This Broccoli and Cheese Chicken Quinoa Casserole is a healthy dinner idea that will rock your taste buds! A light and creamy casserole filled with broccoli, chicken, quinoa and cheese!
A Healthy Chicken + Quinoa Recipe
Hi YA! Happy Sunday! Hope it’s your best one, yet! And ladies, Happy International Women’s Day!!! YAY, WOMEN!
Ahem. {pride rocks!}
Also? I’d like to declare that this is the season of melty, gooey, cheesy casseroles because I’m sort of over winter… and with 2 weeks left of it? I’m done.
I also overheard the weatherman say that it’s going to be in the 50’s tomorrow. 50’s!! Around these parts, that’s considered Summer! Especially after these temperatures that included double digits with a big fat minus in front of them. Brr!
Now that we’ve covered all the wildly important world issues, let’s discuss quinoa! Oh yes, cheese, too. You know me so well!
There are so many delicious meals out there that sometimes I don’t even think to share my favorite simple combinations. And they are my favorite for a reason – because they are SO freaking good! For instance, broccoli and cheese. I LOVE that combo! I mean, I adore broccoli, but throw some cheese on them trees and it’s practically cake!
Then, there’s the good old Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole. Uhm, Double-YUM. Theeeeen we have MY favorite, Broccoli and Cheese Chicken QUINOA Casserole, and that’s what I call the quadruple-threat-YUM.
The Best Chicken Quinoa Casserole
I really wasn’t even going to tell you about this at all since there’s a million combos of this recipe up on the world wide web, buuuut mine is the best. KIDDING! They’re all amazing. But mine is, like, really good. It’s like mac ‘n cheese, but not so much, but it kinda is, except that it’s all grown up and waaaay tastier. Make sense? Good.
So for a while there I used to cook the quinoa before throwing it all into this outrageously delicious mix, but one time I put it in there without pre-cooking it and guess what?!? IT COOKED! In the oven!! Duh?? For someone who uses quinoa as much as I do, I should have figured that out a long time ago.
In other news, everything else in this casserole-world stays the same – brown the chicken, don’t need to thaw the broccoli, whisk the flour, yaddi yaddi yadda.
I could continue to go on and on but obviously you need the recipe and I need to catch up on my DVR.
ENJOY!
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***** Couple of commenters had issues with the quinoa being too crunchy or not cooking at all. If hesitant, please precook the quinoa, then add it to the casserole dish and continue with the recipe as is.
Broccoli and Cheese Chicken Quinoa Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa , rinsed*
- 1 bag (16-ounces) broccoli florets
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 to 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts , cut into cubes
- salt and fresh ground pepper , to taste
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1/2- cup all purpose flour
- 2 cups 1%-milk
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper , or to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon chili powder , or to taste
- salt and fresh ground pepper , to taste
- 1/2- cup reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese
- 1/4- cup shredded parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Grease a casserole dish with cooking spray.
- Layer quinoa on the bottom of the casserole dish.
- Top with frozen broccoli and set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a frying pan.
- Add chicken cubes and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until browned on all sides.
- Transfer chicken to the casserole dish. Set aside.
- Place a saucepan over high heat; add chicken broth and flour and whisk and cook until smooth, about 1 minute.
- Whisk in milk, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, chili powder, salt and pepper; continue to cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until thickened.
- Pour sauce over the chicken-mixture in the casserole dish; mix to combine.
- Sprinkle cheeses on top and cover with foil.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the quinoa is thoroughly cooked.
- Remove from oven and let stand few minutes.
- Serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
Categories:
SIMILAR RECIPES
GARLICKY & CHEESY QUINOA ZUCCHINI FRITTERS
How would you go about freezing and reheating this?
I am obsessed with this casserole. I’m not a great cook so even when I follow my favorite recipes they come out different every time, but this one is always 10/10. My husband requests it weekly! Thank you so so much, as a newlywed I’m so happy I can impress him with this super easy recipe haha.
