This turkey burger casserole will make dinner a heck of a lot easier. With a few minutes of prep, you’ll have a healthy, family friendly slow cooker recipe.
Turkey burger flavors are topped with sweet potato fries in this fun and hearty meal. While I used lean ground turkey to make this a turkey burger recipe, of course you can swap in your preferred ground meat like beef or even pork. I always take the time to brown my ground meat and drain the grease before adding it to the slow cooker. If you’re using a very lean meat, you might find that this step is not necessary.
The Sweet Potato Fries
This recipe has gone through 4 rounds of testing, mainly because of the fries. Man what a headache figuring the fries out. I tried every way possible: frozen (cooked), frozen (uncooked), fresh (cooked), fresh (uncooked) and the end result was always the same – soft sweet potatoes fries. There’s no way around it, the fries will be soft when the recipe is done cooking. Since this is the case, baking the casserole after it’s done is listed as an instruction step rather than an optional step. If you don’t mind a soft sweet potato topping on your casserole, by all-means eat it as-is. It will kind of taste like a cottage pie with a sweet potato topping. However, personally I like a crisp fries toppings. The best way to achieve that in my opinion is to use frozen fries. Homemade or store-bought fries? To stay compliant, I make homemade air fryer sweet potato fries in advance and then freeze them. What suits your lifestyle? You can absolutely use store-bought, frozen fries if you want. And yes you can use regular fries as well, you don’t have to use sweet potato fries.
To help the fries not turn soggy on you, one thing you can do it put a couple of paper towels underneath the lid. The paper towels will catch any excess condensation that would normally drip into the pot. You’ll be surprised how much there is; the paper towel will be very wet.
If you have a Crock-Pot brand of slow cooker like the 3.5-quart Crock-Pot Casserole Crock Slow Cooker I used here, you can put the Crock-Pot insert directly in the oven. All Crock-Pot brand of slow cookers inserts can be placed in the oven for up to 400 degrees. If you have another brand of slow cooker, you will have to check with the manufacturer before putting it in the oven. Worst case scenario you transfer it to a baking dish.
The Condiments
I wanted to keep this paleo and whole30 compliant so I did not use cheese. If you’re not worried about paleo or whole30, after it’s done cooking one thing you can do is top the sweet potatoes with cheese. Close the lid and let it cook for an additional 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is melted. For the mustard, use your preferred mustard. I like to use a plain yellow mustard or Dijon. An optional ingredient to add to this recipe is relish. Depending on the brand, the relish might not be whole30 or paleo so read your labels or don’t use it if that’s a concern.
[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”78EVCASa” upload-date=”2019-05-28T23:34:05.000Z” name=”Slow Cooker Turkey Burger Casserole (Paleo, Whole30)” description=”This turkey burger casserole will make dinner a heck of a lot easier. With just a few minutes of prep, you’ll have a slow cooker family-friendly recipe.”]
PrintSlow Cooker Turkey Burger Casserole (Paleo, Whole30)
- Total Time: 4 hours 10 mins
- Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs ground turkey
- 10–12 ounces frozen sweet potato fries
- 15 ounces diced tomatoes
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 large bell pepper, diced
- 1 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tbsp mustard
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Instructions
- In a large skillet over medium heat, brown ground turkey. Drain off all excess fat and add the ground meat to the slow cooker.
- Add diced tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, garlic, mustard, salt, pepper. Stir to mix well.
- Add a layer of the frozen fries to the top of the meat mixture.
- Cook HIGH 2-4 hours or LOW 4-6.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Transfer casserole to oven-safe dish and bake on the top rack for approx 10 minutes or until the fries are crisp to your liking.
Notes
Some slow cooker brands Crock-Pot have inserts that are oven-safe. Please check with your manufacturer.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 4 hours
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 328
- Sugar: 7 g
- Fat: 15.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 3.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 13.3 g
- Fiber: 2.7 g
- Protein: 36.1 g
- Cholesterol: 117.4 mg
I used a 3.5-quart Crock-Pot Casserole Crock Slow Cooker for this recipe. You do not need a casserole slow cooker for this, any slow 3.5-quart slow cooker will work just fine.
This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click on one of the product links, I might receive compensation. For more about my disclosure policy see here: https://fitslowcookerqueen.com/about/disclosure-policy/.