Greek spaghetti squash with chicken, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, and kalamata olives. Fire up your ovens and roast ye a spaghetti squash!
Happy MLK day! Are you working? Are you off? Are you relaxing or scratching things off your To Do list?
Remember when the holidays happened and we roasted all the sweet potatoes, resulting in tater juices crusted all up in the bottom of our ovens? We should probably clean them, right?
Wrong.
Going into the weekend, I had every intention of doing adult-ly projects around the apartment (like clean out the oven), but every time I’d take a gander at my Messes to Clean, I’d simply flee.the.scene.
Don’t look at me like that, I know your Christmas tree is still up.
When it comes to household tasks that involve reading instructions, staying in one place for more than an hour, and are hidden by – oh, I don’t know – keeping the oven door shut, I’m completely helpless.
PLUS, I recently wrote an article that touches on the subject of indoor air quality, and guys, you don’t want VOCs all up in your grill. Oven cleaner? VOC central. Let’s use the pursuit of keeping our homes VOC-free as an excuse to just.not.clean. Let’s just continue baking things and pretend the sweet potato juices never happened, cool?
What are we going to do with me?
I can’t guarantee a cozy, spick-and-span apartment, but I can 200% guarantee spaghetti squash baked in a sweet potato juice-crusted oven. Come on ovaaaaaaa!
I could just eat this all the live long day.
Greek-ifying food is an automatic win in my book. Chicken + spinach + kalamata olives + sun-dried tomatoes is always a recipe for success. I will say, roasting the spaghetti squash is a bit time-consuming, so this isn’t necessarily a meal you want to make when you’re throwing a fungry tantrum. HOWEVES, The chicken-y spinach mixture takes very little time to cook, so you can slam dunk that portion of the recipe while the squash is roasting.
If you’ve never roasted a spaghetti squash, follow my tutorial on How to Roast Spaghetti Squash. For those of you who are vegetarian or vegan, feel free to remove the chicken from this recipe. It will still be plenty filling.
Greek-ify!
More Spaghetti Squash Recipes:
- Chicken Pesto Spaghetti Squash
- Spaghetti Squash Bolognese
- Salmon Bowls with Pesto Spaghetti Squash
- Roasted Garlic Kale Spaghetti Squash with Sun-Dried Tomatoes
- Vegetable Spaghetti Squash Marinara
- Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai
- Garlicky Spaghetti Squash with Chicken Mushrooms and Kale
Greek Spaghetti Squash with Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 large spaghetti squash roasted
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large boneless skinless chicken breast, sliced
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives
- 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes drained
- 5 ounces baby spinach
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts
- sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Chop the tip and tail off of the spaghetti squash. Carefully cut the squash in half length-wise and scoop out the seeds and innards. Drizzle olive oil over the flesh and use your hands to ensure all of the flesh is lightly coated. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the flesh and place both halves on a baking sheet cut-side down. Roast for 45 to 50 minutes or until squash is tender.
- Allow the squash to cool enough to handle, then run a fork down the length of each squash half to release "spaghetti" strands. Place spaghetti in a serving bowl.
- While the squash is roasting, prepare the remainder of the recipe. Add the olive oil to a large skillet, and heat to medium. Add the garlic, chicken and lemon juice and cook just until chicken is browned (but not cooked through), about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the lemon juice, kalamata olives, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and red pepper flakes. Place a lid over the skillet to allow the spinach to steam and soften. Cook for about 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Uncover the skillet, stir to combine all of the ingredients and continue cooking just until the chicken is cooked through.
- Transfer the contents of the skillet to the bowl with the spaghetti squash and toss everything together. Taste the "spaghetti" for flavor, and add salt and lemon juice as desired.
- Serve with pine nuts, and/or grated parmesan cheese and enjoy!
My oven has a convection roast cycle. I didn’t use if for about the first year or so (I have no idea why), but now it’s like my favorite thing in the world. You should see it roast those taters! I’ve never had such gorgeous roasted potatoes. And it does my spaghetti squash lickey-split, only you have to watch it carefully. And who has time to clean an oven? Which means that you won’t give a hoot when you come in April if my oven and stove aren’t sparkling clean. WHICH IS 3 MONTHS FROM NOW!! Yay!! Can’t wait to see you and party. Be practicing on your beer bottles. 😉
Waaaaay too much work and gas/electricity. Take squash, prick with knife about 15 times all over and nuke for 13 min. (for small squash) and that is that ! no cutting off ends or any dirty anything….
