Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Bites with Greek Yogurt Blue Cheese Dip
These protein-packed quinoa bites are perfect for snacking or as a party appetizer!
I hope you all had a wonderful, fun-filled weekend. The weather was gorgeous out here in LA in the high 70s so I decided to take a day off from blog work and enjoy the outdoors with my 5-year old niece, Sherman.
Now you should know that when I spend time with Sherman, it’s usually at her own house where her parents and grandparents are there for “back-up”, so taking her out alone was a big deal for me.
I first took her to her morning ballet class across town. She’s seriously just the cutest thing in her purple tutu, and as I peaked through the window to see her in the class, she was honestly the best one. (I may be a tiny bit biased about this, though.)
Then we headed off to breakfast at Marie Callendar’s. She said she already had breakfast in the morning so a short stack of pancakes was a “snack.” And to my surprise, kid’s eat free on Saturdays! I was so excited about that because you always see those deals around town but we never actually get to use it. Plus, these kids portions are huge! Why can’t we ever get deals like that?
Oh and that stuffed animal dog you see there? Sherman found it in my car and she fell in love with it so we had a mini photo shoot with the dog in our little booth. She was even feeding him pancakes and orange juice!
Then we headed off to the park where we chased squirrels, fed them grass (sorry, attempted to feed them grass) and played on the swings. Sherman made sure the dog was strapped onto the swing too.
We had such a blast together, and I think I had even more fun than her just snapping away photos of her at the park. It was definitely a lot of work taking her around all day but I can’t wait to do it again!
Now about these quinoa bites…
These buffalo chicken quinoa bites were made in an attempt to keep myself from snacking. I’m always skimping on “real food” so I can snack more but snacking never gets me full, leading me to eat more than I really should be. So to avoid that, I decided to make these quinoa bites with some leftover chicken breast that I had lingering around in the fridge.
It was incredibly easy to whip up, especially since you just mix everything up in a bowl and bake it in a mini muffin pan. And while these babies are being baked to quinoa perfection, you can make the dipping sauce with some Greek yogurt and crumbled blue cheese. When you’re finally ready to eat, make sure you’re completely generous with that dipping sauce – it’s made with Greek yogurt so you can indulge guilt-free!
Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Bites with Greek Yogurt Blue Cheese Dip
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- 1 cup shredded chicken
- ¼ cup goat cheese
- ¼ cup sharp cheddar
- ¼ cup buffalo sauce
- ¼ cup Panko
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the dipping sauce
- 1 cup Greek yogurt
- ¼ cup blue cheese
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon dried dill
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine Greek yogurt, blue cheese, garlic powder, dill, parsley, salt and pepper, to taste; set aside in the refrigerator.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil a mini muffin pan or coat with nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, combine quinoa, chicken, goat cheese, sharp cheddar, buffalo sauce, Panko, egg, flour, salt and pepper, to taste.
- Using a small cookie scoop, scoop the mixture evenly into the muffin tray, about 1 1/2 tablespoons for each.
- Place into oven and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden and set.
- Serve immediately with dipping sauce.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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Great recipe for flavors, but a couple of comments about the procedure:
1. If you are going to use a mini muffin pan, use the mini muffin paper cups. Sticks horribly to the pan and you lose some to the pan. Or use a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. Maybe my balls were a little bigger, but I needed 25 min. at 350F.
3. As far as an egg substitute, try garbanzo bean flour. Works really well at sticking things together.
Would ground chicken work in place of the shredded chicken?
Yes, of course.
Hello Chungah. Do you suppose other types of shredded cheese would work also? Thanks!
Yes, depending on if you like a milder cheese, you could use mozzarella or if you prefer a heartier one, try a gruyere instead. It will change the taste slightly, but won’t change the recipe.
What is buffalo sauce ??i is it BBQ sauce??
Buffalo sauce is a vinegar-based cayenne pepper hot sauce.
I have a 3 year old buddy that loves quinoa, but he’s allergic to eggs. Do you think there’s something I could substitute instead?
Penny, here is a great forum discussing ideas for breading that doesn’t use eggs. Hope that helps!
hi! I was just wondering if you don’t have a mini muffin pan can you shape these into balls and bake? Or would they fall apart?
They should be able to hold up on its own.
Yes, they stayed together beautifully, I used a cookie sheet and bakers paper.
Can you substitute cream cheese for the goat cheese? I know it won’t quite be as sharp, but if it is for just creaminess, I think my kiddo would not like the goat cheese.
Yes, cream cheese should work just fine.
Do you recommend anything to replace the chicken in this dish? I have numerous vegetarians and I thought this would be a nice taste of something familiar and fun for everyone .,,, or just omitting it best?
It may be best to omit it completely and increase the amount of quinoa to compensate for this.
can these be made in advance or do you not recommend that. Thanks 🙂
Yes, these can certainly be made ahead of time and reheated accordingly.
Is the chicken cooked or raw?
Nancy, the chicken should be cooked prior to using.
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Could more quinoa be used in place of chicken?
Yes, absolutely!
Looks like a great snack and easy to share!
Hey, found this recipe randomly searching Google. I made this for a block party this past weekend. People really seemed to enjoy the appetizer. Even sent out a couple emails with this blog post. I made these twice, one substituting the goat cheese with mozzarella and once used exact ingredients. Both came out great. Next time I am going to think about adding some more spices like cayenne pepper and paprika.
Awesome tip! Going to try the mozzarella and spices. Thanks!
hi! do you think feta would be an ok substitute for the goat cheese?
Yes, that should work just fine.
Hi what is the purpose of the goat cheese? Can there be a substitute?
It provides an amazing creaminess to these bites. But feel free to omit as needed.
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