This sweet and spicy ground chicken and broccoli is a great one-pan, 20-minute recipe for busy weeknights or easy meal prep. The broccoli is pan roasted to provide added texture once mixed with the honey sriracha and sesame ground chicken. Each serving is packed with 30 grams of protein and only 260 calories, leaving plenty of room for rice, noodles, or your go-to protein pairing.

Sweet and Spicy Ground Chicken and Broccoli Recipe Walkthrough

You’ll find a printable recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a simple recipe, but I’ve included a visual recipe walkthrough with some notes for ingredient substitutions and bonus cooking tips in the walkthrough below. If you have a question I forgot to cover, feel free to leave a comment.

Pan Roasted Broccoli

roasted broccoli in olive oil

It’s totally up to you, but I like to chop any large broccoli florets into smaller bite-size pieces. This creates more surface area for browning in the pan and makes for easier eating. I don’t know about you, but I hate trying to eat massive hunks of broccoli in dishes like this!

As a side note, the recipe calls for olive oil. If you’d like to use a little chili oil (for extra spice) or toasted sesame oil, both would work great for adding a little something extra to your ground chicken and broccoli.

What about other veggies?

You could use other cruciferous veggies like cauliflower or brussels sprouts, or the green bean and bell pepper combo from my honey sesame ground chicken stir fry would work well with this sauce.

Honey Sriracha Ground Chicken

ground chicken cooking in a sauté pan with roasted broccoli and honey sriracha sauce beside the pan

The recipe calls for 97% lean ground chicken, but you’re welcome to use any ground meat like ground turkey or even beef. If you’re new to my recipes, I’m passionate about browning ground meats. The magic of the Maillard reaction takes patience.

You may have seen hacks like baking soda, but I don’t think you need it for recipes like this. Just give it time!

The Sweet and Spicy Sauce

honey sriracha sauce added to the cooked ground chicken

You’ll need honey, sriracha, toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic powder and ground ginger, and sweet chili sauce. Here are a few sauce ingredient notes:

  • Be sure to use toasted sesame oil and not regular sesame oil, as the flavor profiles are different.
  • You’re welcome to use freshly minced or grated garlic and ginger.
  • I like Trader Joe’s sweet chili sauce, but any will work fine. You can even make your own spicy sweet chili sauce.

You can get creative with the sauce for your ground chicken and broccoli. For more sauce options, check out my spicy coconut ground chicken (gochujang + coconut milk) and Firecracker ground chicken (spicy brown sugar sauce) recipes.

cooked ground chicken and honey sriracha sauce in the pan before adding the roasted broccoli

Adding and cooking the sauce is pretty straightforward, you’ll just want to be careful not to burn the sugars in the honey or sweet chili sauce. Keep it moving around the let the sesame oil help add an extra crispy, sticky layer to your ground chicken.

finished ground chicken and broccoli in a sauté pan together

Once the sauce is good to go, add the broccoli back in and add some toasted sesame seeds. In the photo above, you’ll notice I added roasted black sesame seeds as well.

Serving Your Ground Chicken and Broccoli

Rice or cauliflower rice are the no-brainer options here. One of my favorite hacks is to combine the two for a higher volume option like in my teriyaki ground beef stir fry and orange chicken meal prep bowls. You could also do something like the quinoa from my spicy sesame ground beef and quinoa bowls or the Right Rice in my Greek ground chicken and rice skillet.

Aside from rice, you could mix things up with noodles. You could do a ground chicken and broccoli spin on dan dan noodles or something like these stir fry beef noodles.

And you could always eat it as-is with extra toasted sesame seeds and green onion. However you end up serving your honey sriracha ground chicken and broccoli, I’d love to hear about it. Be sure to come back and let me know in the comments or in a recipe review. I hope you enjoy!

