Fall Chicken Stew with Quinoa and Butternut Squash

This “New American Heartland” fall chicken stew recipe is bulked up with quinoa and butternut squash. The dish is hearty and filling, and a perfect fall or winter dinner recipe.

When the cold weather sets in, I always want to make cozy, warm comfort food, but those are often not the most healthy recipes (i.e. beef stew, I love you forever, but you’re not healthy haha!). This seasonal dish is healthy, full of vegetables, protein and nutritious grains and it will warm you up from the inside out.

I’m making a loaf of easy herbed focaccia bread to dip in this scrumptious fall chicken stew!

What Do I Need to Make Fall Chicken Stew?

You’ve heard of kitchen sink cookies, and I seriously thought about naming this kitchen sink stew because you seriously add almost everything but the kitchen sink! Ha! But kitchen sink stew doesn’t sound appetizing at all. Here are the ingredients you will need:

• Chicken Broth
• Rotisserie Chicken: I like to use rotisserie chicken just to keep things quick and simple, but you can definitely cook your own chicken if you want. Grilled chicken breasts or left over roasted chicken would work great. I prefer to include for chicken breast and chicken thigh meat if I can for the most flavor.
• Vegetables and Herbs: Butternut Squash, Yellow Onion, Diced Tomatoes, Kale, and Flat-Leaf Parsley
• Flavor, Seasonings & Spices: Garlic, Kosher Salt, Dried Oregano, Ground Cumin, Nutmeg, Orange Zest and Black Pepper
• Grains: Quinoa (Trader Joe’s Harvest Grains Blend)
• Olive Oil

The measurements for all the ingredients can be found in the recipe card down below. Keep scrolling for all the details!

Substitutions and Variations

One of the things I love about stew recipes is how customizable they are! This recipe is perfect for adding to or swapping out. Here are a few ideas:

• You can add cubed potatoes (red potatoes or yukon gold) or sweet potatoes or swap them for the butternut squash.
• Use couscous or orzo instead of the quinoa.
• If you aren’t a kale fan, try spinach instead!
• Of course the veggies are totally up to you – peas, carrots, celery, etc.
• If you want to make this stew vegetarian, omit the chicken and use vegetable broth instead of chicken stock.

How to Make This Chicken Stew Recipe

To get the depth of flavor you crave in a good stew, it takes a couple of steps starting with r

Browned Butter Pork and Butternut Squash Lasagna

This isn’t your traditional lasagna, but oh good heavens, the flavors of pork, butternut squash, browned butter, sage, and cheese is pure comfort! Browned butter pork and butternut squash lasagna is about to be your new favorite lasagna recipe!

You won’t find tomatoes, ricotta cheese or tomato sauce in this lasagna, but it is bringing all the feelings of warm winter comfort food to our family! The flavors are the most amazing combination! I mean it’s got pork, one of my all time favorite meats, browned butter-pure heaven, carbs-who doesn’t love carbs, and melty, gooey, delicious cheese. BOO-YAH!

I love comfort food more than anything else. Sure smoked pulled pork is stinking delicious, and Hawaiian Pulled Pork is absolutely mouth watering, but make me choose between one of those recipes and a comfort food like Browned Butter Butternut and Pork Lasagna and hands down the lasagna wins.

Creating Butternut Squash Lasagna

As soon as I got the email from the National Pork Board to create a few recipes for them I knew I’d say yes to working with them, but then they wanted comfort recipes?! Heck yeah I’m on board with that. And this lasagna was born. And we loved it. And now you will too.

I was looking through the recipe section on the Pork Be Inspired site and man, everything looks so juicy and delicious! I’ve found many a wonderful recipe there, but I was actually trying to make sure that there wasn’t a recipe like this one, which there isn’t. Butternut squash actually smells comforting. It’s so warm, nutty, and creamy. I just knew that a combination of my favorite fall/winter flavor with pork was totally the way to go. Oh, and there’s a secret in the puree, Ginger Snap cookies. Trust me, it’s exactly what the puree needs.

Ingredients for Butternut Squash Lasagna

I’m going to divide this recipe into 3 different parts – the butternut squash, the browned butter sauce (béchamel sauce) and the lasagna layers.

For the Squash

• Butternut Squash: peeled and chopped, ready for roasting
• Olive Oil: helps roast and caramelize the squash
• Salt & Black Pepper: adds flavor
• Sage: you’ll want fresh sage and we will use it to add flavor to the butternut squash puree
• Ginger Snap Cookies: an unexcepted ingredient but the flavor it adds it crucial

For the Browned Butter Sauce

• Butter: browned for added flavor and creates the base for the béchamel
• Garlic: adds flavor and can be increased or decreased to your liking
• Flour: combined with the butter is creates the creamy base for the béchamel
• Low Fat Milk: helps thin out the sauce
• Half and Half: adds creaminess and richness
• Nutmeg: adds flavor and warmth
• Salt and Black Pepper: adds flavor

For the Lasag