Try this Meal-Prep Chicken Cacciatore Quinoa Bake for dinner this week. It has all of the delicious flavors and ingredients of traditional chicken cacciatore, but with a healthy and quick twist!
Hey, friends! It is @linleyshands here. Lee and I are currently sitting at Studio 2 Cafe checking off things on our to-do list. It has been a CRAZY couple of months for Team Fit Foodie and this is one of the first days in a long time that Lee and I have been able to sit down, get caught up on writing and emails, and actually brainstorm fresh and new ideas for the year. What’s been keeping us so busy? There has been quite a bit of travel between us and we have been working our butts off on a new project for The Healthy Glow Collective that launches in January (GET EXCITED).
We get a lot of questions from you guys wondering what our days are actually like and how our days are laid out. These last couple months we have been working on recipes and content for HGC during the day and writing and working on content for Fit Foodie Finds by night. We have been GSD. Team Fit Foodie and Ambitious Kitchen are talking on the daily most days so it’s like we have virtual co-workers. It’s pretty great. We love what we do, but it has been so nice to have a little breathing room to channel our creative energy into recipe creation for Fit Foodie this holiday season! One of our new favorite recipes is this Meal-prep Chicken Cacciatore Quinoa Bake.
It has been too long since we posted a casserole recipe on FFF. We had Casserole Week last year that included SO many delicious casserole recipes like—-> Healthy Chicken Enchilada Casserole with Brown Rice, Naked Spinach Quinoa Lasagna Casserole, Sweet Potato Green Curry Quinoa Casserole, Cauliflower Mac N Chicken Casserole, and Asian Stuffed Pepper Steak Quinoa Casserole. These recipes are hard to beat, but this Meal-prep Caccitore Quinoa Bake gives our other casserole recipes a run for their money. 🙂
Traditional Chicken Cacciatore is made with braised chicken, herbs, onions, peppers, tomato sauce, and is then simmered until it is bubbling with warm flavors and the chicken is falling on the bone. Lee and I love everything about traditional chicken cacciatore but wanted to add a Fit Foodie twist to the traditional meal by making it meal-prep friendly for an easy weeknight dinner.
This dinner is easy, accessible, and made with all kinds of veggies and ingredients that you probably have at home right now! Don’t wait, make this Chicken Cacciatore Quinoa Bake for dinner tonight!
Chicken Cacciatore Quinoa Bake
Ingredients
- 15 oz. canned crushed tomatoes
- 26 oz. jar of organic no-sugar-added marinara sauce
- 3 sprigs fresh rosemary chopped
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme chopped
- 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth or water
- 1 large red pepper thinly sliced
- 1 large green pepper thinly sliced
- 1/2 yellow onion sliced
- 2 cups mushrooms chopped
- 1/3 cup black olives sliced
- 16 oz. bonelessskinless chicken breasts cubed
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
Instructions
- First, preheat oven to 375ºF and spray a 9x11-inch casserole dish with cooking spray.
- Combine crushed tomatoes, marinara sauce, spices, and chicken broth in a medium mixing bowl. Set aside.
- Next, place quinoa, chicken, and veggies on the bottom of your casserole dish.
- Pour sauce mixture into the casserole dish and mix everything together.
- Cover the casserole dish with tin foil, seal well, and place in the oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove casserole dish from the oven, stir, re-cover with tin foil, and place back into the oven for an additional 30 minutes.
- Let rest for around 10 minutes and then top with parmesan.
Watch It
Nutrition facts
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Love this for a quick weeknight meal or for meal prepping. Great flavors, inexpensive, and reheats well. I would half the recipe if you don’t like leftovers.
Love this recipe and so does my hubby. I make it for lunches that we take to work.
Hubs approved!!!
Could I make this in a crock pot? It’s too hot for the oven today!
Any recommendations on how to reheat by oven?
I’d actually recommend reheating on the stove-top. It’s much faster!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this recipe! My mom used to make me chicken cacciatore all the time growing up. It was one of my favorite dishes. Through the years I’ve acquired a gluten sensitivity & if I eat pasta I pay for it. This is the first recipe I’ve tried that compares to my mom & grandmother’s recipe. So I just want to say Thank You for this!!! We make it quite often at or house & everyone loves it!
