Broccoli Chicken Quiche

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Add a touch of spice to liven up brunch, lunch, or dinner with this savory Broccoli Chicken Quiche. Using Mexican street corn seasonings and a cheddar-cotija cheese blend adds a different flavorful twist!

Chicken Broccoli Quiche on a gold base with cheese, seasonings, & red onion.

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Why this recipe works
Recipe Ingredients
Quiche Variations
How to Make Broccoli Chicken Quiche
Storage instructions
How to blind bake your shortcrust pastry without pie weights
Questions asked and answered
More dinner recipes to try
Recipe
Comments

Why this recipe works

A chicken and broccoli quiche is hearty enough to serve for brunch, lunch, or dinner
You can customize the protein, vegetables, and cheeses to use what you have on hand
The egg custard has an easy recipe ratio that produces great results every time!

When is it ok to have pie for brunch or dinner?

Ok, that's a trick question...it's always ok to have pie. But it's more acceptable if that pie is savory, like a meat pie or quiche, if you want it for a main course. Quiche is also a great way to use leftover cooked proteins and whatever vegetables you have on hand, paired with cheese.

This quiche recipe uses pre-cooked chicken, broccoli, an interesting Mexican seasoning and cheese blend to come up with a Broccoli Chicken Quiche that's great for brunch, lunch, or dinner!

Savory, spicy (but not too much), salty, and substantial, this Chicken Broccoli Quiche produces a dish with lots of flavor. It's perfect for brunch or lunch. Paired with a Caesar salad (with homemade Caesar salad dressing, of course!) and maybe some roasted mini potatoes on the side, a chicken quiche makes a nice, light dinner.

Have a hankering for pie as a main course? You can turn eggs, your dairy of choice, and some leftovers into a meal. Make yourself a quiche (with a crust or crustless) using whatever filings and seasonings you'd like.

Of course, remember to save room for pie for dessert!

Recipe Ingredients

You'll need the following ingredients to make this easy broccoli chicken quiche recipe:

Chicken Broccoli Quiche ingredients portioned into glass bowls on a baking pan.

Ingredient Notes

There is so much flexibility when it comes to quiche recipes. The essential custard ingredients you need are eggs and a liquid - it's the combination of liquid and eggs in the proper ratio that makes it a custard.

Heavy cream and milk: You can use a combination of milk and heavy cream to suit your taste. The more heavy cream you use, the richer the custard will be. You can even use a milk substitute or a savory broth to make a dairy-free custard.

Filling: Quiche is a great clean-out-the-refrigerator type of dish. Use up any leftover meats, vegetables, and cheeses you have around. Just make sure the meat (if you choose to use any) and vegetables are cooked through before pouring the custard on them. This broccoli and chicken quiche uses leftover chicken, red onion, and broccoli, but turkey or ham could work also. For a vegetarian quiche, skip the meat or use your favorite meat alternative. I have some suggestions for different types of quiche below.

Seasonings: Use your favorite seasoning blends. Here we're using the flavors of Mexican street corn with Trader Joes' Everything but the Elote seasoning blend. It's made up of chile pepper, Parmesan cheese, chipotle powder, cumin, dried cilantro, sea salt, plus some cane sugar and corn flour. You can substitute a good chili powder or taco seasonings if you prefer.

Cheese: Since street corn is usually served with cotija cheese, a semi-firm white crumbly cheese (similar to feta cheese in texture), that's a good start. Add a Mexican cheese blend (a pre-made blend of shredded cheddar, Monterey Jack, and Queso Blanco) to round out the quiche. You can use your own preferred combinations.

Pastry crust: Unless you're making a crustless quiche, you'll want a sturdy crust. Pie crust for quiche works when it's served in a pie pan - use a basic pie crust (either homemade or store-bought). Shortcrust pastry works great for quiches that will be served free-standing, like a tart. Since this chicken quiche recipe will be savory, a sourdough shortcrust pastry fits the bill nicely.

See the recipe card for a full list of ingredients and measurements.

Quiche Variations

You can use any combination of proteins, vegetables, and cheeses you'd like, then choose seasonings and cheeses that complement said fillings. Here are some suggestions:

Bacon and Swiss Cheese (aka Quiche Lorraine) - a classic combination
Chicken, Cheddar, Bacon, and Ranch Seasoning
Sausage, Spinach, Mushrooms, and Feta - or leave out the sausage for a vegetarian quiche

How to Make Broccoli Chicken Quiche

Step 1: Make a shortcrust pastry

Prepare a blind baked shortcrust pastry using a 10-inch tart pan (photo 1). Blind baking the pastry shell helps to ensure it doesn't get soggy while the custard bakes later. Below I have instructions on how to blind bake a shortcrust without pie weights.

Collage of before & after blind baking shortcrust pastry. — Make and blind bake a shortcrust pastry

Step 2: Cook the filling ingredients

Quiche filling is usually comprised of a pre-cooked protein, frequently bacon or sausage, and a combination of cooked vegetables.

