bowls are the perfect one-pan dinner solution that comes together in under 30 minutes but still packs a huge flavor punch! Plus, it’s gluten-free and soy-free.
Table of contents
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Quick and easy. Making complicated dishes are the last thing I want to do on a busy weeknight. Making a quick and easy dish like this one, or my one pan ground beef and cabbage stir fry, is always a win on busy nights! There’s minimal chopping required, and everything comes together in less than 30 minutes.
- Minimal dishes. I love a one-pan meal like my chicken & broccoli ramen noodle stir fry, and this one is similar in that it cuts down on the dishes!
- Flavor packed. This recipe is packed with flavor from the sauce!
Recipe Ingredients
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
- Buffalo sauce, coconut amino and coconut sugar. These are the main ingredients for the sauce. The coconut sugar really balances the spice and rounds out the dish a lot more.
- Spices.
- Broccoli florets. Adding broccoli to the dish adds extra nutrients!
- Ground Chicken.
Substitutions & Modifications
- Nightshade-free buffalo sauce. You can use my buffalo sauce recipe here in my AIP Buffalo chicken dip if you’re like me and don’t tolerate nightshade foods. When I make this for my husband however, I just go for the buffalo sauce!
- Bok choy or zucchini. These would both be amazing additions to this recipe if you want to add even more veggies.
- Ground turkey. You can swap this in for ground chicken.
How to make Firecracker Ground Chicken Bowls
Here are the simple steps, with photos, to make this recipe. Find full instructions in the recipe card.
Step one. Combine the buffalo sauce, coconut aminos, coconut sugar, rice vinegar and spices.
Step two. Whisk well.
Step three. Cook the broccoli in a pan until crisp.
Step four. Brown the ground chicken.
Step five. Combine the cooked broccoli, chicken, and sauce.
Step six. Stir to coat and serve!
Tips & Tricks
- Use a ground meat chopper. A ground meat chopper is my favorite way to crumble ground meats!
- Add an extra side. This recipe is excellent with cauliflower rice, or regular rice if you can tolerate it! It’s also great with a side of vegetables like roasted bok choy.
- Take a shortcut with pre-cut broccoli florets.This will speed up this recipe even more. Ifyou use frozen, you should defrost it before you use it and be careful of the excess water. It won’t be as crispy as fresh broccoli, but it’ll work!
Recipe FAQS
Firecracker chicken can be pretty sugary, but I tweaked the recipe a bit to have less sugar and more of an umami flavor! This bowl also adds vegetables for some extra nutrients.
What I love about ground chicken is that it’s faster and easier to cook than whole chicken breast or thigh. Just crumble it in a pan and you’re good to go! I find ground chicken at the butcher counter often, but you can also make ground chicken at home! Simply place your chicken thigh or breast in the freezer for 15-20 minutes, then grind in the food processor.
You can! It’s often easier to find ground turkey so that works just as well.
Yes, you can store this in the fridge for about 3 days and reheat it in a pan.
Yes, you can freeze this for 1-2 months, defrost it in the fridge and reheat in a pan.
Other Related Ground Chicken Recipes to Check Out…
If you tried these Firecracker Ground Chicken Bowls or any other recipe on my blog please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Print
Firecracker Ground Chicken Bowls
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Main Dishes
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: Asian Inspired
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
These firecracker ground chicken bowls are easy and delicious! They’re made with a firecracker sauce, ground chicken, broccoli, and rice (or cauliflower rice) and are gluten-free and paleo-friendly!
Ingredients
For the sauce
- 1/2 cup buffalo sauce (use this for paleo or AIP buffalo chicken sauce for AIP)
- 2 tbsp coconut aminos
- 3 tbsp coconut sugar
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp ginger powder
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- Salt and black pepper to taste (omit pepper for AIP)
For the bowls
- 2 tbsp avocado oil
- 1 cup broccoli florets
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 2 tbsp green onion, sliced
- 3 cups cauliflower rice, cooked (or steamed rice)
Instructions
- Combine the ingredients for the firecracker sauce. Stir well and season further to taste.
- Using a large pan, heat the avocado oil over medium heat. Once the oil is shimmering, add the broccoli and saute for 5-7 minutes or until lightly crisp. Season to taste and set aside.
- Add the ground chicken to the pan and lightly season with salt and pepper. Crumble until fully cooked.
- Pour the cooked broccoli and sauce into the pan with the ground chicken and stir until the sauce fully coats the chicken and broccoli.
- Serve in bowls with a side of rice or cauliflower rice and top with green onion.
Notes
You can easily swap the ground chicken for ground turkey.
My favorite tool for crumbling ground beef is this ground meat chopper.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 344
- Fat: 20.9g
- Carbohydrates: 19.2g
- Fiber: 2.9g
- Protein: 22.2g
This sounds amazing! I would like to add more broccoli though – maybe 4 cups total. Is there enough sauce for that or should I make 1.5 or 2 times the sauce? Thanks!
If you want to use that much broccoli I would definitely increase the sauce, 1.5 or 2 times would work depending on how sauce-y you want it!
So. Freaking. Good. Only had brussels so I subbed the broccoli, still incredible
Thank you!! So glad you enjoyed!
OH MY GOD SO GOOD, love this.
This is delicious!!! Easy weeknight meal and healthy too. Doesn’t get any better than that!!
Thank you!!
The firecracker sauce is really crack. It’s so good. This was amazing. I made it with turkey because that’s all they had at the store, and added in zucchini and white onion (but the florets were the star of the snow and the way to go). Instead of rice, I roasted spaghetti squash bowls and added the ground meat mixture directly in there. Also made some homemade whole 30 ranch on top. One of the best meals ever.
Absolutely delicious and so easy to make! This will be a part of our regular dinner for sure.
Yay, thank you so much!!
I used this recipe with ground Turkey as a way to try and add some flavor to a flavorless meat and it was fantastic! This sauce would be good on anything!
Could I use fresh ginger in place of powdered?
Sure, you’ll just want to adjust the amount
Can I use regular sugar instead of coconut sugar?
Brown sugar would work better!
The sauce is addicting! Love love love this recipe! So quick and easy! I made it with zucchini as broccoli and I don’t get along Love your recipes!
The sauce is so good!! So glad you loved the recipe!
I made this for my family last night and it was a hit. The spicy sauce combined with the rice was amazing, This definitely is a recipe that will be rotated on my dinner menu, Thank you Michelle!
So glad your family enjoyed!!
Are you kidding me!? Michelle has done it again. But then again I’m not surprised. This recipe is fantastic.
Looks amazing! Do you think subbing date paste for the coconut sugar would work in order to make this whole30?
Sure, I think that may work!