If you’re looking for a healthy meal prep lunch or dinner that’s easy, delicious, nourishing, protein-packed and full of flavor… like always, I’ve got you.
I started making these BBQ chicken quinoa bowls as an easy dinner when Sidney was a newborn. They remind me of Panera’s BBQ chicken salad with southwest flavors, bbq sauce and a simple ranch dressing. Just throw the chicken in the slow cooker (or pop in on the grill), cook your quinoa in 15 minutes, chop your veggies while the quinoa cooks, and that’s it! Dinner is served.
Bonus: you can use any ranch dressing you’d like or try my go-to greek yogurt ranch that’s filled with flavor and SO easy to make!
Ingredients in BBQ chicken quinoa bowls
These easy & delicious BBQ chicken quinoa bowls are filled with a rainbow of veggies for tons of different flavors and textures. To make them you’ll need:
- Chicken breast: options to grill or cook your chicken in the slow cooker below for ease!
- BBQ sauce: I like to use a low sugar BBQ sauce and love Stubb’s Spicy or Primal Kitchen’s Mango Habanero. These are other great ones from Primal Kitchen!
- Quinoa: add a boost of protein from one of my favorite grains. You can also use regular, brown or cauliflower rice if you’d like.
- Black beans: the beans add plenty of fiber and protein to these bowls and give them that burrito bowl flavor.
- Veggies: these bowls are packed with a true rainbow of veggies. I like to add shredded red cabbage for crunch, sweet corn cut off the cob (or thaw some from frozen), red onion for some zing, juicy roma tomatoes and a kick of heat from jalapeño. Don’t forget to top your bowls with creamy avocado!
- Ranch: feel free to drizzle with your favorite ranch, or try my greek yogurt ranch or chipotle ranch!
- To garnish: for additional freshness, I like to add chopped cilantro & scallions on top.
Two ways to cook your BBQ chicken
See below for simple ways to cook your BBQ chicken, and be sure to check out all of our go-to ways to cook chicken here!
- Slow cooker chicken: Place chicken and BBQ sauce in a slow cooker and stir so the BBQ sauce coats the chicken. Cook on high for 2.5-3 hours. Then remove chicken from the slow cooker, shred with two forks and then place back in the slow cooker, stir and turn the heat to warm until you are ready to serve.
- Grill your chicken: marinate chicken in a bowl with BBQ sauce for 1 hour, then grill chicken over medium high heat for 6-9 minutes per side, or until the meat thermometer reads 165 degrees F. Remove from grill and allow chicken to sit for 5 minutes to retain juices, then cut into strips or dice into bite sized pieces.
How to cook the best fluffy quinoa
Remember to get all of our best tips & tricks for cooking quinoa here! For the basics:
- Use a 1:2 ratio for quinoa to liquid. In this recipe, you’ll cook 1 cup quinoa in 2 cups of water, which will make about 3 cups of cooked quinoa.
- Bring the water to a boil then stir in quinoa. Reduce heat to low, cover, and let simmer for exactly 15 minutes. Remove the saucepan from heat and let stand covered for another 5-10 minutes.
- Quinoa will pop upon cooking and expand. To help separate the grains, use a fork and fluff the quinoa.
Customize your BBQ chicken quinoa bowls
- Make it vegetarian by using tofu or chickpeas
- Grill some BBQ shrimp or salmon to swap the chicken
- Keep it dairy free by using a dairy free greek yogurt or ranch
- Top with this delicious avocado lime sauce, guacamole or fruity salsa
- Get wild with a chipotle ranch instead of regular ranch!
- Make it grain free with homemade cauliflower rice, or use your fav grain like rice, farro, or pearl couscous
Storing tips
I recommend storing the chicken, quinoa, veggies & ranch dressing separately in airtight containers in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble your bowl and enjoy it. That way everything stays nice and fresh!
More ways to use this BBQ chicken
- Add it to this Street Corn Pasta Salad with Cilantro Pesto + Goat Cheese
- Or this Fiesta Mango Black Bean Quinoa Salad
- Cheesy BBQ Chicken Stuffed Zucchini Boats
- Southwest Chicken Salad with Chipotle Greek Yogurt Dressing
- Better Than Chipotle DIY Chicken Burrito Bowls
If you make these healthy chicken quinoa bowls, be sure to tag #ambitiouskitchen on Instagram. We’d also love it if you would leave a comment below and rate the recipe. We appreciate you! xo.
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
BBQ Ranch Chicken Quinoa Bowls
Ingredients
- For the slow cooker:
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast
- 1 cup low sugar BBQ sauce (I love Stubb’s spicy or Primal Kitchen Mango Habanero)
- Optional: 1/4 cup water if you have a thicker bbq sauce
- For the quinoa:
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- 2 cups water
- For the bowls:
- 1 (15 ounce) can black beans
- 2 cups shredded red cabbage
- 1 cup sweet corn (can use fresh or frozen but I love it off the cob)
- ¼ cup finely diced red onion
- 2 roma tomatoes, diced
- 1 jalapeno, thinly sliced
- 1 avocado, diced or sliced
- For the dressing:
- 1 batch healthy greek yogurt ranch (or ranch of choice)
- To garnish:
- Fresh chopped cilantro
- Scallions
Instructions
- SLOW COOKER CHICKEN: Place chicken and BBQ sauce in a slow cooker and stir so the BBQ sauce coats the chicken. Cook on high for 2.5-3 hours. Then remove chicken from the slow cooker, shred with two forks and then place back in the slow cooker, stir and turn the heat to warm until you are ready to serve.
