BBQ Chicken, Kale and Quinoa Bowl
BBQ Chicken, Kale and Quinoa Bowl – this healthy recipe comes together quickly and easily, a family favorite!
I haven’t been great at meal planning and prepping last couple of weeks and boy do I feel it. On the weeks that I take the time to look at our schedule, plan a few meals and then shop for them…well it’s obvious those weeks run more smoothly. What I really find helpful is when I can make a few recipes ahead of time, like this All Purpose Barbecue Shredded Chicken and use it for 2 meals (or 1 meal and a lot of lunches!) during the week. I love having a batch of that chicken on hand for meals just like this last minute throw together BBQ Chicken, Kale and Quinoa Bowl recipe. It’s like stir fry meets BBQ meets health food. Good stuff.
(I’d be happy adding that shredded BBQ chicken to this BBQ Chicken Salad, these BBQ Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwiches or this BBQ Chicken Avocado Quesadillas – all look delicious!)
This recipe is very straight forward and came together at lunch one day when I was throwing together a few leftovers in a skillet. (The key is to keeping this super quick is to have precooked quinoa and chicken ready for you in the fridge.) It was so delicious I made it again for dinner and again for lunch. BBQ wins me over every time. My husband too…I’m still working on my kids with this one, though I will say they ate it – just not as excited as I was about it. 🙂
If kale isn’t your thing, you can easily substitute fresh spinach for the kale. Leftovers are great for lunch the next day too! If you are into meal prepping for yourself, these would be great to turn into to grab & go bowls to take to work or school. Just heat up for a nourishing home-cooked meal at lunch or dinner!
Have a great week!
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PinIngredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 sweet onion, chopped
- 2 –3 big handfuls chopped kale (I used lacinato kale, but use whatever kale you have)
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- salt and pepper
- 1 cup shredded chicken (use rotisserie or any leftover chicken you have)
- 2 tablespoons barbecue sauce (plus extra for serving)
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add kale to skillet and season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 4-5 minutes until kale starts to wilt.
- Add quinoa to skillet and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add shredded chicken and barbecue sauce to kale and quinoa and stir fry for another 2 minutes until everything is combined and heated through.
- Serve with additional barbecue sauce if you wish.
Need some new light and easy dinner ideas? Check out these 20 Healthy Recipes Using Shredded Chicken!
There are plenty of recipe ideas using quinoa to choose from on my Quinoa Love Pinterest board:
More recipes using cooked quinoa:
Greek Grilled Cauliflower and Vidalia Onion Quinoa Salad
Corn and Black Bean Quinoa Salad
Quinoa Fried Rice | Gimme Some Oven
Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Quinoa | Cookin’ Canuck
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Where market do you get that kind of Kale?
Hi Nanci, I picked up this kale at Trader Joe’s. It’s called lacinato or dinosaur kale. I’ve seen it at my local produce market and sometimes at my grocery store (I love it and grab it when I can). You could always substitute whatever kale you find, or even spinach.
Agree! My weeks run so much more smoothly when I meal plan well. This looks great. I happen to have leftover quinoa and spinach on hand. I might have to throw this in the mix this week
Aggie, this looks so good. I’m on a quinoa kick, too. So many delicious salads that you can make!
This looks amazing, Aggie! Definitely adding to the weeknight rotation!Â
This is a beautiful salad, Aggie! I haven’t gotten into the hang of meal planning, but I need to soon. I feel that I’m frantically thinking of things to cook for dinner during the week!
This looks OMG. My kids can be assholes too about my tasty healthy meals. Grrrrr. I love them but man the can be assholes at dinner time! Just like that. I said it.
Ha ha ha!! Yes, they can be!!
This quinoa bowl looks gorgeous. Loving all that kale and chicken and quinoa in one bowl.
This looks delicious (and beautiful)! My kids are the same way…they tell me “I wish ‘junk’ was healthy and healthy food was ‘junk.'” I keep trying though and little by little they are coming around.
Thank you!! Ha! yea, kids are funny like that, my kids surprise me all the time so keep trying!
I made this last night. Very quick, simple, and satisfying. Thank you!
wonderful! So glad you enjoyed it!!
SO MUCH GOODNESS IN ONE BOWL! Â I love everything about this bowl!
I love the BBQ sauce in this quinoa bowl – beautiful!
Hi, Aggie! I love your recipes! On a health journey to become healthier and was wondering about the nutritional values to your meals. Are they published anywhere? Thanks!
Hi Kristin!! So nice to meet you and thank you!! Good for you for working on your health <3 I've recently started to input my meals/recipes into My Fitness Pal to get nutritional info and when I do I update them in the notes right under the recipe. My more recent recipes have some nutrition info but I have a long way to go to update them all. Are you on My Fitness Pal? You can easily calculate them on their nutrition calculator, then save them if you make again it will be easy to have already.
How much quinoa to use?
First time I tried it absolutely gorgeous.