This BBQ Chicken Quinoa Salad is loaded with shredded chicken, quinoa, fresh corn, avocado, black beans and cilantro all tossed together with your favorite barbecue sauce!
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 apocalypse 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??
BBQ Chicken Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
- 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
Instructions
- 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!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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.
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! 🙂
Can you substitute the chicken for chickpeas if you wanted? I might try that out and see… This looks awesome!
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 .
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
All of my favorite things in one dish! I will be trying this one very soon! Thanks for the delicious recipe!
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!
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.
I just found your blog and love it. The photographs are beautiful and most of all the recipes look fantastic!
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!