Creamy Tex-Mex Quinoa Dippers
A healthy, simple slow-cooker-made quinoa meal, this concoction of goodness is perfect with tortilla chips as an appetizer or main dish!
Can we have a little heart to heart about quinoa? What are your deepest thoughts and feelings about it? Do you love it? Hate it? Does the texture make you shudder or do you crave the stuff?
I have heard from a lot of you lately that you really, really want to love quinoa but quite honestly, you are struggling and aren’t sure if everyone on the quinoa bandwagon is lying to your face about how good it is or if you are missing the quinoa-loving gene.
We’ve been official quinoa eaters (official meaning it has a permanent place in my pantry and we eat it in some form at least once a week) for upwards of a year now.
I was a skeptic at the beginning. I first tried it in a sweet breakfast oatmeal-ish type recipe and…I…I just couldn’t. I was expecting creamy, soft oatmeal and instead I got an unexpected blast of not-oatmeal-quinoa texture that I wasn’t adequately prepared for.
I had to step away from it for a month before I dared again.
But once I tried it in a few savory dishes, it started to grow on me and my family. In fact, I make it alongside rice anytime we are serving a stir-fry or gravy-type dish and the majority of my family chooses quinoa over rice now (I mentioned that here a while ago).
These little quinoa patties are food from the heavens and are my go-to if other dinner plans fall through or it’s leftover night without any leftovers. I can’t even count the variations we’ve made with them (added spinach or kale, swapped out different cheeses, changed up the spices, etc.).
If I could give anyone advice about quinoa, it would be to keep trying. I am a total quinoa success story (and you can be, too!).
The recipe I’m sharing today is perfect for those who may be starting out as newbies in the quinoa world as well as for the more experienced quinoa eaters.
First of all, it’s simple. All the ingredients except the last three are thrown in the slow cooker which means there’s no need to cook the quinoa beforehand – it plumps to quinoa perfection in the slow cooker along with the other hearty, nutritious ingredients.
After stirring in cream cheese, fresh lime juice and cilantro, you have an exceptionally delicious creamy pot full of love and quinoa goodness. Plus, the quinoa melds with all the other ingredients into a tender mess of yumminess so the texture is almost unnoticeable.
I’ve made this three or four times, once as a contribution to a potluck and also as a main dish meal for our family. I said this last week, but even though it’s summer and the weather is heating up, I still use my slow cooker all the time because it keeps my kitchen much cooler than turning on the oven.
This is a delicious, perfect meal for those that don’t have a lot of time to cook it, plan it, or slave over it. Plus, it’s so tasty, you’ll be wondering where quinoa has been all your life.
What to Serve With This
- Fresh Green Bean Salad
- Fresh Fruit
- Tortilla chips (baked or regular)
One Year Ago: Father’s Day Guide: Gifts & Grub! {by Brian}
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Three Years Ago: Jackson’s Wacky Cake
Creamy Tex-Mex Quinoa Dippers
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
- 1 cup frozen corn kernels
- 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced or petite-diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 cup quinoa, well-rinsed and drained
- 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 4-8 ounces light or regular cream cheese, cubed (depending on how creamy you like it)
- Squeeze of fresh lime juice
- Handful of chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
- In a 4- or 5-quart slow cooker, toss the chicken, corn, black beans, tomatoes and quinoa together.
- In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together the broth, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Pour the mixture over the ingredients in the slow cooker and give it all a good stir (scrape down any quinoa that may be stuck to the sides of the slow cooker above the liquid).
- Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
- Toss in the cubed cream cheese and cover the slow cooker for 5-10 minutes to let it soften.
- Stir all the ingredients together until the cream cheese is mixed in well.
- Add the lime juice and cilantro and give it another quick stir.
- Serve warm with tortilla chips.
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Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe (inspired from a recipe my sister Em sent me that was more of a Ranch-style quinoa slow cooker meal; altered it to be Tex-Mex without any prepackaged seasonings)
This was delicious! I loved it more than expected. Bonus: the first time my kids tolerated eating quinoa. It was a hit, even with a vegan cream cheese substitute! Thank you.
Ok. This was super yummy!! Loved the combination of spices. My 18-month old gobbled it up like a champ and my 4 year-old enjoyed it, too. We did not use chicken and it was still very filling. I used about 4 oz cream cheese and thought it was plenty creamy. Definitely will be making it, again! We served it with quesadillas and avocado.
Could I use plain whole yogurt instead of the cream cheese?
You could definitely experiment; the texture and flavor might be a bit different if doing so.
I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never had creamy tex mex quinoa dippers! This recipe looks great though so hopefully that will change! Thanks for posting it, Mel!
Love this dinner. For my non-quinoa-loving husband I wrap the mix in a tortilla with some sour cream and guac. The first time he ate it he thought the quinoa was refried beans.
I would love it if you updated this to include Instant Pot directions?
I haven’t made this in the IP yet, but when I do, I’ll definitely update the recipe! 🙂
These were yum! I only had 4 oz of cream cheese (leftover from something else), but next time I’d definitely use 8 oz 🙂 I left the chicken out and it wasn’t enough to keep us full all night so next time I’ll either add chicken to make it more filling for a meal or use it as a side dish/party dip without the chicken. Thanks for a tasty quinoa recipe!
It sounds great, love quinoa.
The only way I like quinoa.
Loved this! I used whole frozen chicken breasts and just put them on the bottom. When I was ready to mix in the cream cheese, I took the chicken out and shredded it and then added it back in with the cream cheese. Worked great!!! So easy and my whole family loved it! We ate it with tortilla chips.
