This Loaded BBQ Chicken Quinoa Salad is one of my favorite make ahead meals!!
I throw around the term on brand a LOT! I'll say something like, this restaurant is totally on brand. Wearing yoga pants daily is on brand. My bright red bike helmet... on brand. You get the idea! Today and every other day for that matter, it's safe to say that loaded salads are totally ON BRAND. They make life colorful and delicious and it's a great way to use whatever is left in my fridge. Yesterday I whipped up a ton of these salads for the week! I just assemble the entire thing, minus the avocado, so then we can grab them for lunch when we're hungry and add some avocado right before we eat. Layers of quinoa, grilled corn, black beans, shredded BBQ chicken, diced avocado, BBQ sauce and a little cheese give this salad about 324 dimensions and each bite was packed with flavor.
It's kind of like a BBQ chicken pizza but subbed with quinoa which makes it healthier! Hands down this is one of my favorite salads that you absolutely have to try!
BBQ Chicken Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups cooked quinoa
- ½ cup fresh corn cut from the cob
- ½ cup black beans rinsed and drained
- 1 cup shredded BBQ chicken can use a store bought chicken and tossed with a little BBQ sauce
- 1 avocado chopped
- 3-4 tablespoons White Cheddar cheese shredded
- BBQ sauce
- 2 scallions chopped
- cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- In a large bowl, toss together the quinoa, corn, black beans, chicken and avocado. Season with salt and pepper
- Transfer mixture onto a bowl and top with shredded cheese, BBQ sauce, scallions and cilantro.
- Serve
Notes
Nutrition Information
Photo by Matt Armendariz / Food Styling by Adam Pearson / Recipe from What’s Gaby Cooking
we made this tonight and it was awesome! thanks!!
ooooo I wanna make it tonight too!! Great idea 🙂 Glad you loved it!
never seen nor can I get quinoa. what is a suitable substitute?
you could always use rice!
This was amazing!!!!!!!! My favorite salad is BBQ chicken and I love this twist with quiona! Thanks for sharing, I had to share it with my readers too!
http://sugartotdesigns.blogspot.com/2012/07/dinner-brought-to-you-by-pinterest.html
This looks great! Is there a dressing or no?
Hey Stacey! No dressing other than the BBQ sauce 🙂 Thanks!
Gaby, I am a Quinoa virgin! I would love some tips on cooking it. I can't wait to make this salad:-)
Hi Gaby. I made this for dinner a few nights ago and it was amazing! I made several alterations based on what I had on hand: I added half a red pepper, a couple handfuls of spinach, omitted the cheese, and added some ranch dressing and lime juice. Even my non-salad-loving husband couldn't get enough of it! Thanks for the awesome recipe!
YUM! Made this tonight with chicken I had leftover from http://chaosinthekitchen.com/2009/07/lime-and-coconut-chicken/ including the sauce in place of BBQ - it was delicious! Can't wait to try it with the BBQ chicken and BBQ sauce. Definitely will be a regular at our house. Thanks!
yay!! glad you loved it!
This salad was so good I just had to blog about it! Thank you so much for sharing!!
This looks amazing!! I so need to try this nice and healthy.
Looks delicious!! I am saving this to add into my rotations next week!! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Found this on pinterest...couldn't wait to try it. I've got everything together, waiting for avocado, cheese, & green onions at the last minute. It tasted great before the last additions, can't wait for dinner tonight! Thanks for the great recipe!
Umm, yum. That's all I can say for fear that I will start drooling. I love quinoa, especially in salads - it gives them such a wonderful heartiness!
This is certainly a healthy salad and very tasty at that!!! Love all the ingredients so the combination must be great! Great recipe!
Hi gaby. This looks like a great recipe, and I think I will try it. I just bought a Weber q 320 and think I will try cooking the chicken in a pan on the grill.
Cheers
My husband and I fell in love with quinoa during a recent trip to Peru. Now he begs me to make it each week. I made this tonight and it was PERFECT! I skipped the cheese because someone in this house can't leave alone a brick of cheese sitting in the fridge (me!). I also used rotissere chicken and squirted BBQ sauce on it. Total shortcut, but it got a delicious meal on table after a long day at work. Thanks for a great recipe, Gaby. This is a keeper!