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Now that springtime is here in full force, we use our grill a lot. And we often have leftover chicken. This is the absolute perfect salad to use your leftover chicken in!
I know that I have said this before but if I could eat quinoa every day of the week, I would (and I have). 🙂 This recipe highlights my love for quinoa and beans and my hubby’s love for barbecue chicken. This BBQ Chicken Quinoa Salad recipe highlights summer fresh ingredients and at the same time combines the ease of using leftover or crockpot chicken with cooked quinoa.
Did you know that quinoa is a seed? It is a seed but it cooks like most grains. And, I love quinoa because one serving of quinoa typically has one serving of protein! To see more Quinoa recipes I’ve posted, go HERE to my Pinterest Page devoted entirely to Quinoa!
For this recipe, you can use shredded rotisserie chicken, leftover shredded chicken, shredded chicken breasts that were boiled or baked or chicken in the crockpot. The chicken used in this picture was made in the crockpot. If you want to use your crockpot, place 4 frozen chicken breasts, 6 oz. of bottled BBQ sauce (our favorite bbq sauce is Sweet Baby Ray’s), 1/3 cup Italian salad dressing, 2 tbsp + 2 tsp of brown sugar, and 2 tbsp + 2 tsp of Worcestershire sauce. Mix all of the ingredients together (in the crockpot) and cook on High for 3-4 hours. (I followed the barbecue chicken recipe on AllRecipes.)
This recipe is gluten-free (Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce is gluten-free). If you use a different brand of sauce, make sure you double check that there is no gluten in it.
Barbecue Chicken Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
2 cups cooked quinoa
2 cups shredded BBQ chicken
1 cup corn (I like frozen)
1 cup black beans, drained and rinsed (when using canned beans, lower sodium helps decrease salt intake by about 2/3!! )
1 cup roma tomatoes (about 2 tomatoes), chopped
grated cheddar cheese
lime juice
1 avocado, sliced
BBQ sauce
2 Green onions, chopped
cilantro for garnish
Directions
1. Cook your quinoa (2 parts water to 1 part quinoa), then set aside in a LARGE bowl and let cool. I like to cook my quinoa in my rice cooker – just make sure to watch it towards the end so it doesn’t burn.
2. Place cooked quinoa in a large bowl, mix in thawed corn, beans, tomatoes, shredded chicken and avocado, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Place quinoa salad on a plate or in a bowl and top with green onions, cilantro, BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray’s) lime juice and freshly grated cheddar cheese.
4. Enjoy a bite with an explosion of flavors!
Go HERE to see additional Recipes posted on Addicted to Saving
Thanks for coming to Addicted to Saving! Here’s a little bit about me so you can know who’s behind all these posts!
My name is Liza and I began my money-saving journey in the Spring of 2009 as a way to stretch a limited household income. I had lost my job and my hubby was self-employed. I launched Addicted to Saving in November of 2009 and it has grown by leaps and bounds. Since then, my hubby and I have struggled with the ups and downs of two failed adoptions and are now LOVING being parents to our little man Asher who we brought home from Ethiopia in August of 2013. I feel incredibly blessed to be able to help you save money. My goal is that you will have FUN and become empowered to save more and more money each week..
I love all the parts of this salad! BBQ chicken is a definite fave and I’m with you that I could eat quinoa daily! This is a great healthy dinner salad, especially welcome around the holidays! Yum!
YUM! I’m a vegetarian but my boyfriend is not. I think this would be a great recipe for us as I could omit the chicken and he could just add his chicken to the top. Delicious! 🙂
Oh yum! This sounds like a welcome break to all the treats I’ve been eating this season.
Sounds like a winning combination – chicken and quinoa…and avocado! Yumm!
This sounds delicious!! I’ve just started cooking with quinoa.
I hope you have had a wonderful holiday season! Thanks for partying with us at Merry Monday. Our first party of 2016 begins tonight, can’t wait to see what’s new!