This quinoa skillet with chicken and garden veggies combined tender chicken with lots of fresh, healthy vegetables, and nutrient-dense quinoa, for a protein-rich, healthy, wholesome meal!
Love high-protein quinoa meals? You might also love this one-pot quinoa chicken, black bean quinoa casserole, ground turkey quinoa casserole, or shrimp and quinoa with asparagus!
Quinoa and chicken with sautéed zucchini, bell pepper, broccoli and tomato inspired by my Ukrainian roots that takes less than 40 minutes to make. The whole family will love this easy quinoa skillet and you will have plenty of leftovers. In Ukrainian cooking, garlic and onion make a base for stews, sauces and gravies. And that’s what I did here. So easy, you will be like “Whaaaaat?!”.
Recently, I’ve been adding quinoa to more and more of my meals too; healthy chicken quinoa bowl with cilantro avocado dressing, a healthy chicken pot pie casserole, Mediterranean quinoa salad, and a quinoa beef stew – there’s no end to where you can use it!
If you are looking for more healthy easy dinners, check out my Tex Mex chicken and zucchini, garlic chicken, zucchini and corn, pesto chicken or vast collection of healthy dinner ideas, too!
How to Make Quinoa Skillet
- Chop vegetables and herbs, cut chicken.
- Preheat large deep skillet on medium-high heat. Add olive oil, onion, garlic and cook for 4 minutes, stirring frequently. Add bell peppers and sauté for 3 more minutes, stirring frequently. Add chicken and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Sprinkle with salt and pepper, add quinoa, water, bay leaves and stir. Bring to a boil, cover with a lid, reduce heat to lower medium and cook for 12 minutes.
3. Now it’s time to add vegetables. At this point quinoa should be cooked al dente. Add zucchini and broccoli. Stir, cover with a lid and cook on low-medium for 15 more minutes. Add grape tomatoes and parsley, stir and remove from heat. Serve hot.
Like I said, play around with veggies and use what your family likes. Fresh herb ideas are dill, parsley, basil or green onion. Anything you got in your garden, if you have one. Enjoy and you may also love these 65 healthy chicken recipes for more dinner ideas!
More One-Pot Chicken Dishes
- Healthy chicken and rice casserole
- Instant Pot chicken and rice
- Instant Pot chicken and potatoes
- Teriyaki chicken and cauliflower
- Chicken stew
- Healthy white chicken chili
Or browse through my entire collection of one-pot dishes for more inspiration!
Quinoa Skillet with Chicken and Garden Veggies
Ingredients
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tbsp avocado oil or coconut oil
- 2 large bell peppers finely chopped
- 2 lbs boneless & skinless chicken breasts cut into 1″ cubes
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- Ground black pepper to taste
- 1 cup quinoa uncooked
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 medium zucchini quartered
- 1 bunch broccoli coarsely chopped
- 10 oz grape tomatoes halved
- 1 bunch parsley dill or basil, finely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat large deep skillet on medium-high heat. Add olive oil, onion, garlic and cook for 4 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add bell peppers and saute for 3 more minutes, stirring frequently. Add chicken and saute for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Sprinkle with salt and pepper, add quinoa, water, bay leaves and stir. Bring to a boil, cover with a lid, reduce heat to lower medium and cook for 12 minutes.
- Now it’s time to add vegetables. At this point quinoa should be cooked al dente. Add zucchini and broccoli. Stir, cover with a lid and cook on low-medium for 15 more minutes. Add grape tomatoes and parsley, stir and remove from heat. Serve hot.
Store: Refrigerate covered for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
Recipes and images are a copyright of ifoodreal.com. It is against the law to republish recipes without permission. Nutritional info is approximate.
Would this still be flavorful without the bell peppers? I am allergic…
I’m trying to think of alternatives. Do you think green chile would be weird?
Yes, no peppers is fine. Just add a bit more onion and garlic to make up for lost flavour. Mushrooms would be good too.
This makes a ton of food! I’ve been adding different things with all the leftoves. One day, I added coconut aminos and it was like “fried rice”. Another day I added in parmesean cheese and another day squeezed fresh lemon juice.
Will this work without quinoa, say I just wanted a chicken and vegetable recipe?
Yes, just skip quinoa and water.
OK. Tried hard to stay on recipe, but strayed for the flavor. Subbed lite chicken stock for the water & added fresh grated parmesan cheese at plating. A little less healthy but much more flavor…
Same! I subbed chicken stock for water and added crushed red pepper flakes for spice.
Hi, I would like to try this recipe for dinner tonight and was just wondering. Do I put uncooked quinoa in the skillet or do I boil and cook it before hand before adding?
Yes, uncooked. Quinoa cooks right in the skillet.:)
My husband and I absolutely loved this dish! Thank you so much for sharing!
You are very welcome!!!:)
Just cooked it for dinner, very delicious!!! I am from Ukraine as well 🙂 Thank you for the recipe, from now on one of my favourite 🙂
Oh, one more Ukrainian liking quinoa.:) This dish is very Ukrainian like. Glad you liked it and welcome.:)
I just love it when you can prove that healthy food doesn’t have to taste, hmmmm, all that healthy! Lovin’ all the ingredients in this one and big bonus is the leftovers!
I’ll trade ya, you do the cooking and I’ll do the gardening! I dred cooking each night, it really bogs me down. Have to get myself a pep talk every time to start dinner. Always tell myself…. hmm, can’t we just go to McDonalds every night?
But I must confess, I must have fresh herbs! Must! Dried ones just one do when fresh ones are an option!!
Oh, really?! That must be hard! I love cooking but I do get tired of it everyday. So, I understand it’s even harder for you. Currently I dream of an all-inclusive. Just not to think about anything for a week or two: what’s for dinner, what snacks are we packing, what’s for lunch.:) I love fresh herbs from my local store LOL. I stock up but I can’t stand watering the garden every night. I’d rather go work out LOL.
The looks delicious! It reminds me a lot of a summer meal my Ukrainian grandmother used to make. She used pasta instead of quinoa, but it was always onion, garlic, chicken, dill, and whatever veggies were around. It always ended up tasting so good! Ukrainians seem to know how to make some of the tastiest food 🙂
Thank you, Kristin. Ukrainian cooking involves a lot of fresh herbs and veggies. Very simple but fragrant, therefore delicious. Just like Latin or any Mediterranean cuisine, just different flavours. Anything fresh tastes good and doesn’t have to be complicated.:)
I’ve never tried adding the quinoa right into a pot of veggies like that. I’ll have to try it! I am like you with gardening- I want the fresh herbs and produce, but I can’t be bothered to water them on a regular schedule!
I was nervous about quinoa in skillets before but not after I experimented it in a slowcooker. It will be fine. Very tender and delicious. Yes, I cook it in my slowcooker a lot. Yeah, I have too many responsibilities besides plants. So much easier to pay a buck for some parsley or cilantro. I know. Unless gardening is a hobby and you love it.