16+ Healthy Ground Meat Recipes (Paleo, AIP-friendly)
What’s Inside: Ground meat is an easy and budget-friendly way to incorporate more protein into your diet, especially when complying with Paleo and AIP diets. This post includes a roundup of Easy Paleo and AIP-friendly Healthy Ground Meat Recipes using various types of animal protein, including chicken, beef, and pork!
Table of Contents
My Favorite Healthy Ground Meat Recipes
In case you didn’t know, I really like you. So much, in fact, that I’ve rounded up 16+ of my favorite Easy AIP Paleo Ground Meat Recipes here for you all in one convenient post. (You’re welcome, my dears!)
I love cooking with ground meat because it’s easy and allows you to get creative with how you prepare it. It’s also an easy way to add protein to most meals and makes meal prep a breeze! My tip is to opt for sustainably raised meats whenever you can, such as free-range and pasture-raised poultry and grass-fed, grass-finished meats. Apart from being ethically raised and butchered, they’re more nutritious and packed with healthy fats.
I hope you use this as a guide for finger-lickin’-good animal protein-based recipes the whole family will love, as well as meat dishes that are healthy and nutritious for your unique dietary needs. These are the recommended ground meats to use by flavor, texture, and fat profile. Whether you’re craving taco bowls with ground chicken, dim sum cabbage rolls with ground turkey, Instant Pot Paleo Chili with ground beef, or a Creamy Sausage Potato Soup, the gang’s all here!
For most recipes that call for ground meat, the protein is interchangeable with your preferred meat or even mixed half and half with other meat. Take, for example, Italian meatballs. They’re often a mix of ground beef and ground pork. This offers a nice marriage of flavors and textures. You can swap the ground meat around in any of these recipes depending on your preference or what you have in your freezer!
Follow each recipe to learn how to make easy and delicious AIP and Paleo ground meat recipes at home. Enjoy!
Ground Chicken
Ground chicken is a leaner, poultry-based meat that can be swapped with ground red meat like beef or bison. It’s also relatively inexpensive. Happy chickens make for happy ground meat, so you want to look for labels that say the meat is free-range, pasture-raised, and organic when possible. (Just like you would for eggs!)
Chicken Florentine Bone Broth Soup
Total Time: 35 minutes
This deliciously rich soup made from chicken bone broth has major health benefits and provides major depth and taste in this dish! Simple enough to make on a weeknight, thanks to the added convenience using bone broth provides. (AIP, PALEO, WHOLE30)
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25-minute Zesty Ground Chicken Taco Salad (NOT spicy!)
Total Time: 25 minutes
This Paleo Ground Chicken Taco Salad recipe is easy to make, packed with nutritious ingredients, and takes bland ground chicken to a super delicious meal. Plus, it’s simple with minimal ingredients and it’s Whole30 and AIP-friendly.
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Ground Turkey
Ground turkey is another awesome poultry option for lean ground meat. It’s great because it’ll easily take on any flavor you cook with it, so my tip is to have fun with dried and fresh herbs and seasonings. Since it’s lean, it’s not very fatty, so a little more cooking oil may need to be used when you sub it for a dish with fattier meat like pork or beef.
Dim Sum Paleo Cabbage Rolls
Total Time: 45 minutes
A Paleo stuffed cabbage rolls recipe that uses steamed cabbage leaves = nature's gluten-free dumplings! Dip these in my tasty soy-free sauce for all the UMAMI power — Dim Sum style.
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AIP Greek Turkey Sliders w/ Avocado Tzatziki & Carrot Fries
Total Time: 50 minutes
An easy, flavorful Greek-inspired turkey slider recipe featuring Kalamata olives and Avocado Tzatziki to take bland ground turkey to flavor-town! Use my AIP English Muffin as buns or use a lettuce wrap and serve along side crispy baked carrot fries.
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Ground Beef and Bison
Ground beef and bison are some of my favorite ground meats to cook with – high in protein, in flavor, and it’s grass-fed and grass-finished, it’s way more nutrient-dense. Whenever I cook with beef or bison, I like to prepare it in a way that really shines through in both flavor and texture. These recipes accomplish that!
