Ground Turkey Series (Part 1)

I’m excited about a series covering two important things: cooking five pounds of meat at a time to make cooking future meals easier; substituting ground beef with ground turkey. I like the fact that 99% fat-free ground turkey has less calories, fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol than ground beef.

You may think that your family would not consider eating ground turkey, instead of ground beef, but I encourage you to give it a try without telling them that you substituted beef with turkey.

I cook five pounds of meat with two onions at a time. It works beautifully in the Instant Pot (instructions below). After cooking five pounds of meat, I proceed with cooking the current evening meal for the day. Then I divide it into four servings. I put it in individual zipper bags and freeze it for a later time. At the end of the day, it is so convenient to pull the pre-cooked meat out of the freezer and proceed with cooking supper. This saves me so much time and effort!

If y’all have checked out my website or Facebook page (Dinner in a Jar: Instant Pot Dinner Kits and Recipes) you know how much I love and adore my local canning factory. I realize that most people don’t have time to can and don’t have access to a canning factory. It saddens me that they are becoming somewhat obsolete.

In this photo, we canned two large turkeys.

The first step was to steam the meat until it’s cooked then it is pressure canned for preservation. 

Precooking your turkey and freezing it yields the same end result—meat that is already cooked. This makes cooking the evening meal easier and faster.

Even though I try to use ground turkey as much as possible, there are still occasions when I cook lean ground beef. You can cook and freeze ground turkey with onions in the same manner (directions below). 

Instructions for cooking five pounds of ground beef and two onions in Instant Pot.

1. Place wire rack that came with Instant Pot in the bottom.
2. Add one cup of water.
3. Break up meat into smaller pieces and place meat on wire rack.
4. Chop two large onions and put on top of meat.
5. Set release valve in the “sealing” position. High Pressure for 25 minutes. Then natural release.

6. Before removing from the Instant Pot, use a meat thermometer and make sure the internal temperature is 160 ºF (according to USDA).
7. After removing meat and onions, pour off water and fat.
8. Put meat in large bowl and chop into smaller pieces with a slotted type spatula or heavy duty spoon.

To cook and freeze ground turkey with onions in the same manner, set release valve in the “sealing” position. High Pressure for 35 minutes. Then natural release. Before removing from the Instant Pot, use a meat thermometer and make sure the internal temperature is 165 ºF (according to USDA).

The next two posts will include Instant Pot recipes using ground turkey. So purchase your ground turkey and onions, cook it in the Instant Pot, freeze it in zipper bags (one pound per bag) and get ready!