This 20-minute firecracker ground chicken is the perfect low carb, high protein meal prep recipe. Each serving has 22 grams of protein, 0 grams of carbs, and just 185 calories. It’s super easy to make and goes perfectly with rice or cauliflower rice. Or you can get creative and use it to make things like lettuce wraps or a veggie stir fry with noodles.
How to Make Firecracker Chicken with Ground Chicken
I doubt you’ll need much help with this recipe, but I’ve included a recipe walkthrough and ingredient notes in the post below nonetheless. Feel free to hit the jump to recipe button at the top of the post and hop back here if you have recipe or ingredient questions.
Brown one pound of ground chicken in 1/2 tablespoon of chili oil or your choice of oil.
The recipe calls for 92% lean ground chicken, but you could use leaner. You could also swap the ground chicken for ground turkey or your choice of ground meat.
Like I mention in my ground chicken breakfast sausage recipe, using a little bit of oil is not entirely necessary, but it adds a ton of flavor and helps the chicken brown nicely. That browning adds a ton of flavor you might miss out on otherwise. I would definitely use a leaner cut of ground chicken before omitting the oil if you wanted to save a few calories!
Make the firecracker sauce while the ground chicken cooks.
Everything you’ll need for the firecracker sauce:
- buffalo sauce
- cider or rice vinegar
- zero-calorie Swerve brown sugar (or dark brown sugar)
- garlic powder
- ground ginger
- red pepper flakes
- salt and pepper
Simply mix everything together and you’ll be ready to crack on.
If you’re unfamiliar with Swerve sweeteners, they’re zero-calorie, erythritol-based sugar substitutes that taste and cook like real sugar. I’ve used their brown sugar substitute to make everything from Nashville Hot ground chicken burgers to air fryer apple fritters.
You’ll find notes for nutrition facts with real brown sugar in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. I’ll also mention that my chili crisp ground chicken and spicy coconut ground chicken recipes both use honey and gochujang as a sticky sweetener substitute. That might be an option.
Update: If you like this sauce, you can use it to make my firecracker chicken meatballs recipe!
Mince the ground chicken and finish cooking before adding the sauce. Cook until the sauce thickens, about 2-3 minutes.
You’re looking for a thick, syrupy, slightly sticky sauce. As long as you keep everything moving around, you shouldn’t be at risk of burning anything. Give it time!
Serving Your Firecracker Ground Chicken
The classic rice and protein bowls are my go-to with this recipe. If you wanted to keep things lower carb, using cauliflower rice is the obvious choice. One “hack” you could pull from my ground beef and rice skillet is mixing half cauliflower rice and half regular rice to mask the veggie-ness.
You could also swap the rice for quinoa like in my spicy sesame ground beef and quinoa bowls. And if you wanted to add some veggies, you could pan roast some broccoli or something similar before cooking the chicken like in my sweet and spicy ground chicken and broccoli recipe.
To make things a bit more interesting, you could plug this firecracker ground chicken into something like these chicken lettuce wraps or my low carb noodle stir fry.
That should cover it. If you have a question about this recipe or its ingredients I forgot to cover, leave a comment below. Otherwise, enjoy your firecracker ground chicken! And if you enjoy it, recipe reviews are always appreciated.
Firecracker Ground Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 lb Ground Chicken, 92/8
- 1/2 Tbsp 8g Chili Oil
- 1/2 C 96g Swerve Brown Sugar
- 1/4 C 60g Buffalo Sauce
- 2 Tbsp 30g Cider or Rice Vinegar
- 1 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
- 1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
Instructions
- Heat a skillet over medium-high heat with the chili oil. Brown both sides of the chicken, about 3-4 minutes per side, before mincing and fully cooking.
- While the chicken cooks, whisk the remaining ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
- Once the chicken is fully cooked, add the sauce to the pan and cook until thick and syrupy.
- Serve with scallions and toasted sesame seeds over rice or cauliflower rice.
Notes
Nutrition Info Notes
- Each serving has 4 WW SmartPoints (blue).
- The nutrition facts do not include any nutrition info from the Swerve Brown Sugar. Erythritol has 0.2 calories per gram so the entire recipe has around 20 calories if you'd like to include it.
- With real brown sugar, each serving has 24g of carbs and 275 calories.
- Using 97/3 ground chicken adds 4g of protein and saves 5.5g of fat and 50 calories per serving.
What kind of chili oil did you use . And I do not have the Swerve brown sugar, only the white . Do you think that I could use that ? Or would it not taste the same .Or … could I add something to it ?
I usually go with a chili oil that has the actual chili flakes in it. I’m not too particular about brand, though. As for the sugar, I’d definitely stick to brown sugar if possible. You could use some honey or another sticky sweetener if you’re in a pinch.
@Mason Woodruff, I used chili oil and sesame oil and it was delicious
@Mason Woodruff, if using honey, how much would you recommend?
If you’re substituting the honey for brown sugar, I’d start with half the amount. You may even be able to get away with a little less.
@Jennifer, I used 2 tbs of raw, unfiltered honey – seemed to work well.
@Robin, I use regular brown sugar but I know that increases the carbs and sugar. I use Kame Hot Chili Oil but any chili oil will do.
@Robin, Brown sugar is white sugar with molasses added to it.
So delicious. There’s definitely a kick (I’m a wimp with spice), but they’re so good. New favorite from Mason.
Can you cut down on the brown sugar and still have the same flavor profile? That’s a lot of erythritol for my stomach
You can! I tested a batch with half the brown sugar. The sauce doesn’t get as thick and is a bit spicy, but it works fine. You could use some real brown sugar or even honey to make up the difference if you have the carbs to spare.
Can i omit the vinegar or substitute it out for something else??
You could use another acidic element like lime juice or a hot sauce. Or worst case, chicken broth or even water would do the trick.
A few questions, do you pack the brown sugar like in baking or not? Do you drain the chicken, I had a lot of liquid
I use weight (96g). If you don’t have a food scale, I’m fairly certain the weight would be for packed. As for the liquid, you shouldn’t need to drain anything. If your sauce is runny, keep cooking until it’s reduced/thick. Hope that helps!
What kind of Buffalo sauce do you use?
Frank’s RedHot, always.
@Mason Woodruff, you are referring to the buffalo franks? Not the original? Maybe I can just use butter and original franks
That’s correct, the Frank’s buffalo sauce. I imagine the original with some butter would work fine.
Very easy and very tasty recipe will definitely be making this one again!!
I have made this recipe with both Swerve brown sugar and regular brown sugar and both are fantastic! This recipe reheats so well and makes a great meal prep option.
Super simple, tastes great!
I found this recipe when I started counting macros. I wanted something I could easily portion & reheat that didn’t dry out by day 3 or go to waste because I got sick of it. I am on week 6 of my 12 week cut and I’ve made this EVERY WEEK. I love it. It’s simple ingredients that retain the flavor all week long. I throw it over rice or in a stir fry and look forward to it day after day. Highly recommend.