February 4, 2013

BBQ Chicken Quinoa Salad

Can I just tell you how much fun it is to take photos of food in a kitchen that actually has windows!  When purchasing my home, one of my favorite aspects about it was the open layout and how much light came into the house - which was something I certainly didn't have in my old apartment.  Not. Even. Close.  Despite it being cold and snowy all weekend, I still managed to fill each room with fresh flowers, sit back and take it all in.

Oh and I cooked too of course,
it WAS Super Bowl weekend and all.

And let me just go ahead and throw out that I will never (I repeat NEVER) go to the grocery store the night before a big game again.  Holy crazy people!  We had a few of our friends over Saturday night so I ran out to the store real quick to get everything I needed to make bruschetta.  BIG mistake.  Not only did I almost have to fight a woman to get to the tomatoes, but you would have thought there was a huge shortage of beer with all the men stocking up like the apocolypse was upon us.

Sigh.

Regardless, I was able to survive my trek through the store and came home excited to make this.  Shredded barbeque chicken, fluffy quinoa, black beans, corn, avocado...the perfect salad.  This is actually a great dish to make at the end of the week when you don't know what to do with all those stray leftovers hanging around your kitchen.  We had made BBQ chicken sandwiches over the weekend in our slow cooker so I tossed it with quinoa and few other things hanging around my cabinets.  The combination tasted super delicious and I think it might be one of those to add to the rotation.

Packed with lots of protein and fiber, this salad is an all around healthy meal that will fill you up and keep you satisfied.  It also heats up great in the microwave in case you wanted to save extra to bring to work the next day.  How can you go wrong?? 


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Servings: 4
Serving Size: 1 1/2 cups
Calories: 201
Fat: 5.4 g
Carbs: 26.8 g

Fiber: 6.1 g
Protein: 11.4 g
Old Points: 3.7 pts
Points+: 5 pts
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Here are your ingredients:
Recipe adapted from What's Gaby Cooking

1 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 cup frozen or fresh corn, thawed
1/2 cup black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup shredded chicken, cooked
2 Tbsp barbeque sauce of your choice
1/2 avocado, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
Cilantro, as garnish

Cook quinoa according to package directions.  Note: I pre-cooked my chicken in a slow cooker the day before with chopped onion and some BBQ sauce - make sure to plan ahead.  

In a large bowl, mix together quinoa, corn, black beans, chicken and barbeque sauce.  Fold in avocado, green onions and season with salt and pepper.  Top with a bit of cilantro and enjoy!


Happy Monday lovelies!  Sorry for not having any pictures up yet of the house on the blog, it snowed all weekend which made it so dark and dreary - obvi I can't take pretty pictures inside with no sunlight, sigh.  I'm excited to show you so they'll be posted soon!

Enjoy!

36 lovely comments:

Betsy said...

Looks delish! Can't wait to try this one!! :)

Anele @ Success Along the Weigh said...

We chose to do our normal Sunday grocery shopping on Saturday morning as soon as the stores opened just to avoid scenarios like you described! LOL

This dish looks amazing! I need to remember to use my quinoa more. It just sits in my mason jar, all forlorn.

Val said...

Hello delicious!!

claire @ the realistic nutritionist said...

YUM!! This looks amazing!

randi @ the pittsburgh shaws said...

How do you prepare the chicken in the slow cooker? how long and how much bbq sauce?

looks delish.

randi @ the pittsburgh shaws said...

how long and how much bbq sauce do you use for cooking the chicken in the slow cooker?

looks delish

Heather Carson said...

YUM YUM YUM.

def going to make this!

thx - heather
This Life Is Yours Blog

Heather Carson said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kelly | Eat Yourself Skinny said...

Hi Randi! I actually throw a few chicken breasts in the slow cooker (about 3 or 4) with chopped onion, salt and pepper and about a 1/2 cup (or more) of my favorite barbeque sauce. I cook it on low for about 7 hours then shred it :)

Georgia | The Comfort of Cooking said...

