Buffalo Chicken Bowls

Buffalo Chicken Bowls are filled with buffalo chicken, celery, carrots, tomatoes, and topped with blue cheese and ranch dressing! They're perfect for a light lunch or dinner, and are super filling.

As a huge fan of buffalo chicken anything, I'm always looking for new ways to incorporate the flavors into meals. I have to say one of my favorite buffalo chicken recipes is my Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Pasta, but these Buffalo Chicken Bowls are giving them a run! These bowls are not only full of buffalo chicken, but also healthy ingredients like quinoa, avocado, carrots, celery, lettuce, tomatoes, and a homemade ranch.

These quinoa bowls with buffalo chicken are perfect for meal prepping ahead of time for a healthy lunch or an easy dinner that everyone will love. Grilled Honey Sriracha Chicken Thighs are another flavor bomb chicken recipe that is great, too!

Ingredients in Buffalo Chicken Bowls

• Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts - You can use chicken tenders or chicken thighs, too. I think ground chicken would work well, also.
• Buffalo Wing Sauce - I use this brand because it is more mild than other brands I have used.
• Quinoa - I love quinoa because it is a great source of protein and fiber. I use quinoa in a lot of recipes, like this Fajita Chicken Quinoa Casserole. Other grain ideas would be to use white rice, brown rice, couscous, or any type of whole grain!
• Water or Chicken Broth - I typically make my quinoa with water but if I have chicken broth on hand, it makes it much more flavorful!
• Avocado - sliced or diced avocado on top adds some healthy fats and a delicious creamy texture and flavor.
• Romaine Lettuce - crunchy chopped romaine gives the buffalo chicken bowls some color and crunch!
• Vegetables - I add cherry or grape tomatoes, carrots, celery, and cucumbers for crunch, flavor, and nutrition!
• Blue Cheese - blue cheese is a traditional accompaniment to buffalo chicken wings, so it seemed natural to add some crumbled blue cheese on top of these chicken bowls.
• Ranch - you can use store-bought or make your own. In addition, you can use blue cheese dressing, too!
• Green Onions - for more flavor!

How to Make Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Bowls

This recipe has a few steps but much of the prep work can be done while the chicken and quinoa are cooking. You can definitely meal prep these and make them for lunches for the week!

Cook the chicken and quinoa. For the chicken, you can use your favorite method for cooking chicken. I like to bake it, air fry it, or use my Instant Pot (recipe here), but you can saute it, grill it, boil, or use the Air Fryer, too. Toss the shredded or diced chicken in the buffalo wing hot sauce .To cook the quinoa, it is a simple 2:1 quinoa to water ratio and you boil it until it is nice and fluffy. This typically takes 15-20 minutes.

Prep the vegetables. While the chicken and quinoa are cooking, keep an eye on them but you can also chop the veggies. This includes halving the cherry tomatoes, chopping the romaine, shredded or chopping the carrots, chopping the cucumber, and dicing the avocado.

Assemble. Place your desired amount of each ingredient in each bowl and then sprinkle with blue cheese crumbles and green onion, and drizzle with ranch! It's hard to specify exact amounts for the toppings ingredients because honestly, it's personal preference. Use the amounts below as a general suggestion but add however much you want!

Tips and Variations for Buffalo Chicken Bowls

Chicken Thighs Instead of Chicken Breasts - you can definitely use chicken thighs in these bowls, or even ground chicken or turkey!

Rice Instead of Quinoa - or really any other grain that you have on hand or prefer. Wheatberries, barley, and couscous would all be delicious. Cauliflower rice would be a delicious low-carb option!

Blue Cheese Dressing Instead of Ranch - whatever you like or have on hand!

Use Your Slow Cooker - you can definitely prep your buffalo chicken like I do in my Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches. Just use the buffalo chicken in rice bowls, instead!

Cheese Swap. If you're not a fan of blue cheese, you can definitely top these buffalo chicken rice bowls with shredded cheddar cheese, feta cheese, diced mozzarella, or shredded Colby jack cheese!

Other Toppings. Rice bowls can be so fun and flexible with the ingredients! You could also add some cooked corn, black beans, diced and sautéed zucchini, or some crispy kale!

Meal Prep

These healthy buffalo chicken bowls are great for meal prepping. The trick, however, is that there are some ingredients that are meant to be warm and others that are cold, such as the lettuce, avocado, tomatoes, and carrots. To reheat, package the quinoa and chicken in one larger container and the fresh veggies in a separate container. Reheat the quinoa and chicken in the microwave and then add the cold vegetables immediately before serving.

Like this buffalo chicken bowl recipe? Check these other buffalo chicken recipes out, too!