Cheesy, spicy, creamy, hearty, warm, comforting, and only around 300 calories for this Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Bake? Pinch me. To view your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!
Being a home-grown Buffalo girl, anything with Buffalo chicken flavor is an automatic win in my book. Lately I’ve been daydreaming of a Buffalo Chicken casserole and after considering a pasta bake, I decided to make it a little healthier and use quinoa. For those of you who are only familiar with quinoa from the recent Bud Light commercial (pro-tip: it’s actually pronounced like keen-wah), quinoa is a grain that is high in protein and fiber and is naturally gluten-free. Once cooked it takes on sort of a bubbly appearance which I personally think makes it fun to eat. Quinoa is cooked in a similar manner to rice and can be used in many of the same types of dishes where you might usually use pasta or rice.
This dish was exactly what I had been craving. I used a half cup of wing sauce so mine was plenty spicy, the celery and carrots added little bits of crunch and the protein packed chicken and quinoa made for a very satisfying serving. Plus, it was creamy, cheesy and warm and made perfect comfort food on a cold day. I know y’all are going to ask if you can use ranch dressing instead of blue cheese dressing. For those of you who have been with me for a while, you know the Buffalo girl in me screams “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” but the food blogger in me says “alright, if you must.” 😉 Don’t forget to check out my Easy Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken post- the perfect way to make shredded chicken for this recipe!
This Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Bake is cheesy, spicy, creamy, hearty, warm, comforting for around 300 calories per serving!
Yield: 6servings
Ingredients
¾cupplain fat free yogurt
½cuplight blue cheese dressing, such as Marie’s Chunky Lite or Marzetti Chunky Lite
1oz1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
1/3 - ½cupBuffalo Wing sauce, the actual wing sauce, not straight hot sauce – ½ cup is spicy
10ozcooked shredded chicken breast, (this is about how much I got from cooking 1 lb raw)
½cupdiced carrots
½cupdiced celery
3cupscooked quinoa, about ¾ cup uncooked quinoa makes about 3 cups cooked
4oz50% reduced fat sharp cheddar, shredded (I used Cabot brand)
1ozcrumbled blue cheese
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 350.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, blue cheese dressing, cream cheese and wing sauce and stir to mix. Add the shredded chicken, carrots and celery and stir to combine. Add the quinoa and stir until well combined.
Transfer the quinoa mixture into a 2 quart casserole dish (I used a 7x11, but you can use an 8x8 or 9x9) and spread evenly. Sprinkle the cheddar across the top and follow with the crumbled blue cheese. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until heated through. Turn the oven to broil and move dish to a higher oven rack. Broil for 1-2 minutes until cheese is golden and bubbly.
Notes
To view your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!Nutrition Information:304 calories, 19 g carbs, 4 g sugars, 13 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 29 g protein, 2 g fiber (from myfitnesspal.com)MyWW SmartPoints per (1/6th of the recipe) serving:(SP calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)Green: 9 SmartPoints/ Blue: 8 SmartPoints/ Purple: 5 SmartPointsWeight Watchers Points Plus: 8 per serving(P+ calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)