Instant Pot Paleo Chili (No Tomatoes, AIP)
This cozy and comforting Paleo chili recipe is filled with ground meat, and a ton of veggies to fill your belly. It’s a Whole30-friendly chili, and AIP compliant too with no tomatoes and no beans. This great Paleo meal prep recipe is easily made in an Instant Pot, slow cooker or stovetop.
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Ridiculously Delicious Eggless Meatball (Paleo, AIP, Whole30)
These easy meatballs are eggless made without breadcrumbs and are Paleo, Whole30, and AIP-friendly!
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Puerto Rican Picadillo with Plantain “Rice” (Paleo, Whole30, AIP-friendly, Low FODMAP-friendly)
This Puerto Rican Hash is filled with delicious spices, sweet raisins and salty and briny olives making for a mega-flavorful dish! It’s traditionally served over white rice, but I was in the mood for plantains… so this dish has PLANTAIN RICE instead.
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Zucchini Noodle Baked Ziti with Romesco
Total Time: 1 hour
Made with zucchini noodles, ground beef, a creamy dairy-free cashew sauce, and homemade red pepper romesco, this comforting zoodle recipe is nutrient-dense, flavorful, and gluten-free! It's also Whole30 compliant dinner casserole, and Paleo-friendly, too!
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Paleo Greek Meatballs
Total Time: 18 minutes
Easy gluten-free meatballs that are also Paleo and AIP-friendly. They pack a punch of herbs and FLAVOR! Without the potential allergens! You will love this for a Sunday meatball recipe and it's great for meal prep, too.
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Easy Meatballs & Grain-free Pesto Risotto
Total Time: 40 minutes
A simple meal that cooks in just about 30 minutes, packed full of flavor and textures while being easy to digest. Using miracle rice (shirataki) makes this grain-free. Try this for a fast weeknight dinner! (AIP, Paleo, Low FODMAP friendly)
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Ground Lamb
By now, you probably know my husband is Greek, so we enjoy eating lamb on the regular. These are some of my favorite Greek lamb recipes that do a great job of showcasing this delicious ingredient. If you’re new to lamb, you’ll notice a new taste for sure, and you’ll probably love it!
Fast Instant Pot Greek Spaghetti (Gluten-free)
Total Time: 25 minutes
This Instant Pot Greek Spaghetti recipe is easy to make and comes together in just minutes thanks to the pressure cooker. Plus its gluten-free, Paleo, and AIP-friendly!
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Paleo Spaghetti Squash Pastitsio (Greek Baked Ziti w/ Bechamel Sauce)
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
This dreamy favorite is getting a dairy-, gluten-, grain-free makeover. Spaghetti squash makes for a low carb “pasta” dish and the cauliflower bechamel just might fool you!! (AIP-friendly)
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Paleo Moussaka
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Layers of delish eggplant, meat, and a dairy-free bechamel make a dreamy Greek Moussaka (casserole) dish that is perfect for meal prep!(Whole30, Paleo, Gluten-free, Grain-free, Dairy-free)
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Ground Pork
Ground pork is classic in certain dishes! It’s also perfect for combining your ground meats, to add some more flavor or fat like with classic Italian meatballs (they’re usually 1/2 ground pork and 1/2 beef). Even better, depending on what you season it with, you can enjoy it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner! Breakfast sausage, anyone?
Paleo Dirty Pumpkin & Sage Risotto (AIP)
Total Time: 40 minutes
[AIP, paleo, gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, egg-free, nightshade-free] This dreamy and creamy dish has no dairy or grains but will fool anyone! The added ground meat makes this a “dirty” risotto for a well-balanced meal.
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20-minute Healthy Egg Roll Skillet (Soy-free!)
Total Time: 20 minutes
This Egg Roll Skillet Recipe takes just 20-minutes and delivers on what you love about Chinese takeout, but it's Paleo, Whole30, and AIP.
