Easy Creamy Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Bake
And it’s buffalo time.

Again.
What’s new?
Well, it’s quinoa AND it’s buffalo. Actually, it’s Tieghan being so predictable.

But whatever, I just don’t care anymore. It’s football season, the weather’s turning colder and I honestly could not go on one more day without sharing this one with you guys.
It’s been burning up space on my computer for way too many weeks.
Ah wait, let’s talk about my computer here for just one second.

See, I take a lot of photos. I mean A LOT. Like way more than you guys will ever see. Sometimes, no pretty much all the time, over two-hundred photos per recipe. Yeah, two-hundred.
Trust me, I have tried to take less photos and for me it just does not work. I end up with photos that are just ok, but I always wish I would have taken more. Like with these photos. I didn’t take enough, hated them all and regretted taking less than usual. Lesson learned.
Anyway, my computer?

Oh my gosh, it is so FULL.
I have zero space and my computer is running like molasses. No wait, it is more like molasses when the bottle is basically empty and you are trying to get the very last half teaspoon out.
Oh what? No else does that?
Come one. Didn’t your mothers ever teach you to use every last drop? Well, mine did and it will for every be ingrained into my brain.
So yeah, I wait the ten minutes for the very last drop. Sometimes it is torture.

The point is, I need to start getting rid of photos or just learn how to organize them better. Oh and be a smarter person and use a hard drive. Yeah, that is probably what I should do.
Enough about my computer issues, back to the food.
The creamy, cheesy, buffalo chicken quinoa.
Basically, it is like a healthier version of buffalo chicken mac and cheese. I think it is safe to call it a healthy meal. I mean, there is quinoa, baby kale (completely your choice) and broccoli (again, your choice). It’s kind of the perfect meal for everyone, even vegetarians. Just leave the chicken out and you are good to go (promise it is still going to be just as awesome minus the chicken).
Oh and it’s kind of crazy easy. Cook the quinoa, make the sauce, put um together and throw it in the oven to get all nice and bubbly. Oh it’s so good.


Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Easy Creamy Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Bake
By halfbakedharvest
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: buffalo, chicken, Quinoa Bake
Basically, it is like a healthier version of buffalo chicken mac and cheese.
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- 1 1/2 cups baby kale
- 1 small head broccoli chopped
- 2 small cooked chicken breast chopped or shredded (the chicken can be left out for a vegetarian version)
- 1 tablespoon flour may use whole wheat
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup milk I used 2%
- 1/2 cup shredded gouda cheese
- 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese divided in half (slices work too)
- 1/4 cup butter melted
- 1/2 cup hot sauce I used Franks
- 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
- fresh cilantro chopped, for garnish
- green onions chopped, for garnish
Instructions
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Place quinoa in a fine-mesh strainer and rinse thoroughly under running water.
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Transfer quinoa to a medium saucepan. Add water or broth, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and add the chopped kale and broccoli right on top of the water, do not stir. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until water is absorbed. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff quinoa with a fork and stir the veggies into the quinoa. Add the chicken, toss and set aside.
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
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Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the 1 tablespoon of butter, once it’s melted and bubbly add the flour. Whisk together to create a roux and cook for 1-2 minutes until mixture gets a bit golden in color. Add milk, stir and turn down heat to low. Continue stirring until milk thickens. Add in gouda and half of the cheddar cheese and continue to stir until mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in the 1/4 melted butter, hot sauce, seasoned salt and pepper.
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Pour the sauce over the quinoa mixture and mix well to combine. Once combined, spray an 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish with non-stick spray and pour the entire quinoa mixture into the dish. Top with remaining fresh cheddar cheese, sliced (for an extra gooey top) or shredded.
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Bake for 10 to 15 minutes and then turn the broiler on and broil for 1 to 2 minutes or until cheese is golden and bubbly.
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Remove from the oven and top with blue cheese, fresh cilantro and green onions. Allow to sit five minutes and then serve.