4.49 from 504 votes
Servings: 4 Servings

Honey Sriracha Ground Chicken and Broccoli

By Mason Woodruff
One pan sweet and spicy ground chicken with pan roasted broccoli.
Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes
Total: 20 minutes
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Ingredients

  • 1 Tbsp 16g Olive Oil, divided
  • 12 oz Broccoli Florets, cut into bite-size pieces
  • 1 lb Ground Chicken, 97/3
  • 1/4 C 60g Sweet Chili Sauce
  • 2 Tbsp 42g Honey
  • 2-3 Tbsp 30-45g Sriracha, to spice preference
  • 2 Tbsp 30g Soy Sauce
  • 1 Tbsp 16g Toasted Sesame Oil
  • 1 tsp Garlic Powder
  • 1 tsp Ground Ginger
  • Sesame Seeds and Green Onion, for garnish

Instructions 

  • Heat 1/2 Tbsp of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the broccoli and leave untouched for 1-2 minutes to develop some browning on one side. Stir and continue cooking until the broccoli is a dark green, about 3-4 minutes longer. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
  • Add the remaining olive oil to the skillet and brown both sides of the ground chicken before mincing and fully cooking.
  • While the chicken cooks, mix the remaining sauce ingredients together. Add the sauce to the fully cooked chicken and cook until thick. Be careful not to burn.
  • Once the sauce is thick, add the broccoli back to the skillet and stir everything together. Garnish with sesame seeds and green onion before serving.

Notes

Each serving has 5 WW SmartPoints (blue).
The nutrition facts are for 6 oz of the ground chicken and broccoli only, no rice. The recipe makes about 24 oz of chicken and broccoli in total, in case you want to divide the recipe into smaller/larger portions.

Nutrition

Serving: 6oz, Calories: 260kcal, Carbohydrates: 18g, Protein: 30g, Fat: 11g
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mason woodruff

Mason Woodruff

I’m Mason Woodruff, and I’ve been writing about fitness and food since finishing a nutrition degree in 2014. After working as a strength and nutrition coach, I realized cooking is a skill most fitness enthusiasts could use some help with. I’ve been creating recipes for home cooks ever since.

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Recipe Rating




134 Comments

  1. Caitlin Frambes says:

    5 stars
    This tastes too good to be “kinda healthy”
    I made this twice in one week. I loved and my husband loved it which is a huge bonus!
    We put it over white rice but next time I’ll try cauliflower rice for another option.
    The first time I made it I did a mix of cauliflower and broccoli which I loved.

  2. Kristi says:

    4 stars
    This recipe is pretty simple! Great week night meal!

  3. Donna says:

    This recipe is so fast and easy. Best of all my entire family devours it! I have made this multiple times and it does not disappoint. Love when I can add a new recipe to my family’s dinner rotation. Definitely a keeper!!

  4. Michelle says:

    We love this recipe! I added fresh cremini mushrooms to my broccoli. The only ground chicken our grocery store carried had Thai seasonings, it worked so well! Thank you!

    1. Mason Woodruff says:

      Wow I’ve never seen pre-seasoned before, but that sounds awesome. And nice touch with the mushrooms. Thanks, Michelle!

  5. Renizzle says:

    5 stars
    Such a flavorful easy dish to make! Pair it with a quick cooking rice bag, and dinner is done in a snap! Making it again tonight, I can’t get enough of the sweet and spicy flavor of the chicken and broccoli over rice! It’s a keeper. Easy and satisfying.

  6. Lorraine says:

    I make lettuce wraps quite often. Saw this recipe and thought I’d give it a try. It was a huge hit! We all loved it! My daughter thought it was a tad too spicy. I only used 2 tbsp of sriracha. Next time will use only one. Definitely making this again and again. Thank you for sharing!

    1. Mason Woodruff says:

      Thanks, Lorraine! I have definitely been accused of being too tolerant of spice. Good note.

  7. Ruthie says:

    I just made this for dinner and it was amazing!! Thank you for such a simple, quick, and delicious recipe. The macros on it are pretty great too. This is definitely going into the dinner rotation at our house.

  8. Edie says:

    Hi Mason.
    Came across this recipe when I was looking for a healthy way to use my ground chicken. The reviews are enough for me to make this tonight! Question…I don’t have any sweet Chili sauce. Could I substitute swee& sour sauce instead? Would it change the taste that much? Thanks.

    1. Mason Woodruff says:

      Hey Edie, sorry if I’m a day late. Hope you got it figured out. I think the sweet and sour would be a fine substitute. Let me know your thoughts if you tried it out.

  9. Lauren says:

    I am OBSESSED with this recipe. I’ve made it 3 weeks in a row and the only adjustment I’ve made is adding more veggies like zucchini and green bell peppers to the mix. So happy to find a weekly staple for our house!

  10. Donna says:

    Meal prepped this for lunches this week. I substituted chic peas for meat. Smells great.