This chicken quiche is using leftover chicken, chopped into bite-sized pieces and sautéed red onions and broccoli.

Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the red onions and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Cook the onions until softened, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the broccoli and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the chicken and cook until heated, another 2 to 3 mixtures (photo 2). Remove from heat.

Collage of cooking quiche fillings. — Cooking the vegetables and warming the cooked chicken

Step 3: Make the custard

Whisk the eggs, heavy cream, and milk custard ingredients together until frothy, either by hand or using a hand mixer. Stir in the seasoning and salt (photo 3).

Making sure the custard has some bubbles helps to hold the mix-ins in suspension. That's especially important in a taller quiche or quiche made in a pie pan. This quiche tart isn't that tall so the suspension aspect isn't as crucial.

Collage of mixing quiche custard. — Mix up a savory custard, complete with bubbles

Step 4: Assemble the quiche

The crust is there to protect the custard from baking too quickly and getting rubbery (replacing what a water bath does for a crème brûlée). Adding the filling components in layers helps to keep everything from settling to the bottom, especially for taller quiches.

Fill the par-baked shortcrust pastry shell with the cooked chicken filling. Sprinkle the cheeses on top (photo 4).

Collage of filling shortcrust pastry. — Adding the cooked filling and cheese blend to the blind-baked pastry shell

Step 5: Bake the quiche

Pour the custard over the filling, as much as possible without overflowing. Place the pan on a half sheet baking pan lined with a Silpat silicone mat or parchment paper to catch drips.

Bake the quiche at 375˚F for 28 to 30 minutes or until the filling is mostly set (photo 5). It will be slightly jiggly in the middle, like a pumpkin or pecan pie.

Allow the quiche to cool slightly, then remove from the pan and serve warm.

Collage of quiche before & after baking. — Before and after baking the quiche

Storage instructions

Allow the quiche to cool completely, then wrap in plastic wrap (still in the pan, if possible). It will keep for about a week in the refrigerator and up to a month in the freezer. Allow to defrost overnight in the refrigerator. When you're ready to serve, reheat it in a 325 °F oven for about 15 to 20 minutes or until heated through. Remove from the pan (if it hasn't been already) and serve warm.

You can successfully blind bake pie dough and shortcrust pastry without needing to use pie weights or dried beans using this frozen-foil method:

Prick the bottom of the crust all over with a fork.
Tear off a piece of foil that fits over the entire pan with overhang (or add extra foil as needed).
Spray the foil with baking spray to keep it from sticking to the dough.
Press the foil into the pan and tightly up against the sides. Bring the foil up over the rim and mold it to the sides of the pan.
Freeze the crust for 15 minutes.
Bake the crust with the foil on for 20 minutes. At this point the crust is par-baked.
Carefully remove the foil from the crust. If the crust has puffed up, gently press it back down. Any tears or cracks in the crust can be repaired with dough scraps. Return the crust to the oven and bake the crust until golden brown, 5 to 10 minutes more.

There you have it. No more slumping sides or messing around with dried beans. Oh, and the leftover egg white can be whisked with a teaspoon of water and a pinch of salt for use as an egg wash before par-baking. It won’t result in quite as golden a crust as a whole-egg wash, but it’s a great way to avoid waste.

Collage of steps to blind bake shortcrust with foil. — Blind-baking pastry without pie weights

Questions asked and answered

Here are some questions you might have...

What is a quiche?

At its core, quiche is just a free-standing custard, the crust is merely a holding vessel. Most people might think of custard as a dessert (like Crème Brûlée), but really the only difference is how the custard is flavored. Is it sweetened or filled with savory ingredients? If it's the latter, it's quiche, simple as that.

A free-standing custard is a custard that can hold its shape, like flan. It's a cousin to pastry cream, which contains the same base of eggs and cream but has a 4 : 1 liquid to egg recipe ratio, so it can't stand up on its own. Also, a free-standing custard is baked to set rather than thickened on the stove with cornstarch, like pudding. I love when things are related like that.

What happens if you put too much milk in quiche?

A free-standing egg custard has a recipe ratio of 2 : 1 liquid to egg (by weight, a kitchen scale comes in handy here). So a quiche containing 2 cups (or 16 ounces) of liquid would contain 4 eggs (or 8 ounces, an egg weighing about 2 ounces each).

If there's too much liquid in the custard, it won't set well. You'll end up with possibly a very soft or even runny quiche.

Why is my quiche like scrambled egg?

Most likely there is too much egg in the custard, resulting in a quiche that's too firm and possibly rubbery. That 2 : 1 liquid to egg recipe ratio is important!

How do you keep a quiche crust from getting soggy?

Nobody wants the dreaded soggy bottom in a pie. The best way to prevent this is to blind-bake the pie crust or shortcrust pastry you're using. That allows the moisture in the dough to evaporate and the crust solidifies before you introduce more liquid from the egg custard.