- TO GRILL CHICKEN: marinate chicken in a bowl with BBQ sauce for 1 hour, then grill chicken over medium high heat for 6-8 minutes per side, or until the meat thermometer reads 165 degrees F. Remove from grill and allow chicken to sit for 5 minutes to retain juices, then cut into strips or dice into bite sized pieces.
- Once chicken is done cooking or close to it, you can cook your quinoa: add water and quinoa to a medium pot and place over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Once quinoa is done cooking, remove from heat, fluff with a fork and place the lid back on to allow the quinoa to stay warm and steam in the pot for 10 more minutes while you chop your veggies and make the greek yogurt ranch dressing (or feel free to use store bought ranch).
- To prepare bowls: add about 3/4 cup quinoa to each bowl, top with about 1/4 of the shredded chicken, 1/3 cup black beans, 1/2 cup shredded cabbage, 1/4 cup corn, 1 tablespoon diced red onion, diced roma tomatoes, a few sliced jalapenos and avocado. Drizzle the bowls with 1-2 tablespoons ranch dressing. Garnish with fresh cilantro and scallions. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
This post was originally published on July 21, 2020, republished on March 8th, 2022, and republished on April 24th, 2023.
I am hoping to meal prep this for next week, this looks amazing!! I love all of AK recipes. Does the BBQ marinade cause the chicken to burn on the grill? Are there any tips to prevent burning or has this not been an issue. Can’t wait to try!
These are perfect for meal prep! I haven’t run into the issue of burnt chicken with this marinade.
Loved this! Of course, I thought I had more quinoa after already getting home from the store, so I subbed rice. It was still very delicious and filling.
Perfect! These are great for customizing 🙂
One of my favorite go-to recipes!
So happy to hear that!
Delicious!! I ended up being a bit short on time, so I marinated the chicken in BBQ sauce for 15 min then made in the air fryer and it turned out great. I also used primal kitchen BBQ ranch for the dressing, and added a few tortilla chips for extra crunch. Love the combination of all of these things – this felt special and indulgent to my family! This will be on repeat.
Great idea!! Glad the whole family enjoyed!
hi! how can this be altered to cook the chicken in a dutch oven? thanks!
Hi! I’d recommend marinating the chicken in the BBQ sauce, then baking it in your dutch oven with these instructions.
This was so delicious!
So glad you enjoyed!
OBSESSED and putting this on regular rotation. I love all the flavors and textures. I’m generally not a ranch person but I made the homemade ranch (with chive instead of dill) and YUM.
Perfect dinner! Great idea to add chives, too 🙂
Amazing flavor but effort-intensive. I made this true-to-form once, and made some variations of it a few other times. In all honesty it’s an amazing dish that you can feel good about, and the only reason it’s not 5 stars is that for me it just took so much work for what it is. Side note: Can we also talk about how hard it is to deal with red cabbage? I love it, but can never use a whole head of it, and can never find it pre-shredded in the stores near me. It wasn’t until I worked in a grocery store part time and witnessed someone ask the produce guys to cut one in half for them that I realized that was ever an option!
I’m glad you love the flavors regardless! I recommend prepping the veggies ahead of time if you’re looking to speed up the process. Great tip on the cabbage!
This recipe was SO GOOD!!! I made it for my family for dinner and everybody loved it!! So full of flavor! And that ranch is absolutely to DIE for!! Definitely recommend trying this recipe 💕
YUM! So excited to hear you found this recipe and it turned out great for you and your family! 🙂
We all really enjoyed this! Simple but delicious!
Note: I actually almost forgot to serve the chicken because it isn’t mentioned in the final step about preparing the bowls! haha
Oh thank you for noticing — sorry about that! We’ll update that right now 🙂 So happy you loved them!
I made this as a meal prep for a couple lunches. Had it for dinner first abd wow, it’s so good! I loved having it chilled, like a salad. I used a mandolin to slice the cabbage, onion and jalapeño super thin and it was perfect. I pressure cooked like 2-3lbs of chicken tenderloins in some olive oil and simple seasoning for 25 min and it shredded perfectly. Loved every ingredient – even corn cooked on the cob was worth the added effort. I served this also to some lds missionaries who needed dinner and they loved it.
Such a great one to meal prep! Thanks so much for sharing all this. I’m glad you loved it!
This is absolutely fabulous! Really enjoyed it.
So happy you loved these! Thanks for the review 🙂
This was so good! Can I freeze the bbq chicken?
Glad you loved it! And yes definitely 🙂
I made the quick version of this–pan fried BBQ chicken, store bought dressing. And it was amazing. Excellent combination of flavors, and the perfect salad to pack for the few days a week I am going into the office. It holds up well in the fridge, and I looked forward to eating it each day at lunch. I will be certainly adding this to the rotation.
Nice! I’m so happy you’re loving it. Such a great lunch, right??
This looks SOOO delish! Question: any suggestions for substitutions for the beans (can we use cannellini or pinto beans? or even edamame?)? How about the grain – bulgur maybe? Or couscous? I don’t want take it too far from the original, just taking the preferences of the mouths I intend to feed into consideration, LOL!
These are all great subs! I think any of those would be fabulous 🙂
This recip was so easy to make and great for meals during the week. The bbq chicken was so good!
We were surprised that we enjoyed these so much! Prep was easy – we used a George Foreman grill for the chicken – and the leftovers were perfect for meal prep.