YAY!!! We’d love it if you would rate this recipe 🙂
Do you think I could use ground turkey instead of chicken?
I haven’t tried this, but I’m sure it would work. The texture might be a little more like meat loaf, though!
Thank you!
This recipe came out great for me. Yes, it was a little too much for one casserole dish, so I simply pulled out a smaller casserole dish and cooked the extra along side in that one. It was perfect for lunch and dinner throughout the week. I will definitely be keeping this one in mind! Love FFF!
I made this tonight and followed the recipe and instructions exactly as written (except I had to use 9×13 pan to fit everything in and it was still to the brim). After cooking for 30 minutes and stirring and then cooking for another 30 minutes, it wasn’t close to being done. The veggies were still hard and the quinoa was too. Chicken temperature varied and measured 125-140° . Ended up cooking it for an additional 45 minutes, and still the veggies were still too crisp for my likings. Not sure what went wrong for me. The flavor is good, it just seems like it needs a longer cook time or maybe less “stuff” in the pan. Super bummed. Now I have a whole pan of veggies and chicken that I’m not sure I will keep. Loved the concept and the flavor though.
Hi Heidi! It shouldn’t matter what size pan you use. That’s so odd it didn’t work as I make this recipe personally all the time. Sometimes ovens can vary and maybe you needed to crank the heat higher. So sorry you had issues!
LOVE this recipe, and it freezes so well! So good with the fresh herbs. I make it exactly according to the recipe and it comes out perfect every time!
YAY! So glad you love it <3
I have mixed feelings about this recipe. I did mess up for sure, and that’s probably no small part of it. I couldn’t find crushed tomatoes or marinara sauce in the size called for (both were slightly smaller by a few ounces), and I made a bad decision with the mushrooms.. I went with 2 cups by weight (16 ounces) rather than volume, and I used a whole (SMALL) onion so I wouldn’t have leftovers. That resulted in a super full 9×13 dish, to the point that if I hadn’t happenstantially made another quinoa casserole somewhat recently I would not have realized I’d set myself up for boil-over in the oven. I prevented a mess with a foil-lined baking sheet set under it. The resulting casserole seemed really watered down to me, and I’m starting to suspect that’s because of the mushrooms. I recently roasted some, and I had NO IDEA there was so much moisture in them. So overdoing the mushrooms as much as I did probably sabotaged this whole thing… Maybe some day I’ll try it again, but I’m not sure. I did serve it over a mix of black and brown rice to make it more of a filling meal.
Sounds like you had quite the adventure in the kitchen with this one! It is crazy how much moisture mushrooms have and is definitely something to consider when making a casserole! Hopefully, your creation still made a healthy and tasty meal for you!
I experienced the same thing as you. I started with a 9 x 13 and it was filled to the brim. Moved it to another bigger casserole so I had room. Cooking as I write this. Just took it out at the hour mark, quinoa is not cooked. I’ve put it back in, but I’m hangry, and therefor losing my mind. So far not happy with this recipe.
Could I use couscous instead of quinoa? Or leave the couscous or quinoa to the side? Not a huge fan of quinoa and would hate to ruin a whole batch and then not like it. Looks delicious though!
Hey Tanya! Unfortunately, you can not replace couscous with the quinoa! Also, you can not make this casserole without cooking the quinoa with everything!
This was great but I had to bake it for nearly an hour longer than the recipe stated until the quinoa finally “unfurled.” I also used a 9 by 13 dish and it was super full.
Could I substitute brown rice for the quinoa?
Hey Amanda! The brown rice is going to need a longer bake time and also the liquid ratio might have to change. If anything I would use instant brown rice or normal white rice! Good luck.
Does this freeze well? Looks great!
Any tips for a vegetarian swap for the chicken?
Hi Angela! You could replace with white beans! Or nothing at all because there are so many veggies and protein from the quinoa.
Can you reheat this?
Yes, absolutely! Will stay good for up to 4 days.