Crispy Ground Beef and Rice Broth Bowls

These 20-minute broth bowls combine extra lean ground beef, steamed rice, and a spicy broth to make a super easy high protein meal. Each serving has 38g protein, 46g carbs, 15g fat, and 490 calories.

My picky eating wife loves this recipe. And that’s the biggest stamp of approval I strive for!

Ingredients for Broth Bowls

Below you’ll find notes about all the ingredients needed to make these beef and rice bowls. I developed the recipe so just about everything could be purchased at Trader Joe’s, but you can find everything at any grocery store.

Miso Ginger Broth vs Chicken Broth

My recipe calls for TJ’s miso ginger broth, but you can use any broth. Adding things like miso paste, ginger, and other ingredients can add flavor to plain chicken broth. My chicken and rice broth bowls make a similar broth with reduced fat coconut milk and chicken bone broth bolstered with white miso paste, yellow curry powder, honey, coconut aminos, and powdered peanut butter.

And as a quick note on the amount of broth used, you can use the full carton (4 cups) of miso ginger broth instead of the 3 cups the recipe calls for. But the broth per serving is a bit more than I prefer. To keep a better rice to broth ratio, consider adding a third bag of frozen steamed rice (each serving would get 1 cup of rice). 

Peanut Butter vs Powdered Peanut Butter

Powdered peanut butter adds the peanut flavor with less fat than peanut butter while still providing some thickening properties. If you’re shopping at Trader Joe’s for everything, I don’t believe you can find powdered peanut butter at the moment.

Sriracha, Hoisin, and Chinese Five Spice

If you’re spice sensitive, start with two tablespoons of sriracha and add as you see fit. 

Don’t have hoisin sauce? Try adding more Chinese five spice, a bit more coconut aminos or low sodium soy sauce, and a sweetener like maple syrup or honey. The sugar content helps the ground beef caramelize so it’s nice and crispy.

If you don’t have Chinese five spice, you may have some (or all) of the components. You’re looking for star anise, cinnamon, cloves, fennel, and Sichuan peppercorns.

And for what it’s worth, you can use both hoisin and five spice to make my crispy beef noodles so they’re not one-and-done ingredients.

Chinese black vinegar works really well in place of rice vinegar and adds a bit more complexity to the beef. There are lots of customizations to be made. Have fun and don’t be afraid to plug and play with other ingredients. We’re not baking cakes here!

Tips for Serving and Storing Leftovers

I’ve included serving size suggestions in the recipe card below, but broth bowls are really more of a choose your own adventure type of meal in our house. I like more broth (bordering on soup), while my wife prefers to use the broth almost like a sauce drizzle over the rice and ground beef.

Unless you’re tracking your macros, I would encourage you to experiment with the amount of broth per serving. If you find you like more broth, you can easily add more of the miso ginger broth (or even water) to bulk up the broth without adding many calories. Just be sure to season to taste with salt, coconut aminos, and/or sriracha.

Garnishing is another opportunity for adventure. Fresh herbs and toasted sesame seeds are musts. But the rest is up to you. I added diced cucumber and lime, but other pickled/fermented veggies would also be great for adding texture and bright flavors. If you have calories to spare, chili crunch always gets a thumbs up from me.

In terms of storing leftovers, I packed these broth bowls two different ways to see if there was a superior way to enjoy them later.

I assumed storing the broth in the same container as the rice and beef would lead to the rice soaking up too much broth and being closer to something like congee when reheated. But that wasn’t the case in my experience. Both my wife and I liked the fully assembled broth bowls leftover compared to the ones where the broth was refrigerated separate from the ground beef and rice. It’s much easier, too!

What’s left to say about making crispy beef broth bowls? Surely that’s everything you need to know. If I missed something, let me know in the comments. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy the bowls and have fun.

Until the next time we make something incredi…bowl. – Mason