I love spaghetti squash. I think of it like I do rice. Just put wonderful things on… it is a base that is YELLOW! Happy veg…..
I do love the convenience of microwaving food, but I’m all sorts of weirded out about what it emits and the potential for killing the nutrients in food. But I’ll definitely use the micro method if I’m desperate to cook a squash in a pinch 😀
CONVECTION! That’s what I need. My jenky ass apartment oven is just the barest of bones. Wonder if I can put “new ovens with convection setting” in management’s suggestion box. Although before I do that, I should probably ask them to un-clog my bathroom sink 😉
My oven is so dirty, but no way will I use oven cleaner on it! That stuff is super toxic! So don’t worry about yours, I’m sure it’s not as bad as mine. This looks like a perfect light and healthy dinner!
I hear ya, Kelly! Insane what we do for a little spick and span-edness. My dream is to have an outdoor kitchen where I can messy things up to my heart’s delight. Although I guess that would present problems when it’s raining/snowing. Hmm…my fantasy’s a work in progress 😉
Every time I try to do adult-y things around the apartment, I decide against it and just do blog things instead 😀 Oops? Greekifying food is the way to go for practically any recipe. It’s always a win!
Two birds of a feather, we are! If I’m staying indoors, it’s to cook, write, or make a mess 😉
I adore spaghetti squash, and spinach is one of my very favorite veggies! This dish looks really fantastic. I’ll sub out the chicken for a vegan protein, but that will be easy. Thank you for sharing! Now I’ve just got to go find some sun dried tomatoes 🙂
So glad you like it, Hannah! I bet you could come up with all sorts of veganized alterations. Enjoy!
Another favorite!! YUM!! I agree, giving food a Greek spin always works for me, too. Can’t wait to try this one!!
Woop woop! Let me know when you do, Rose! xo
I totally had the same intentions, too!! (Maybe not clean inside the oven because I’m not even there yet.) But I wanted to clean the entire house. Um… yea, didn’t happen. Oops. Making a delish spaghetti squash dish is totally an acceptable way to forget about big person duties.
Thanks for your words of affirmation, Lisa! One of these days, we’ll grow to love household duties. In the meantime: trails and wine 😀
Oh I am a neat FREAK out in the outside (if you come to my house it is spotless and highly organized) but messy on the inside (if it’s hidden behind a door or closet then I don’t get a sh**). So the oven. No bueno. Yeah for eating all the spaghetti squash! Can’t stop, won’t stop!
Fuck yeah, I’m all about hiding and ignoring my messes. One life to live, Liz…one life to live. Can’t spend all the time tiding up, no sir!
We love spaghetti squash but never roast it in the oven. Instead, place it on a parchment lined 9×11 pan in the microwave, skin side up. I start with 10 minutes on high power, and add 5 minutes at a time until the squash is very pushy-finger tender (skin side). It comes out perfect every time and takes 1/3 the time of the oven method. Ya gotta try.
Thanks for the advice, Terri! My mom’s all about making squash in the oven, too, but I prefer using the oven, myself 😉 Hope you enjoy the recipe!!
Anytime anything hits the bottom of my oven floor, it starts a small fire inside my oven…so there is NO IGNORING THE SWEET POTATO JUICES for me. Sadly. I would much take the ignorance is bliss approach.
Girl, you make spaghetti squash look SO enticing!
Fixed this spaghetti squash “Greek-a-fied” meal for my bride tonight and it was a terrific hit! The flavors all enhanced each other. Also, this was a first time for me to fix spaghetti squash. Who knew it would be so good? This is a “ten” in my cookbook along with your wonderful zucchini pasta dish.
I’m looking forward to more of your wonderful recipes!
Yaaaaay! I’m so happy to hear it!! This is one of my favorite meals and I’m always sad to see the spaghetti squash go when summer rolls around. Many thanks again for all the support!! xoxo
Thanks for the advice,
Delicious.