That’s great to hear! I am very glad you and your husband enjoyed it! Thank YOU! 🙂
What’s the serving size on the nutrition facts?
Hi! I am making this one evening & bringing to a friend the next day. Should I leave the sauce in a separate container for them to pour & bake? What’s the easier and best way to go about this for them? Don’t want to make extra work….?!
Thanks!
Hi!
Just prepare it all ahead of time – don’t bake – cover with foil and store in the fridge. When ready to bake, let casserole sit in room temperature for 20 minutes, or while the oven preheats. Then pop it in and continue as directed.
Great recipe! Taking over to a new Mom tonight- what size casserole dish to use? Is a 9 x 13 too big?
Hi!
9×13 is perfect. 🙂 Congrats to the new Mommy!!
Loved this! Could you edit the recipe to tell folks to rinse the quinoa in the instructions (instead Of the notes at the end?) I didn’t see that until after everything had already gone in the oven and had to delay dinner for a longer cook time. Might help other readers out in the long run! Delicious! Thank you.
Hi, I was wondering if you have the nutritional facts for this dish?
Hi! I don’t know how the nutritional facts went missing, but thanks for letting me know! 🙂 It’s there now.
yes makes sense as grown up mac an cheese, thank you for this! And for lightening it up! Wonderful flavors thank you
Great recipe! I came up with a solution for the quinoa not getting cooked all the way. Instead of adding the broth to the sauce, I put it directly into the pan with the quinoa before adding the broccoli. I made the sauce using only the milk. I can see where the sauce may be too thick to get into the nooks and crannies of the quinoa. I also added shallots and nutritional yeast to the sauce for my flavor preferences. Turned out awesome with perfectly cooked quinoa!
Loved the recipe! I added hot sauce and it turned out great. i also used coconut flour instead of all purpose, after reading the reviews i did rinse the quinoa before adding because i too had never baked it raw.
Thanks for the recipe!!!!
Hi! This looks amazing…I want to make a few freezer meals and have this on my list. Have you made this ahead and froze it?
I just made this and it turned out well. I subbed out the milk and used a can of cream of celery and used two cups of chicken stock instead. I put pepper in it and didn’t mess with any other spices, mainly because I forgot, haha. My quinoa wasn’t cooked in the middle and I cooked in for another 25 minutes. It was good! I used a large 9×13 pan. I didn’t soak/wash since the quinoa I bought was pre-washed. I will make this again!
SOOOOO very good! Have to double it for the next time though! Thanks
Delicious! Thank you. I made a few substitutions. I used fresh broccoli,clean chx broth, whole wheat flour, left out the parm cheese and chili powder (personal preference) and only 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk.
Do you know approx sodium?
How do you mix flour in stock without get lumps? What size casserole?
Didn’t pre cook the quinoa and this came out great! So easy to make. Thanks for sharing!
Made this and it came out great. Only exception is that I forgot to defrost the chicken so I ended up picking up some shrimp and used Gruyere instead of cheddar.
I made this casserole and followed the directions exactly and it came out great! All the quinoa cooked with the exception of some on the edges of the dish which ended up getting toasted. This was my first ever casserole attempt and I found it easy and successful. My boyfriend loved it as well, he added some hot sauce on top. Thank you for sharing!
I’m having issues with the flour clumping. I tried taking my time and gradually add in the water and milk but did not help. It’s just a hot clump mess. Don’t have this issue when I do it with butter.
Hi!
Can you add more liquid? 1/2 cup of flour and 3 cups of liquid shouldn’t make the sauce clump up. It should thicken the sauce, but it should also be pourable.
Well I stuck to the recipe 100%. Once it became clumpy I could not get the clumps out so I tossed it out. I will try adding butter first with the flour and hope that helps next time. Thanks though!
I just made this for dinner tonight and it tastes great! I, too, had the same problem others did. My quinoa wasn’t cooked when I took it out of the oven at 40 minutes. I ended up stirring it and then baking it for ten more minutes and it was done! Thanks for the recipe!
