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.
So the swerve has 4 grams of carbs per 1 teaspoon. If you use a half cup in this recipe that is 96 grams of carbs or 24 grams per serving. Am I doing something wrong to get 0 grams of carbs in this recipe? By the way, I love this and it tastes so great. Just trying to make sure I am doing it correctly. Thank you!!
There’s a note in the recipe card’s notes section about the calories from erythritol (Swerve) being around 0.2 calories/gram. It’s also a non-glycemic sugar substitute, so I typically don’t bother tracking it. But that’s totally up to you. Track it if you’d like.
@Mason Woodruff, thanks for clarifying. I was confused based on MFP saying it had 24g carbs versus you count of 0g.
I’m watching my carb intake. I cut the sauce ingredients in half and used lettuce wraps instead of rice. I allowed myself two wraps. Recipe is very flavorful, not too spicy and filling.
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It was so tasty and I will make it again. I used barbecue sauce instead of buffalo sauce and served it over brown rice. Yum!
Glad to hear the BBQ sauce swap worked out for you. Thanks, Angy!
This was AMAZING! Spice was on point and so delicious, I’m doubling the recipe next time!
Thanks, Danielle! Let me know when you make some baked wonton cups with it.
This is so delicious and easy to make! I used regular brown sugar and added steamed broccoli. Yum!
Hi! Can you use truvia or stevia in place of swerve? Thanks!
It’s worth a shot if that’s what you have. Just make sure it substitutes for sugar 1:1.
Would you be able to use truvia instead of the brown sugar? Thanks!
I’ve not tried it, but others have seemed to have success with other sweeteners. Make sure it substitutes 1:1 for sugar so you don’t end up with an overly sweet dish. You might miss out on some caramelization, but that’s not the end of the world with this recipe.
I made this for meal-prep workday lunches this week, served with cauliflower rice. It was quick, easy, and delicious!
This is a go to recipe for me at least once a month! I love pairing it with stir fry veggies from the frozen food section. I’ve paired it with brown rice, quinoa and jasmine rice. My hubby (who can’t stand “diet” food) usually steals at least one of my prep bowls! I’ll probably be making it next week so I can use up some ground chicken. And FYI, a little oil goes a long way! I accidentally used a full tablespoon last time I made it and I swear I lost at least 3 pounds just sweating from the heat! Thank you for such a delicious recipe!!