This broccoli quinoa casserole is so easy to prepare ahead for easy weeknight dinners! Packed with chicken, broccoli, and quinoa, it’s a filling meal that the whole family will love!
I love casseroles, but sometimes they can be too time consuming to prepare for a weeknight dinner. Enter meal prep: By preparing some of the ingredients for this broccoli quinoa casserole ahead, you can throw it together and get it in the oven in under 10 minutes!
To my complete surprise, my broccoli-hating one year old LOVED this broccoli chicken quinoa casserole! It’s pretty hard to beat the combination of cheese, herbs, chicken & quinoa, even with a lil broccoli in there too 😉
This chicken broccoli quinoa casserole is part of a post I shared on how to cook a whole chicken in the Instant Pot, and some meals you can use the cooked chicken in through the week. Check out the full meal plan here!
Don’t forget to pin this post to save it for later!
Reasons to love this broccoli quinoa casserole:
- you can meal prep the ingredients ahead, then assemble in under 10 minutes
- it’s gluten-free and full of clean, wholesome ingredients
- you can mix and match with ingredients you have on hand
How to make it
This casserole recipe is super simple, but if you take the time to cook your chicken, broccoli and quinoa ahead of time, it is ridiculously simple to throw together for dinner.
- Mix together cooked quinoa with steamed broccoli, shredded chicken, shredded cheese, basil, oregano, salt & pepper, chicken stock and an egg.
- Press into a deep 9 x 9 inch baking dish and sprinkle with some extra cheese.
- Bake covered for 20 minutes, uncovered for 5-10.
- Enjoy!
Can I freeze broccoli quinoa casserole? I suspect yes, but I haven’t tried. I would freeze pre-baking (assembled but unbaked). Thaw completely, then bake up as directed. Quinoa freeze/thaws surprisingly well!
I don’t care for quinoa, can I swap it for rice? I think this should work, but again, I have not tried.
How do you reheat it? You can do this in one of two ways:
- reheat at 350°F in the oven. Cover the casserole to reheat. I love these reusable silicone baking dish covers
to reduce my foil waste! - heat individual portions in the microwave until steaming hot
to reduce my foil waste!
Serve it with
I consider this to be a complete meal in itself, but you could serve with a side salad for some extra veggies. Here are some of my favorite side salads:
- 10 Minute Crunchy Rainbow Thai Salad
- Our Staple Kale Salad
- Asian Slaw with Sesame Vinaigrette
- Anything drizzled with this Green Goddess Dressing
Tips & equipment
- I used this deep 9 x 9 inch baking dish
- I love my reusable silicone baking dish cover
- Looking for more healthy casserole recipes? Check out this Mexican Spaghetti Squash Casserole, this Chicken & Cauliflower Casserole and this Healthier Taco Casserole
Broccoli Quinoa Casserole
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked quinoa
- 2 cups cooked chicken
- 3 cups steamed broccoli
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 2 cups cheese (shredded; divided in half)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350°F. Spray a deep 9 x 9 inch baking dish with oil and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together the quinoa, chicken, broccoli, egg, chicken stock, half the cheese, and all spices.
- Press into the prepared baking dish, and sprinkle with remaining cheese.
- Cover and bake for 40 minutes.
- Remove cover and bake uncovered for 5-10 more minutes.
- Enjoy!
HN
I made this as a freezer meal for my sister who just had a baby and it was delicious! Really flavorful. I’m going to make it again as a vegetarian meal with broccoli and cauliflower and I’m sure it will be great again.
Denise Bustard
Hi HN! What a good sister you are! I’m so happy to hear you guys enjoyed the recipe. Thank you so much for coming back to leave a review, I really appreciate it!
Annie
Another delicious recipe—thank you!
I pretty much followed the recipe as written…I used tri-color quinoa (2/3 cup uncooked), 4-ish cups steamed fresh broccoli, mozzarella cheese, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper (also sprinkled some Parmesan on top). I did use 8.25oz chicken broth (plus the egg) and it was super moist/not soupy at all!
Next time, I may get wild and crazy by trying a Ranch Seasoning blend with white cheddar. 🙃
Denise
Hi Annie! So happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe. Glad it was a good texture for you. Ranch seasoning sounds pretty amazing to me!
David
Can I prepare this in my toaster oven? It does have convection baking feature.
Denise
Hi David, unfortunately I really can’t say. If you try it, I’d love to hear how it turns out for you!
Amber
I just made this for my vegetarian daughter. I left out the chicken, and replaced the chicken stock with water. It came out to watery. What is the purpose of the liquid? Can it just be left out?
Denise
Hi Amber, that’s very strange! It should not be watery at all. The liquid helps the quinoa stick together while it bakes. Without it, the casserole was very dry for us.