If you want to get more veggies, protein and whole grains into your diet without compromising flavor, this recipe is for you. This BBQ chicken and quinoa skillet is a delicious and hearty lunch or dinner. Packed with smoky BBQ flavor, this skillet has tons of veggies, lean ground chicken, and nutritious quinoa. Topped with melty cheddar cheese, this is an all-in-one dish you can enjoy eating.
All-in-one skillet meals
Skillet meals are such an easy solution to meal time! Whether it’s a quick and easy dinner or lunch, or meal prep for the week, skillet meals are easy to prepare, and all made in one pot. Clean up is a breeze, and the cooking method is essentially fool-proof.
My basic formula for a skillet meal is: flavorful sauteed vegetables, a ground meat (like lean chicken or turkey), a grain (like brown rice or farro) and other topping components, like cheese.
If you like the idea of a skillet meal, you might enjoy these other recipes:
Southwestern Chicken and Rice Skillet
Lighter Buffalo Chicken and Rice Skillet
Italian Chicken, Farro and Vegetable Skillet
Greek Chicken and Rice Skillet
Teriyaki Turkey and Vegetable Skillet
All about this BBQ chicken and quinoa skillet
This skillet meal has tons smoky BBQ flavor; it starts with the bold spice blend that is used to flavor both the vegetables and ground chicken. The spice blend contains paprika, garlic and onion powder, kosher salt, brown sugar, ground mustard, and cayenne. Ground chicken can be pretty boring and dry on its own, so this recipe gets lots of help: from the cooked vegetables, BBQ sauce and chicken broth which help keep this dish moist and flavorful.
The vegetables used in this dish (red bell pepper, red onion, and zucchini) may not be traditional as far as BBQ goes, but they add lots of great flavor and hold up well against the other ingredients. The addition of corn adds a great textural element and subtle sweetness to this otherwise savory dish. Finally, topped with melted cheddar cheese, this skillet meal is an all-in-one meal that is perfect for meal prep and reheats beautifully throughout the week.
What you’ll need to make this BBQ chicken and quinoa skillet
- red bell pepper
- red onion
- yellow squash
- olive oil spray
- ground chicken
- I use 99% fat free ground chicken breast.
- If you can’t find this in the stores, you can actually make your own by grinding up chicken breast in a food processor.
- paprika
- onion powder
- garlic powder
- kosher salt
- brown sugar
- cayenne pepper
- ground mustard powder
- scallions
- corn
- You can either use frozen or fresh corn.
- low sugar BBQ sauce
- I love this one, since it is naturally low in sugar without the use of sugar replacements.
- reduced fat cheddar cheese
- I use this brand and grate it myself.
How to make BBQ Chicken and Quinoa Skillet
Start by preparing the spice blend, chopping the vegetables, and cooking the quinoa. You can cook the quinoa according to package directions in water. Typically the ratio used for quinoa is 1:2 (meaning for this recipe, 1/2 cup of quinoa to 1 cup of water).
Add the chopped vegetables to the skillet with olive oil spray, and 1 tbsp of the prepared spice blend. Cook the vegetables for 10 minutes, tossing frequently to get them evenly browned. Remove the vegetables from the pan and set aside. In the same pan, add more olive oil spray and the ground chicken, with the remaining spice blend. Break the chicken apart, and cook until the chicken is no longer pink.
Add the cooked vegetables and cooked quinoa to the skillet with the cooked chicken. Add in the chopped scallions, BBQ sauce and chicken broth, and simmer for about 5 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed. Top with the shredded cheddar cheese, and cover to melt.
How-To Video
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BBQ Chicken and Quinoa Skillet
Equipment
- shallow Dutch oven or large frying pan
Ingredients
- 1 cup red bell pepper, diced, 1 pepper
- 1 cup red onion, diced, 1 onion
- 2 cups yellow squash, diced, 2 small squash
- olive oil spray
- 1 lb lean ground chicken, 99% fat free, ground chicken breast
- 1 cup corn, frozen or fresh
- 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
- 2 scallions, chopped
- 1/2 cup low sugar BBQ sauce, I used Stubbs Original
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 2 oz reduced fat cheddar cheese, I use Cabot 75%
Spice Blend
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp ground mustard powder
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Cook the quinoa in water according to package directions. (Total yield will be approximately 2 cups cooked quinoa, if you want to use pre-cooked quinoa).
- Combine the spice rub ingredients in a small bowl.
