Chicken, quinoa, cheese, black beans, spices! Tortillas, more cheese, sauce!
Eating, eating leftovers, eating moooore!
And that’s the short story of this recipe.
Okay, I know I’ve been on a roll with the recipe names lately but let me just take a second to assure you that you don’t have to identify with LAZY or GIRL to love this recipe.
But if you do happen to be a lazy girl, let’s cover a few things.
First of all, we are one in the same and I can feel you here on this blog in spirit. I say that I love to work hard, but that’s actually only true for about 1/10th of my life. What my inner LG really loves is super easy real food meals that are healthy enough to make me feel okay about skipping tonight’s workout in order to binge watching TV shows in my sweats on the couch. These are the things I love. Truly, madly, deeply. Fitspo much? I know you understand.
And secondly -> with this recipe.
Let me be your fearless lazy girl leader for two seconds while I tell you that you can make this healthy + delicious enchilada filling all in one fell swoop – you will just dump everything in one big pot and you’ll be off and running to enchilada heaven. Sounds romantic, right? Secrets of the lazy girl club right here, friends.
Sauce Talk
I’ll give it to you straight – you can use homemade or you can use canned with this recipe.
I am not above canned enchilada sauce – I mean, what kind of LG would I be if I didn’t partake in that kind of convenience? I’m pretty sure we’ve got at least three cans in our pantry right now: pantry meaning small Ikea shelf down in the basement that holds miscellaneous food items.
BUT.
This homemade version is worth the (very minimal) effort, because it’s essentially a five minute blender enchilada / all purpose Mexican-flavor-inspired sauce that goes with everything. It’s super easy. It’s really good. It’s made with legit TOMATOES (most enchilada sauce recipes don’t have tomatoes – does that seem weird to anyone else?) and onions and jalapeños and spices, pureed into a smooth-but-not-too-smooth sauce that feels real because it IS real.
Oh, that? NBD – just a shot of the metal bowl of my rice cooker where I dumped everything in and stirred it all together.
Okay, I’m almost done here (lazy girl wants to get another coffee and eat it with another chocolate chip cookie because sometimes that’s what she eats for breakfast ☕️) but one more topic of conversation.
Crockpot vs. Rice Cooker
Yes – the crockpot works! Put the same ingredients in the crockpot, maybe a little more liquid just to be safe, grease the sides so it doesn’t all stick, and cook on low while you’re at work all day. This can definitely work.
Just be warned – if you use the crockpot, the texture of the filling will not be normal. The quinoa gets heavy and sticky, which is sort of meh. Then again, the reality is that this filling is going inside a tortilla, getting covered with sauce, and baking until semi-smushy anyways, so it’s not like the regular people of the world are going to notice a huge difference.
As a better alternative, the rice cooker is fast and easy and it keeps the quinoa fluffy. It will all still be getting mixed with sauce and cheese and stuffed into a tortilla, sooo whether or not a person would notice the improved fluffiness is debatable. But I liked that it cooked super fast and maintained the original quinoa texture when I used the rice cooker, and that’s how I’d recommend doing it.
Do people even read this stuff?
Just hurry up and get started with these chicken quinoa enchiladas. DINNER TONIGHT.
Lazy Girl Chicken Quinoa Enchiladas
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Total Time: 50 minutes -
Yield: 10 large enchiladas
Print Recipe
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You won’t believe how easy this recipe is! Comfort food meets REAL food with healthy, simple ingredients. SO deliciously good!
Ingredients
For the Enchiladas
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
- 1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 14 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 2 cups shredded cheese
- 4 cups enchilada sauce (use canned sauce OR see recipe below)
- 10 10-inch flour tortillas
For the Sauce (optional)
- 1 28 ounce can tomatoes (refilled once with water or broth)
- 3 tablespoons chili powder
- 3 tablespoons taco or Southwestern seasoning
- half an onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 jalapeno, ribs and seeds removed
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (more to taste)
Instructions
- If the chicken breasts are large, cut them in half or in fourths. Put the quinoa, broth, and chicken in a rice cooker. Select the “white rice” setting – when it’s done, just double check that the chicken is cooked through. You can shred it with two forks directly in the pot.
- If you’re making your own sauce, puree all the sauce ingredients in a blender. If you want, simmer the sauce for a while to bring out more flavor. But this is the lazy girl’s enchiladas, so…
- Pour about half of the sauce, half of the cheese, and the black beans directly into the rice cooker with the cooked quinoa and chicken – stir to combine.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place a scoop of the quinoa chicken filling in the center of a tortilla. Roll up and place seam-side down in a 9×13 baking dish. Repeat until all tortillas are filled.
- Top with remaining sauce and cheese. Bake, covered, for 20 minutes or until the sauce is bubbly and the cheese is melted. Serve!
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Prep Time: 10 mins
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Cook Time: 40 mins
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Category: Dinner
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Cuisine: Mexican
Keywords: enchilada recipe, quinoa enchilada, chicken enchilada, easy enchilada
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