Um, I think you need this tonight. Yeah, you do!
Oh my. Girl, where do you come up with these ideas!! LOVE buffalo chicken made healthy by quinoa!
Thanks so much, Jamie!
This is to DIE for! I wish I could get inside your brain…you come up with the greatest combos!! And also, you’re crazy, because these pictures are GORGEOUS! As are every other one you take, try not to be so hard on yourself! They’re mouthwatering!
Definitely adding this to the must-make list!
Trust me, my brain is not so much fun! It’s a ball of worry and stress! LOL!
Thanks so much, Alaina!!
I love your photos – more, not less!! This quinoa dish loos perfect in every way, thanks for yet more inspiration!
Thank Dan!
1.) this is amazeballs and I need to have this IMMEDIATELY
2.) your pics are gorg you crazy woman! ease up on that camera more often 🙂
Thanks So much, Christine!
Wow, this looks amazing! What a gorgeous dish. I can never get over your cheese-stretching photos. So awesome.
🙂
Thanks so much, Abbie!
Totally know what you mean about taking a zillion pictures. Lately, for some reason, I’ve been able to pull it off by taking maybe ~50 or so. Definitely depends on the recipe and light! I just hate it when you wish you had taken more, haha.
On that note, these photos are GREAT! You are too hard on yourself. And this quinoa bake looks delicious as well! Love the creamy quinoa shot.
Thanks Laura!!
Oh and 50 photos? I envy you! I would have like 2 extra hours in my day!
Oh my, this looks wonderful! I love all things buffalo chicken. Mmmmm!
Thanks Haley!
Good grief, I don’t even know what to say that looks so crazy good!
Thanks Leah!
I would NEVER have thought to make quinoa like this!!! Cheesy goodness!
Thanks Steph! You have to try it!
Oh honey, you’re never predictable! Your love for buffalo chicken always manifests itself in the most unique ways…quinoa, spinach, buffalo chicken? Heck yes, I want that all up in my casserole dish! Love as usual, lady…love as usual.
Hehe! 🙂 You are the best!!
Thanks Julia!
I know I say this every time, but your food pictures just make my stomach smile in ways I didn’t know were possible. I shall pin this and it will be my dinner every day for the rest of my life… Until the next delicious thing you post. 🙂
Haha! Yes!! Thanks Krystina! I hope you love this!
Mmmmmm….I’m so craving this right now!
Thanks Lauren! With all the rain, cool and dark days I have only been cooking comfort food!
This sounds like the perfect meal!! So delicious. You have the best recipes – I’m thinking about making your buffalo chicken chowder for dinner tonight! Oh and these pix are amazing – you took the perfect amount 🙂
Thanks so much, Cate!! I hope you love that corn chowder!! It was a huge hit over here!
Looks amazing, Tieghan! I love bakes and casseroles, especially healthier ones wit hquinoa. Love your dishware and bakeware too.:)
Thank you!!
And as for the photos, I always get rid off the ones I didn’t use because otherwise I would end up like you. And it’s a good idea to back up your photos on an external hard drive. A couple months ago my laptop hard drive died with all photos. Luckily Alex extracted them for me just before it died completely. So, lesson learnt…
Oh my gosh, I am so afraid of that happing. I need to that!
What an awesome dish!!! Want this!!!
Thanks so much, Robyn!
Hello, cheesy. I love that you used quinoa as a bake/casserole. This sounds amazing.
Thanks Shaina!! I love baking quinoa! It is a fun and healthy swap for pasta!
Any type of cheesy bake is an A+ for me.
Me too! Thanks Meagan
I really need this cheesy goodness, stat!
Thanks Chung-Ah!
This is the kind of meal my hubby and I would BOTH love! You knocked it out of the park with this one, Tieghan! Sooo scrumptious looking, and great photos.
Thank you so much, Georgia! It is the perfect meal for both guys and us girls!
I am craving comfort food and this bake looks like just what I need!
Thanks so much, Laura! The weather here has been so cold and rainy, I have been making is comfort food!
How else could this be described but scrumptious!!
Ha! Thanks so much, Julie!
I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one clogging up their computer with all the mediocre photos! I’ve got a backup hard drive that I move all the older stuff to, but my main drive is on red. Like, always. Why am I keeping crappy pics that weren’t even good enough for my blog??? I do not know… But this quinoa bake sounds fabulous. I made your caprese version & LOVED! This one will be on my table soon, I’m sure.
Thanks so much, Ali! Hope you love this!
JUST SHUT UP. I want all of this. NOW. I’m SO into quinoa!!
Thanks Claire! I am on a huge quinoa kick too!
I could go for a big bowl of this right now!
Thanks Gaby!! Wish I could send you a bowl!
I’m making this for sure this weekend! Can’t wait to have a big helping of this!
Thanks Liz! I hope you love this so much!
Lady, you are KILLING me with these quinoa bakes. Another winner!
Thanks Des!!
This looks seriously crazy-good! I love the healthier elements of veggies and quinoa, all wrapped up in the gooey, cheesy goodness of buffalo-flavored nirvana! Oh – and I love these pics – they grabbed my attention right away! I know my bloggy partner has an epic collection of all our THK pics on her hard drive, but she gets pretty ruthless about ditching the crummy ones to save space!
Thanks Shelly!!
does it really have 4 chicken breasts or is that a duplicate ingrediant?
So sorry, that was a typo. I fixed the recipe! Thanks!
I love this Tieghan – tucking in some broccoli and kale and quinoa into a favorite football food – very clever!
Thanks Jeanette!
