Spaghetti Squash Boats with Almond Ricotta & Italian Chicken
Monday night calls for easy dinners. I’ve always been about minimal ingredients, a quick prep, and easy clean-up. Last night, I was in the mood for something warm and filling. I’ve been eating a lot of salads lately, so it’s nice to switch it up. When I saw Kite-Hill’s ricotta at the grocery store, I immediately knew what I was going to make. Sometimes, I go into the grocery store without a plan. It doesn’t always work out in my favor.
Whenever I eat at True Food Kitchen, I always get the spaghetti squash with almond ricotta and chicken. I ordered the same dish at the L.A. location as well as the D.C. location. It’s one of my favorite meals, and I couldn’t wait to make it at home.
The Spaghetti Squash Boats with Almond Ricotta & Italian Chicken turned out so good! I wanted to quickly hop on the blog this evening to share how I made this easy and delicious meal. It tasted almost identical to the one at True Food Kitchen (although, they have better chicken meatballs I’ll make next time!) It’s a great dish if you’re looking for a new recipe to add to your weekly menu.
For the squash:
– One spaghetti squash
– One jar pasta sauce
– Kite-Hill ricotta cheese
– oregano
– thyme
For the chicken:
– One lb chicken breast
– One tablespoon avocado oil
– sea salt
– black pepper
– oregano
– thyme
I preheated the oven to 400-degrees.
While the oven heated up, I microwaved the spaghetti squash for ten minutes. I didn’t cut it up, just made some puncture holes, and set it in the microwave. Microwaving the squash shaves about 25-minutes off the cooking time.
Once the spaghetti squash was soft, I sliced it in half, carefully removed the seeds, and added it to a baking tray.
I added 1/2 cup of tomato pasta sauce into the halves. You can also use a white sauce if you’re not into red pasta sauce.
The ricotta is so fluffy and flavorful. Crazy to believe it’s made with almonds. It tasted JUST LIKE actual ricotta cheese. I’ll be using this in so many more recipes.
I crumbled up the ricotta and added it top of the spaghetti squash with a dash of dried oregano and thyme. I transferred it to the oven to bake for 15-minutes.
While the squash cooked, I cooked up the chicken breast in a pan with the avocado oil, sea salt, black pepper, oregano, and thyme.
The best part is transferring the boats to a bowl and diving in! 😋 I’ll be adding this recipe to my go-to list.
I hope you enjoy this easy dinner idea! ♥️
Questions for you!
- Do you ever recreate your favorite restaurant meals?
- Are you team spaghetti squash?
Zully Hernandez says
This looks awesome! I am DEFINITELY team spaghetti squash – I love it so much but I always just make one half at a time as no one else in my house appreciates the goodness! I’ll have to give this ricotta a try – I’ve used tofu as a sub before but I’m definitely trying to avoid it now because I realized it was terrible for my skin.
Taralynn McNitt says
I’ll never understand people who don’t like spaghetti squash 😆 it’s so good!
Yeah, tofu loves messing with my skin! But, definitely try out this ricotta! It’s amazing.
Bennie says
The spaghetti squash sounds yummy but I’ll wait until the fall to try this recipe -it’s too darn hot to turn on the oven. 😉
Taralynn McNitt says
I feel ya! 😉
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog says
Looks yummy! I need to get some spaghetti squash now! 🙂
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Taralynn McNitt says
Yes you do ♥️
Harriet says
Yumm, I know what we are having for dinner tonight. I love spaghetti squash, last year we saved all the seeds from the ones we brought and grew our this year, they are very ease to grow which is great. I do try to recreate our favorite meals, and have been doing it more often lately with the Covid restrictions we have in place. Hope you have a great week!
Taralynn McNitt says
You are always amazing me by your talents! I bet your homegrown spaghetti squash is so good and fresh!
♥️
Jenny says
Taralynn,
Maybe I’m just not making it right but I cannot STAND spaghetti squash. Maybe because I love real pasta I just feel like I’m suffering with the squash as a very poor substitute? That is not why I’m commenting though.
I think you’ve recommended kite hill before and I recently tried the ricotta. I can say as a former REAL CHEESE and ONLY REAL CHEESE LOVER that this tastes spot on. It doesn’t quite melt the same but it tastes so good and the texture is creamy. We recently had it on homemade pizza – it was divine!
I hope you will share some other recipes where you use this ricotta because I fell in love this weekend and can’t wait to spread it again! Thanks for the rec!
Jenny
Taralynn McNitt says
Haha I don’t think you’re alone. I know a lot of people who don’t like the substitute! I could eat it raw 😆
Wooooo so happy you enjoyed the kite-hill ricotta! Honestly, all of their products are 🔥
I put it on my avocado toast this morning!
Laura says
I’m totally team spaghetti squash!
Taralynn McNitt says
same! 😊
Ashley says
I always recreate my favorite dishes from restaurants!! Especially salad combinations, they’re so creative!
Also team spaghetti squash! Especially with some shrimp scampi. YUM
p.s. I just found this cool greeting card company, I thought you would like cause the cards have WILDFLOWER seeds made into the cards!! How cool is that?? https://cuteroot.com/
Taralynn McNitt says
Restaurants always create the best salads and it’s fun to try to recreate them!
MMMM YES! I made that a while back.
awwwwww so cute thank you for sharing
Jessie says
I love learning restaurant recipes and recreating them .
spaghetti squash is Delicious
Taralynn McNitt says
It really is 😊
Lisa says
I am looking forward to trying this recipe. I have been using Imperfect food company weekly instead of grocery store shopping..so I have 2 spaghetti squashes ready to go. I love your cooking method for the squash. Also I am going to try a swap out for the cheese by using another mild soft cheese and some precooked organic chicken they had available. I think with Covid and shopping…it’s what’s available and being creative. Almost trying to do things with about 5 ingredients especially for us that end up working 10 hr days. I just found your website and recipes. I shared 4 of them with my daughter who is currently overseas. It was amazing to see our favorite items were your most recent posts. Thanks ☺️
Taralynn McNitt says
Hi, Lisa!
Thank you for sending such a sweet message!
I lovoe that you are using the imperfect produce and being super creative with your food choices! Sounds like you’re getting your cooking creative side going! I’m also a minimal ingredient type of person.
Thank you for sharing my site and I hope you get to reunite with your daughter soon! ♥️
Stay in touch!
xo