As much as I hated zucchini just a month ago, I’m now obsessed with these zucchini boats. I’ve made the sausage stuffed boats twice and the second time I froze enough of the sauce to make them a few more times on demand.
Last weekend I made beef enchilada boats. The Fiancé made a face when I told him I was making the much-loved enchiladas into boats, even though he loves zucchini. I think just the idea of not having the tortillas was grossing him out. To make them a little more appealing for him I added Spanish rice to the bottom of his boat and then topped it with the beef enchilada mixture (I made a pot roast in the crockpot, shredded it, added green chiles and enchilada sauce – that’s all) and cheese. He loved them! I left the rice off mine because I don’t eat rice and it was so good. I mean – so, so damn goooood!
Last night I made the chicken, spinach and feta stuffed boats. I used to make stuffed chicken similar to this recipe, but I also added bacon to that recipe and I didn’t use bacon last night. It would have been good, but not necessary.
I marinated chicken breasts (2 halves) in lemon pepper marinade while I was at work yesterday, then grilled them when I got home. While they were grilling I sautéed a little chopped onion and garlic with some fresh baby spinach.
Usually I keep the insides of the zucchini boats for another meal or add them into the recipe I’m making, but after so many boats recently I have a surplus of zucchini insides and no desire to put it in this filling this time. You can do whatever you want with it.
I always pre-bake my zucchini boats. I don’t know if this is necessary, but it’s the only way I’ve done it and it works. This time I seasoned the boats with salt, pepper, oregano and a little garlic (after spraying lightly with olive oil), then baked at 375 for 10-15 minutes. I vary the boat seasoning based on the recipe.
The grilled chicken was chopped into small pieces after it had rested under foil for at least 5 minutes. It was perfectly juicy and flavorful. I put the cut up chicken in the bottom of the boats.
The sautéed spinach was mixed with a little cream cheese (about 3oz for my 4 boats), feta, oregano and garlic to taste. I didn’t salt this because of the feta. Next time I might add a little Greek yogurt to this it out a little bit because it was pretty thick.
I topped the chicken with this mixture and baked for about 20 minutes (I think). The result was so tasty and flavorful I ate two!
I am thoroughly surprised at how awesome this was. It made me want to eat zucchini every single day.
The only thing I think I would do differently is make the cheese mixture thinner and possibly mix the chicken in with it before putting it in the boat (instead of layered). And I will probably try adding mushrooms, too. I’ll be experimenting along the way.
Note: for the 4 boat halves I only used one of the chicken breasts (1/2) and saved the other for lunch salads this week.
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Suburban Mixup 