Lemon Chicken Spaghetti Squash Casserole

Happy Monday! I’m kicking off this week with a super healthy recipe from a wonderful foodie and blogger, Erin Lives Whole. My daughter Grace and I have made dozens of Erin’s recipes and they’ve always been delicious (and they always work too)! I was super excited to make a healthy casserole. This recipes easily serves 4-6.

What You Need

• 4 medium raw chicken breasts (about 2 pounds)
• 1 large or 2 small spaghetti squash, cooked equaling 5 cups squash
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 5oz bag baby spinach
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can coconut milk, just the top cream part, discard remaining clear liquid at bottom
• 1/4 cup capers
• 8 oz feta
• 1/4 cup lemon juice, about 1.5 large lemons juiced
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• fresh parsley + lemon for garnish

What You Do

1. Cook spaghetti squash. Slice in half, remove seeds, and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes face down.
2. Place chicken breasts on baking sheet with tin foil. With 25 minutes left to spaghetti squash cook time, add chicken to oven.
3. Remove chicken and spaghetti squash and let cool.
4. In a large saucepan, heat olive oil. Add spinach, coconut milk (just the top hard white part), and diced tomatoes. Heat until coconut milk has melted and spinach has wilted slightly.
5. When spaghetti squash is cool enough, use a fork to pull strands out. Put them in a bowl. Once they have sat in bowl for 10 minutes, squeeze with paper towels or dishtowel to remove all excess water.
6. Add spinach mixture to spaghetti squash and mix. 
7. Add in capers, half of feta, lemon juice, garlic, oregano, basil, salt and pepper.
8. Cut up chicken breasts in to small cubes and toss into spaghetti squash mixture. Everything should be all mixed together now!
9. Place into 9×13 casserole dish and top with remaining feta. Add lemon slices on top for more flavor.
10. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes and top with fresh parsley.

A couple of AMOTS Tips:

This dinner was easy to make as Erin described here, but because I was up against the clock, it was a little soupy as I didn’t leave enough time for the squash to cool and dry. When I make this again, I will make the spaghetti squash ahead of time, maybe earlier in the day, and just let it sit. I know this will make the dish error-free. Additionally, to make this dinner even more simple, you could shred up a rotisserie chicken and this casserole would be equally good. Finally, my family doesn’t love feta cheese so I swapped mozzarella in its place. Yum!