I tagged this dish in the “healthy” category because it’s QUINOA (which can do no wrong) and has broccoli. So, healthy, yea? But then it’s also covered in a hefty cup of cheese. So. Logic. I’m only going to keep telling myself that this is a healthy dinner option and live the happy life.

When I first made this, I envisioned it being more of a quinoa “mac n cheese” of sorts. Then I realized that to accomplish this I would probably need to make a roux and not only throw a bunch of cheese on top of the quinoa. Maybe I’ll work on that recipe for later. For now, we have this which is kind of more like a casserole of cheesy yumminess.

One of my regular parts about this method is that it’s one of those “throw it all in the same pot” kind of recipes. My regular recipes of all time: speedy and straightforward. Also, see multiple notes above about cheese <3.

The chicken and onion are cooked in a bit of olive oil until the chicken is only cooked on the outside.

The quinoa is added in, stirred, and allowed to toast a bit before the liquid is added.

Next the broccoli. You can cut the broccoli up more if you like but I prefer big old chunks of broccoli that are ONLY the right size that you can still fit it in your mouth in one (slightly large) bite.

Once the chicken is fully cooked, the broccoli is tender, and the quinoa is nice and fluffy, our hefty portion of cheese is added on top and allowed to melt over the heat before being removed.

I typically like to use freshly shredded cheese for something like this because it simply seems to melt so much better than pre-shredded cheese, however, I had a big ole bag of this cheese in the fridge so I went with it.

I made this on a Sunday night and I’ll tell you from experience that it tastes even better the next day for lunch!

Happy Thursday!