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Easy Oven-Baked Breakfast Sausage Patties (Paleo, AIP-friendly, Whole30)
Total Time: 30 minutes
This baked breakfast sausage patties recipe comes together in less than 30 minutes from start to finish and only requires 8 ingredients! Perfect for an early weekday breakfast or a late weekend brunch.
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Creamy Dairy-free Sausage and Potato Soup (Whole30 AIP, Paleo)
Total Time: 40 minutes
This creamy sausage potato soup is ready in 30 minutes or less and is deceptively decadent for being dairy-free, Paleo, and AIP-friendly.
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More Healthy Recipe Collections To Try
- 12+ Easy AIP Paleo Chicken Recipes
- 6 Favorite AIP Desserts (Paleo and Autoimmune Protocol)
- 10 Best (and Creamiest) Dairy-Free Soups
- Paleo BBQ Menu (Whole30 and AIP-friendly)
- Best Grain Alternatives (Grain-free Products and Recipes)
- Favorite Spa Water Flavors + How to Stay Hydrated
- 8+ Healthy Caffeine-Free Drinks
Yield: 4
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 4 cups cauliflower rice (fresh or frozen)
- Sea salt and pepper to taste (Omit pepper for AIP)
- 1 lb ground pork (or a mix of ground pork and ground beef)
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 12 oz. coleslaw mix with shredded cabbage and carrots (1 package)
- 1/2 cup scallions roughly chopped
- 1/4 tsp fish sauce (optional, I recommend Red Boat brand)
- 4-5 tbsp coconut aminos
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame seed oil (omit for AIP)
Instructions:
- Heat a large sauté pan and add a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Saute cauliflower rice for 3-5 minutes until tender and season to taste with sea salt and pepper.
- Transfer cooked cauliflower rice to serving plates or bowls.
- Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the same pan, and add ground meat, ground ginger, and garlic powder, breaking up the meat with seasonings with a wooden spoon as it cooks.
- Cook well until you don't see any more raw meat (approx. 10 mins).
- Add the coleslaw mix (you can do it in batches as it cooks down if you need to), stir around and cover for just a few minutes so the veggies get soft and wilt. Then add in the chopped scallions and season more to taste with any of the seasonings. Add fish sauce and stir.
- Turn the heat off and drizzle coconut aminos and toasted sesame oil over the meat and veggies, mix it well. Serve the meat and veggies over cauliflower rice and optionally garnish with more scallions.
-Alison Marras
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browse more recipes:
AIP Beef & Bison Chicken Entrées Gluten-free Grain-free Lamb Paleo Pork Recipe Roundups Turkey Whole30
Meet Alison Marras
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19 comments
What a great collection of recipes! Love it!
Fantastic ground meat recipe! Easy to follow instructions and such a breeze to make it!
So many great ideas for dinner–thank you!! Can’t wait to try them all! 😀
Thanks for all these awesome recipe suggestions to use up ground meats!
So many great recipes here, which to choose first?! Can’t believe they are all paleo too – perfect.
These are such wholesome ground beef recommendations! Love how I can use them for any day of the week. It’s such a budget-friendly protein too!
Absolutely! It doesn’t have to be boring at all.
These meals all sound so fresh and delicious! What a great reminder of the many ways to prepare ground meat.
I totally agree! one of the easiest things ever 🙂
Love this round-up of healthy ground meat recipes! Can’t wait to make the Greek meatballs.
So glad! Hope you love them.
This Bowl sounds healthy and delicious. I definitely need to give this a go. Weekend sounds exciting.
always looking for ground meat recipes, so this was perfect inspiration. Thank you!
What an amazing roundup of healthy ground meat recipes. Thank you for this. There are so many on this list that I can’t wait to try!
My pleasure!
Oh wow! I can’t wait to try some of these recipes. They all look so delicious and I’m so glad I can share these with my family! Excited to make some of these!
I always keep ground meat on hand for easy dinners, and I keep coming back to these delicious recipes for ideas. The ground chicken taco salad with pineapple salsa is on my list of next recipes to try!
It’s such a lifesaver!! Hope you enjoy trying new recipes to use up the ground meat.
SO many gorgeous recipes here – thanks for all the great ideas. Lots of family dinners will come out of this!