Recipe: Chicken Quinoa Casserole

If you’re looking for a high-protein, one-dish meal for the whole family will enjoy, look no further than this chicken quinoa casserole.  This healthy family dinner has excellent flavor and a fantastic cashew crunch, and it couldn’t be easier to make!

Casseroles are an easy option when cooking for a large group. I love that I can sneak so many vegetables in one dish, and there’s always a hope that I’ll have some leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch. Many traditional casseroles are unhealthy because they’re typically filled with condensed soups and cheese. But this recipe is nothing BUT healthy, and it will still satisfy your craving for comfort food, I promise!

How To Make Chicken Quinoa Casserole

Once you learn the foundation of this recipe, the possibilities for variations and adaptions are endless.

• Start by rinsing your quinoa and placing it in a lightly oiled casserole dish.
• Then rinse and chop your chicken into even pieces, placing them in the same casserole dish with the quinoa.
• Choose your vegetables, rinse and chop. For this recipe, I’m using peppers, onion, and carrots.
• Season with salt and pepper and then covers with bone broth and sauce. I made my soy-free Asian-style dressing for this recipe by whisking together Coconut Aminos, minced garlic, Coconut Aminos Hoisin Sauce, grated ginger, and 1 cup of water.
• Cover the casserole dish with tinfoil and place in the preheated oven for 45minutes. Take off tinfoil, give a stir, add any toppings and cook for about ten more minutes. In this recipe, I topped with cashews.
• You can tell with this Chicken Quinoa Casserole is ready to come out of the oven with the liquid that has been absorbed by the quinoa, and the quinoa is fluffy.

Chicken Quinoa Casserole Tips

• This is an excellent dish to use chicken tenderloins in. Chicken tenderloins typically cost less.
• Make sure your quinoa is fully submerged in the liquid. Anything left out won’t cook and be very dry and crunchy.
• The liquid to quinoa ratio is essential in any quinoa casserole recipe. You want to make sure you have two cups of liquid for every cup of quinoa so that you ensure your dish turns out.

Chicken Quinoa Casserole Variations

Now that you’ve mastered this chicken quinoa casserole roll up your sleeves because there are SO many ways to change this up recipe up! The quinoa and chicken stay the same, but everything else can change!

Switch Out Your Liquid

Rember, the key here is that you are using 2 cups of liquid for every cup of quinoa. Try one of these combinations:

• Canned tomatoes + bone broth
• Tomato and roasted rep pepper soup + chicken broth
• Balsamic dressing and vegetable broth

Switch Out Your Vegetables

You can use any combination of vegetables your family enjoys eating. These are the other combinations I have tried and enjoyed:

• Broccoli + cauliflower
• Red pepper + pea pods
• Mushrooms + peas + asparagus
• beets + Vidalia onions

Switch Out Your Toppings

consider what’s in the casserole, but it’s hard to go wrong with these delicious topping ideas.

Something crunchy: cashew, peanut, sunflower seeds, diced cucumber

Something creamy: goat cheese, feta cheese, a dollop of sour cream, tzatziki sauce, avocado

Something bright: a squirt of fresh lemon, fresh coped cilantro, fresh basil, parsley

Other Healthy Cassarol Recipies To Try

Eggplant Lasagna (Easy Vegetarian Dinner)

Shepherd’s Pie with Sweet Potato Topping