- Dice the bell pepper and red onion; slice the zucchini vertically and then chop it into pieces (half-moon shaped).
- Preheat the pan over medium high heat and add olive oil spray.
- Add the chopped pepper, onion and zucchini to the pan with 1 tbsp of the spice blend.
- Toss to coat, and cook the vegetables for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
- After 10 minutes, remove the vegetables from the pan and set aside.
- To the same skillet, add more olive oil spray and the ground chicken.
- Add the remaining spice blend, and break the chicken up into pieces.
- Cook the chicken until no longer pink.
- Add the cooked vegetables and quinoa back into the skillet, along with the corn and chopped scallions.
- Add the BBQ sauce and chicken broth to the pan and stir to combine.
- Simmer the ingredients with the BBQ sauce and broth for about 5 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed.
- Top with cheddar cheese. Cover to melt.
Notes
Nutrition
I love this recipe. What is the serving size?
The nutrition at the very bottom says 2 cups 🙂
Can this be frozen?
Made this one for dinner tonight. Usually my husband loves Steph’s recipes and is very happy with dinner. Tonight he asked the name of this one so he could ask for it again! We loved it. Great flavor!! Thank Steph! Another winner!
So easy and so many veggies! This was delicious and had great flavor.
Did not add the cheese and swapped out some veggies from what was on hand. So good!!!
Made this yesterday for lunches this week. It was so easy to make and the flavor is outstanding! I substituted ground turkey for the chicken as it scans lower points for me. I had all of the spices on hand. Will be making this again for sure! Thanks, Steph!
Delicious and easy meal-prep friendly dish. Love the texture of the quinoa, with the ground chicken, and cooked vegetables. Not overpowering with BBQ flavor, which I love. Thanks for creating, and sharing, Steph!
This was delicious. Made it for lunch prep. Love Steph’s one skillet meals and this one is on point. Highly recommend.
Used this for my meal prep this week! So yummy and it smelled so good while it was cooking. The only thing was that it took a long time to prep everything. But once we get started, it was smooth sailing from there on out. Hoping my one year old enjoys it as much as I do this week! Thank you for a creative meal idea. It’s so nice to do something healthy other than just meat and veggies.
Incredible flavor! Made it for dinner last night and was dreaming about it all night so I had to have the leftovers for breakfast!!
I have loved every recipe I’ve made but WOW I think this is my new favorite. It is absolutely delicious and the 2 cup serving size more than filled me up.
Perfect for meal prep! I made this exactly as said, except I swapped the quinoa for brown rice and jt was great! Heats up nicely. I served with steamed vegetables and it made 5 good sized lunches!
So delicious! Another winner!
Such a delicious and easy meal! I love Stephanie’s skillet meals because they come together so effortlessly. The flavors are amazing in this dish. Little spice from the cayenne and the yummy BBQ flavor from the sauce. Will be making again for sure!
This was so easy and so tasty. I will double next time to have leftovers!
Made these for meal prep this week and it is dynamite!!! Very into All of Steph’s
skillet meals lately, So easy, full of veggies and lean protein, filling and great for lunch/dinner to grab. Soooooo good.
Delicious! I added a can of black beans. So much flavor and easy to make!
Is yellow zucchini the same as yellow squash? Or should I use both squashing zucchini. The ingredients list refers to squash, not zucchini, and the instructions refer to zucchini, not squash.
Sorry for the confusion!! Yes it’s the same thing
This is really good! I am already looking forward to leftovers! Another home run by Steph!
This was SO flavorful and filling!! Will definitely be adding it to our rotation.
This was SO good! My daughter and husband also loved it. Loved that I had leftovers for a couple lunches too. This will definitely be in my dinner rotation.
This was delicious! Another hit from Steph. She is my go to for planning my meals and my husband loves every one! Thanks again Steph
My gosh!! This is an absolutely amazing recipe. The flavor is out of this world.
Another super simple and delicious recipe! I stumbled on this one, looking for a skillet meal for lunch prep. This is beyond easy to make and so, so delicious and filling! Steph – you’re a magician in the kitchen! Thank you for all the amazing recipes you create!
It’s such an easy, yet very tasty healthy recipe. It’s a keeper at our house for sure.
Definitely on my repeat list! Hubby loved it too!
I made this for lunch this, but I used Farro instead of quinoa because I just don’t like quinoa. It was amazing! So flavorful and rehearsal really well!