I Love Broccoli

Quinoa, I hear people raving about it everywhere and now I finally decided to try and make something with it. I actually settled on a casserole since they are pretty hard to mess up and I will be honest the quinoa didn't have to carry the whole thing.

Since I love broccoli chicken casserole I decided to base the recipe off of that. And here is what I came up with:

The Ingredients (Standard stuff)

• 2 cups of chicken broth
• 1 cup whole milk
• ½ cup flour (all-pupose)
• 1 ½ cups water
• Seasonings:
  • garlic powder
  • black pepper
  • red pepper flakes
  • salt
• 1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
  • Everyone has told me this is important and it said to do it on the package so I did my best. It is really hard and this was actually the first minus point I gave the product
• 1 lb chicken breasts
  • I lightly grilled the chicken breast in oil since I thought that the quinoa would get soggy if left to cook until the chicken was done. This turned out to not be the case.
• ¼ cup shredded gruyere cheese
• 3 cups broccoli florets
  • I used a large head of broccoli

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and grease 9×13” baking pan with cooking spray.
2. In a saucepan, bring broth and ½ cup almond milk to a boil.
   1. While waiting for mixture to boil, whisk together ½ cup flour and the remaining milk in a small bowl to make a cream base.
   2. Add mix along with 1 tsp garlic powder, ¼ tsp black pepper, ¼ tsp salt, and pinch red pepper flakes into boiling pot.
   3. Whisk until smooth and creamy.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine broth mixture with quinoa and 1 cup of water. Pour into prepared baking dish.
4. Cut chicken length-wise into 2”-thick strips and place on top of quinoa mixture in pan. Add pinch of salt and pepper over chicken then bake uncovered for 30 minutes.
5. While casserole is baking, steam broccoli about 3-4 minutes, or until just slightly soft – you still want them to be a little crisp so they don’t get soggy once you add them to the casserole.
6. After casserole has baked for 30 minutes, check to see if chicken is cooked through and the quinoa has puffed out. If either are still undercooked, return casserole to oven for another 5-10 minutes.
7. Once quinoa and chicken are cooked, stir in steamed broccoli along with ½ cup of water. Top with cheese and bake another 5 minutes, or until cheese is bubbling and the sauce has thickened.
8. Remove from oven and let it sit for about fifteen minutes before you serve
9. Enjoy!

I think it was a hit, but I will probably not make it again anytime soon. My expereince with the quinoa was, well, lacking.