So yummy and nutritious, Kelly! This looks so delish and perfect for a quick weeknight dinner. Thanks for sharing, and congrats on your new home!

Adam J. Holland said...

This looks really good!

Adam J. Holland said...

This looks really good!

Helene Peloquin said...

I like that this recipe is only 5 pts per portion and that it is very filling. Thanks!

SkinnyMommy said...

Looks easy, healthy and delicious--the perfect trio!

Grubarazzi said...

Gorgeous photos of a great plate of food! Congratulations on your home. It looks amazing according to the pics. Here's to extra light and happy times!

Laura (Tutti Dolci) said...

What a scrumptious salad, beautiful photos!

pretty little things said...

this looks so yummy and healthy -- definitely trying this one! xo

http://allthingsprettyandlittle.blogspot.com/

Kels @ K and K Test Kitchen said...

Yes! Love this, which is why I'm making it for dinner tonight... seriously, it is cooking right now! I'm oven baking my chicken though since I obviously couldn't have thought ahead to slow cook it.

Congrats on your new home. It must be so excited to be finally moved in!

Alaina @ Fabtastic Eats said...

This sounds delicious! Im in need of some simple healthy meals! thank you!

Karen Downes said...

The salad looks awesome but where did you get the gingham spoon? I love it.

Dara Reppucci said...

I made the same mistake. Never go to the store the night before the Superbowl. I paid for it. This is a lovely light salad!

sandy @ french laundry 132 said...

I just found your blog and love it. The photographs are beautiful and most of all the recipes look fantastic!

Amber @ Slim Pickins Kitchen said...

This recipe looks awesome! The hubs and I love, love, love BBQ chicken salads, but I've never thought about using quinoa! Now that I've been paying more attention, I've noticed that protein keeps me so much fuller longer. I could seriously eat a greek yogurt bowl at 8am and not be hungry until 2pm. Definitely trying this for sure.

Betsy said...

I made this tonight and I will admit that I haven't had quinoa before, but this was delicious! My husband can't wait to take the leftovers to lunch tomorrow!

Holly said...

All of my favorite things in one dish! I will be trying this one very soon! Thanks for the delicious recipe!

cecylia said...

I love the phislophy of your blog- it's so true- if we treasure what we eat and our bodies we won't overeat :) xx

Ruwani Kumar said...

Hi Kelly,

Finally got some time to visit your blog. I just love this recipe :) The Ingredients are easy to get and quick to prepare. Will definitely try .

Amanda G said...

Can you substitute the chicken for chickpeas if you wanted? I might try that out and see... This looks awesome!

Elizabeth @ Confessions of a Baking Queen said...

This salad looks amazing. Seriously I want to eat this salad right now! I am just beginning to love quinoa and this is the perfect way to eat it! I just came across your blog and it is so cute! I am in love! And your house looks gorgeous with what you have done so far. So clean, crisp & white! Beautiful! :)

Lisa Minken said...

I made this last week. It was AMAZING. I love cilantro, so I chopped it up and stirred it in. So good! It's going to be on the menu again next week.

Anonymous said...

I made this last week and even my whole family of non-healthy eaters absolutely loved it! Thank you for posting this recipe.

Claire Jasmine Taylor said...

This is amazing. I made it on Saturday and brought in for lunch today. My chicken is jerk chicken so lots of flavour and a bit of a kick. It's the first thing I'm eating today (for lunch) and I imagine it will keep me very full! Thanks for such a great idea xxx

Natalie Neilson said...

This was SO good! :)

Monika Radavičiūtė said...

I bought some quinoa last week from organic shop, because all are like crazy about that now and i was looking for recipe and I think I found :)

Staci said...

I have seen this recipe prior and used 1 cup dry quinoa to make... did you mean you use 1 cup COOKED or 1 cup DRY to make???

Anonymous said...

Absolutely delicious! I didn't change a thing and it was perfect. It was also my first time making/eating quinoa! So yummy....thank you so much!!