So apparently Facebook doesn’t always notify you when someone tags your FB page, so I thought I would let you know that I shared this with my FB fans 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151822823393070&set=a.174654903069.124188.163690253069&type=1
Thank you so much for sharing, Amanda!
This creamy goodness is calling my name! YUM!
Thanks Pamela!
This looks AMAZING! Can’t wait to try it! Beautiful photography 🙂
Thank you so much, Kim! Hope you love this!
Looks so wonderful. I’ve pinned the recipe!
Thank you so much and for pinning too, Teresa!
I made this tonight for dinner for my boyfriend and I. Disclosure: The boyfriend doesn’t do “healthy” meals, and he thinks Quinoa is some karate move. Verdict: He had three helpings. Huge hit! This was delicious and creative! Tieghan, I love your blog and recipes. This was my first time visiting your site, and I’ll definitely be making more of your culinary concoctions!
Oh yes! This is awesome! SO happy you guys both loved it!!
Thank you!
Seriously? This looks amazing.
And unique.
You are a food genius.
Had pinned a buffalo chicken quinoa recipe forever ago and last night when i went to retrieve it the link had gone missing. I came across your recipe instead and never has such a happy accident happened at dinner! This is a great idea, and looks exactly how something creamy, cheesy, hot, and bubbly should look coming out of the oven. This was MY special Halloween treat last night, thanks for putting your great ideas and recipes out there!
YA! So happy you loved this! It is one of my families favorites!
I totally hear you about being a photo pack rat. Only thing is, I take all those photos and still don’t come out with photos anywhere near as good as these ones! One bit of advice… how do you get photos of the finished product without it getting COLD?! And without you and your hungry dining partners getting impatient?! That is always where I struggle!
Also, making this tonight 😉
Hey Johanna! I always shoot during the day for the light. This means dinner is pretty mush always reheated, so I do not have to worry about hungry people waiting to eat! Let me know if you have any more questions!
Thanks for making this, I hope you love it!
Just made this! I left out the gouda cheese and blue cheese on top, but put more cheddar. Next time i might mix a tablespoon of ranch or blue cheese dressing into the mix. Was very spicy. I might use less milk to have more of a thicker texture. Great recipe!
YAY!! Thanks so Marry!
Can you substitute trader joes frozen quinoa?
Up! I think that would work great! Hope you love this!
I made this tonight for dinner and my boyfriend loved it! (This is a RARE event, at best I get “not bad” – I’m a good cook, he’s just picky)
I doubled the amount of cheddar (in hindsight probably not necessary), but I also substituted the butter for coconut oil to try to make it a little more healthy – you would never know the difference!
I put all the information into a recipe calculator on My Fitness Pal and got the below information for anyone interested (based on 6 servings):
Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sodium Sugar
Total: 2,985 175 157 237 7,474 22
Per Serving: 498 29 26 40 1246 4
Overall not too bad for a filling comfort food type of meal!
Thanks so much, Lauren!
So happy you both loved this!
I made this delicious dish and absolutely LOVED it! It was like a delicious broccoli, chicken & cheese casserole, amped up with yummy buffalo goodness. I’m making it again soon. Nom!
YAy! Thank you!
hi there! I have loved your recipes from afar for a while – and after pinning this months ago, I finally just made this recipe this morning for tonight’s dinner. It’s SO good, thank you so much for posting it. I absolutely love gouda, but I didn’t buy any for the recipe since I had a half block of monterey jack I’ve been needing to use up. So I used some sharp cheddar and bleu cheese mixed in to the quinoa, and the monterey jack on top because I shredded it myself and knew it would melt best.
I also had some onion and celery to use up, and so I sauteed them in the butter before making the roux. I think it added a LOT of flavor, so I def recommend doing that. I didn’t use chicken because I’m horrible and let mine go bad before being able to cook it! But luckily there was so much other good stuff I don’t think I’ll miss it at all!
Thank you!! So thrilled you loved this! And I make more often than not without the chicken.
I made this last night with a few minor modifications (like adding some diced celery and carrots (sauté in pan before adding quinoa/water) and eliminating the Gouda, blue cheese crumbles, cilantro and green onion (didn’t have them on hand) and instead added ~1/2 cup blue cheese dressing into the cheese sauce mixture)… and it was delicious!! Definitey a keeper recipe – thank you!
So happy you loved this! Thanks so much, Amy!
HBH never disappoints! Made this for dinner tonight & it was awesome! I made some slight changes; I used cauliflower instead of broccoli, & added shredded carrots & zucchini while omitting the kale. I planned to make a double batch (to give one pan to a friend) but realized I didn’t have enough quinoa, so I used 50/50 quinoa & rice. My whole family loved it & I have plenty of leftovers too. It really tastes like delicious junk food, but it’s filled with whole grains, veggies, protein, so no guilt here. A++
YEAH! This makes me so happy! THANK YOU!
I LOVE how you put the “you may also love” section at the bottom of your recipes! It has inspired to make some dishes I normally would not think to try, like this quinoa bake! Delicious!
I am glad you like that!! Thank you Nicole!
Have made this recipe twice now (despite it being posted in 2013) and it is so good and easy. Highly recommend!
Never too late haha! Thank you for trying this one! xTieghan