This looks delicious! I was wondering if it can be prepared the night before and then put into the oven the next day?
Hi Nikki! You can definitely prep it the night before, but I would advise not to pour the sauce over the chicken and quinoa until you are ready to bake it. Also, right before you want to bake the casserole, reheat and stir the sauce just a bit so to thin in it out, add it the casserole dish, sprinkle with cheese, and bake. Hope that helps. Have a great week ahead!
Perfect! This was the question I was going to ask. I get home so late from work..that this recipe would be a struge to get through and cook in one night! Excited it can be a two day process!
Hello! I made this recipe last night and it turned out great – lots of flavor. I used uncooked quinoa from Costco and it cooked well. This makes me think maybe the reason it didn’t work for other readers is because they may not of a) soaked the quinoa (which I did while making everything else) b) rinsed the quinoa (which I also did).
Hope that is helpful!
HI Melissa!!
I think you figured it out! THANK YOU!! I truly appreciate your input, and I will make a note in the recipe. I completely forgot to mention rinsing the quinoa!
I made this tonight-Amazing! Somehow I had forgotten to get broccoli while shopping today, subed it with a zucchini and summer squash from my garden….worked well! No one will mind eating the leftovers from this one. Thanks for sharing your recipe 🙂
SO glad you enjoyed it! Thank you! 😀
If I use fresh broccoli will it still turn out. I’m new to cooking.
Hi Christina! Yep, fresh broccoli works just as well. Let me know how it was! 🙂
Hi Katerina – should the chicken be fully cooked when you put it into the oven? Thanks!
Hi Katie!! Yes, it should be fully cooked. When it’s cut into little cubes, it shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes to be done.
Have a great weekend!
I made this last night & I was really hoping for a better turnout 🙁 my quinoa didn’t cook either (I don’t know what kind it is, I believe I got it at Costco) but the crunchiness of it wasn’t unbearable so it’s going to get eaten. It was SUPER runny though too… Not sure what happened but I will have to re-make this again but with pre-cooking the quinoa & maybe not as much chicken broth.
Thanks for the recipe!!
Hi Chelsea! Thanks so much for weighing in. I will make a note in the recipe box to precook the quinoa. I’ve made this a few times and the quinoa was cooked, but maybe it’s in the brand… who knows!
In as far as the sauce, that should be cooked until it has thickened. Do you think maybe it wasn’t thick enough when you removed it from the heat?
I made this tonight, and it ended up in the trash. I’m so sad, because the flavor was delicious, but the quinoa didn’t even begin to cook. It looked exactly like it did in the bag. I will definitely make this again, but I will pre-cook the quinoa. Thanks so much for sharing this easy recipe!
He Keisha!! So it didn’t cook? Did you try it? Was it crunchy?? I wonder why it didn’t cook… 🙁 Let me know if you can, was it red qinuoa? I’ve made this many times, at least 5 times in the past 2 months, and it always works out, but I didn’t try it with red quinoa, only with regular. Just wondering if something like that might be an issue. Let me know if you have a chance. Thank YOU for chiming in!
Um, THANK YOU!! This worked beautifully, hubby said it’s one of the best dinners I ever made! Love that you don’t need to pre-cook the quinoa, and I used rotisserie chicken from the store so it was ridiculously easy (I am really lazy!) This one goes into regular rotation – thanks for sharing!
Hi Rebecca! I’m so happy you enjoyed it! THANK YOU! AND? YAY for rotisserie chicken! I loooove me a shortcut! 😀
Love that this is a quick one pan dish and the quinoa cooks in the oven!
My husband had all the doors and windows off the Jeep this weekend – it barely got over 40 degrees. We’re SO ready for summer. Also, I have a huge bag of quinoa that needs to be used before we move so I’m definitely making this. Like, tomorrow.
Thanks for sharing the recipe! It looks great for a wonderful family dinner!