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.
Made this last night for dinner and it was so good!! The only thing I did differently was use chicken broth instead of water…it was so yummy and so filling! Will definitely be putting this dinner in our meal rotation, thank you so much for such an easy and delicious recipe!!
So great to hear this Amanda!
Really easy and yummy, but please add rinsing your quinoa! I lived in Ecuador for a year and everyone always rinsed their quinoa and I used to do it as habit. But all the American recipes skip this step, I forgot too, and the result is massive stomach aches for days. You’ve got to rinse! Thank you for all your work!
Hi Andrea! Thanks for sharing that tip!
I love this recipe. It’s quick, easy, delicious, and can be pretty nutritious! I mix up what vegetables I put in each time I make this, and I also will use chicken broth instead of water sometimes to give it a bit more flavor. OH and I use a quinoa and pearled couscous mix, makes it so good! I love it.
Thanks for sharing Shannon!
Unfortunately this one was a miss for us! It was only okay — was a little bland for our liking.
Super old recipe. Sorry about that. Might need re-testing lol.
I’m so tired of meal planning and didn’t have anything on the menu for today, I typed zucchini chicken and quinoa recipe into the search bar and came up with this, and I am so glad! I had a bunch of veg that was needing to be used up and this was a wonderful change to the soup that such a situation would usually result in, lol. I also love that it’s so flexible and is something I’ll be able to use as a base and add what I have on hand to, thank you!
That’s awesome Heather!
Hearty and healthy! I wasn’t sure if my family would like the quinoa but I went for it anyways and it was a hit. I loved how wonderful it made the house smell. It’s an easy and forgiving recipe (great for beginners like me) yet tasty and customizable. Would recommend!
Thank you for taking the time to write such a positive review Matthew! So happy it was a hit with your family.
This is such a yummy meal, and my 4 year old agrees! I tend to cut your recipes down a bit (especially the meat), because it’s just the two of us. But I love your recipes so much, and this is no exception. Thanks for helping me feed my little fam such healthy and delicious meals!
I am so happy to hear this Christine!
Love it :). Such a sneaky way to get a lot of vegetables in. I like this with some sriracha. Thank you!
You are very welcome Danielle!
Great recipe. Added some additional veggies we had on hand, and then topped with fresh lemon juice and a little parmesan cheese. Delicious!
That is so amazing to hear! Glad you enjoyed my recipe!
Really liked this recipe, instead of water I used chicken broth and I wanted like a little hot sauce but didnt have any so used a little sweet and sour sauce,,,very good recipe.
You are so welcome! Those are great subs. All these kind of recipes are really forgiving re:flavours. You make them your own.