Thanks for the comment! I was wondering if I could use whole frozen chicken breasts.
We love this recipe! I leave out the chicken -there’s already loads of protein with the beans and quinoa, and it’s so hearty you don’t miss it. I cook it on the stovetop because I always seem to forget it can go in the slow cooker. I add everything (except chicken) until the cream cheese, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes like you would cook plain quinoa. Then add the cream cheese. It works great! Sometimes I’ll add the corn and beans at the end, it just depends. A couple of times I’ve prepped the dry ingredients in a container and taken it along on our vacation. Add the beans and corn and cheese and it makes an extremely easy meal in our extended stay hotel. Definitely one of our favorites!
Can you cook this on high for 2 or 3 hours instead?
I’ve only ever cooked it on low, but that would probably work.
This looks absolutely divine! I always throw quinoa into my rice when I cook it!
Any thoughts on how to convert this for the Instant Pot? I need it to be ready in 2 hours so don’t have time to slow cook it.
I’d probably try it at high pressure for 10 minutes?? I don’t know, that’s just a guess, but the quinoa should definitely be done in that amount of time.
I did this last night. It came out delicious.
I made this in an electric pressure cooker and cooked it according to how much time the chicken needed to cook. I’d cut my chicken up into large pieces and did 6 min on High. When I pulled the chicken out to shred, there were still some quinoa grains that hadn’t cooked (mostly on the bottom edges) so I gave it a good stir and cooked it on high for 2 mins while I shredded the chicken. I actually liked how it turned out better than in the slow cooker because of the texture of the chicken.
I made this before, as written, and loved it! This time I happened to have cooked quinoa and cooked chicken in the fridge, so I made this on the stovetop, eliminating the chicken broth and simmering the initial ingredients for just a bit without the chicken and quinoa. Then I added the cooked quinoa, cooked chicken, cream cheese, lime juice and cilantro all at once and heated through. It worked perfectly and my four boys gobbled it up. Thanks for another fantastic recipe!
I made this for the second time last night. But this time I (almost) doubled the spices/seasonings. I don’t have onion powder so i added diced onion from half a yellow onion. I have to say for my family and i, extra seasonings is needed. Very much enjoyed 🙂
This is such a fabulous recipe. My kids LOVE it and the fact that it is so easy makes me love it even more! It has been a regular in my rotation since you posted it! I buy bags of cooked rotisserie breast meat at Costco, so I chop up a couple cups of that and throw it in towards the end of the cook time instead of using raw and I use less cream cheese but add in shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack. The kids love it wrapped in a tortilla but I love it with the crunch of a chip. Thanks Mel for saving me so much hassle. I know if you have posted a recipe, it is going to be good! Just made the chocolate sugar cookies today for an after dinner treat!
Love your recipes, Mel. Quick question from this quinoa rookie – how do you rinse it? The seeds or kernels or whatever they are, are so tiny that they fall through both of my strainers. So I used cheesecloth – is that the way to go? Thanks!
Hi Joan – do you have one of those fine mesh strainers? The metal kind with a plastic handle? If not, cheesecloth could certainly be a good option.
This looks amazing and I might be able to fool my husband into eating quinoa. Can this be frozen? It’s just the two of us and our toddler.
Christina – Definitely worth a try. I haven’t frozen it yet so I’m not sure how the texture would fare…might defrost a bit on the dry side but stirring in a bit of extra broth could help.
This was delicious and my husband had no clue there was quinoa. I made chimichangas using it as filling with some shredded cheese. So yummy and easy!
I froze the rest with out the cream cheese. Crossing my fingers that it defrosts well.
I’ve never commented before but I just wanted to say that I made this for dinner tonight and it was YUMMY! We’ve never had quinoa before so we were nervous about it but it turned out delicious. And I even messed up the recipe and put an entire can of chicken broth in (about 2 cups worth) instead of just 1 cup and it still turned out great. I will definitely be making this again! Thank you for getting me to finally try out quinoa, and especially in such a quick and easy recipe! Hopefully my picky 15-month-old will eventually learn to like it as well. He is still a work in progress when it comes to food! But the hubby and I definitely approved!
Hey! This is my new favorite recipe! It was so delicious! However, I wanted to try it with dries beans instead of canned, or frozen which is what I normally do, because I often haven’t taken the time to cook any beans and put them in my freezer. :). Any ideas before I try it tomorrow?
Salem – If it were me, I’d soak the beans overnight in cool water and then add them to the recipe – and probably add a little more liquid to the tex-mex ingredients. You could also try this quick soak method.
Hi Mel,
I made a vegetarian-style version of this dish on the stove top tonight. It was so so creamy and delicious!! Since I saw some comments above asking about stove top and veg-style, I figured my experience was worth sharing. I just combined everything in a large pot on the stove, omitted the chicken, and increased the broth, adding it slowly as needed. Overall I used about 3.5 cups of broth. Once everything was cooked I added goat cheese in place of cream cheese, lime juice, and cilantro. It pleased my boyfriend,
who is a picky vegetarian, and I loved it with my whole heart as well! Thanks for another super tasty, healthy meal, Mel! Big air high-five from NYC!
This was so delicious! My son has a dairy allergy, so I left out the cream cheese and just added some guacamole and salsa (to the individual bowls) to loosen the mixture up a bit. We all loved it. Thanks for the recipe!
My family loved this! (However, I had to add some more liquid to the mix around the fifth hour of cooking because the mixture was drying out and getting stuck to the sides of the slow cooker. ) Thanks so much!