Cheesy Quinoa Chicken Broccoli Bake

Cheesy Quinoa Chicken Broccoli Bake is healthy comfort food. No canned cream of anything here, just homemade creamy goodness that is skinny jeans approved.

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Don’t you want to just dive right in? That’s a big pan of cheesy, creamy goodness that is brimming with healthful ingredients! That sentence just made me smile 🙂 Gotta love a dish that is both good for you and can still be described as “cheesy and creamy!”

Meet my new love…Cheesy Quinoa Chicken Broccoli Bake! It’s a scrumptious combination of superfood power-house quinoa, lean boneless skinless chicken breasts, tons of bright, fresh broccoli all swimming in a homemade cream of chicken sauce and topped off with a little bit of melty mozzarella cheese. And now I am hungry again…

Get on in there and take a close-up look at this goodness!!

This will put a smile on your face even though the dumb groundhog did see his shadow and we are in for 6 more weeks of winter! Anybody else ready for spring? The only good thing about winter is being able to make bakes or casseroles like this one!

Yes I know that this picture is pretty much the same as the last one, but I didn’t realize it until I already had it edited in photoshop. If I took the time to edit it, it’s showing up on the blog. Sorry y’all…hope you don’t mind too much…

I adapted this recipe from Pinch of Yum’s Creamy Chicken Quinoa and Broccoli Casserole. The only big change that I made was omitting the bacon because I am that weird girl that doesn’t like bacon. I also switched the cheese to mozzarella.

Here is the recipe for Cheesy Quinoa Chicken Broccoli Bake:

Cheesy Quinoa Chicken Broccoli Bake

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

50 mins

Total time

1 hour

Author: Becky's Best Bites

Serves: 8

Ingredients

2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup reduced-fat milk, divided
1 tsp. poultry seasoning
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 cups water, divided
1 cup quinoa, rinsed if needed.
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 tbsp. your favorite seasoning blend (I used Montreal Steak Seasoning)
3 cups fresh broccoli florets
¼ shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees and spray a 2¼ quart baking dish liberally with non-stick cooking spray.
Bring the chicken stock and ½ cup of milk to low boil. Turn the heat down as low as possible, while keeping the low boil.
Whisk the other ½ cup of milk with poultry seasoning and slowly add the flour (to avoid clumps). Whisking to combine.
Add the flour mixture slowly to the boiling liquid. Whisking constantly until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat.
Add one cup of water, quinoa, chicken and seasoning blend to the sauce. Stir to combine.
Pour mixture into the prepared baking dish. Bake under-covered for 30-45 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through, the quinoa is done (it has popped and and the germ looks like a spiral) and the sauce has thickened.
While the bake is in the oven, either cook the broccoli by steaming in a steam bag for 2 minutes in the microwave or place in boiling water. It will be bright green and still crisp. Run under cold water to stop to stop the cooking process. Set aside.
When the quinoa chicken mixture is thickened add the broccoli and a little bit of water (up to 1 cup, but I used about ⅓ cup). Stir to get a creamy consistency.
Top with cheese and bake for 5 minutes or so, just until the cheese melts.