This has been my go-to quickie dinner. The result looks like I labored in the kitchen for an hour, but all I did was cut some zucchini and shred a rotisserie chicken.
If you are really in a hurry, you can skip the step of sautéing the onions and garlic and just leave that out. You’ll pass up on flavor, but it won’t be a deal breaker.
Regular barbeque sauce contains a mountain of refined sugar, so I was elated when Primal Kitchens released their Unsweetened Barbeque Sauce. It has enough natural sweetness from tomato paste, and because it’s not cloyingly sweet, you can actually taste the other flavors of your food when you cook with it.
I highly recommend drizzling the ranch dressing at the end. Again, Primal Kitchen’s ranchPrimal Kitchen’s ranch is a great way to go, as their dressings are free from the inflammatory vegetable oils and MSG found in conventional options. Or, you can use my recipe for dairy-free ranch dressingmy recipe for dairy-free ranch dressing.
Keep in mind that leftovers are delicious and excellent for lunches, just warm quickly in the toaster oven or under the LOW setting on your broiler.
- 3 medium zucchini
- 1 rotisserie chicken, meat shredded (or 2 ½ cups shredded chicken)
- 1 bottle unsweetened barbecue sauce, such as Primal Kitchens (or use 1 cup other barbecue sauce)
- 1 Tbs. coconut oil or ghee
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Chopped green onion and cilantro for serving, optional
- Paleo ranch dressing, such as Primal Kitchen’s Ranch or my homemade dairy-free ranch, optional
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and have ready a 9x13 baking dish.
- Halve the zucchini lengthwise, then use a spoon to hollow out the inside of the zucchini. Set the zucchini pulp aside (see note below).
- Heat the oil in a skillet over medium head, and add the onion. Cook until softened and translucent, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook briefly.
- Combine the shredded chicken with the barbecue sauce and onion mixture. Put the zucchini boats in the baking dish, and fill the zucchini boats evenly.
- Bake for 40 minutes, until the zucchini is tender but not mushy.
- If desired, drizzle lightly with ranch dressing (highly recommended!) and sprinkle with the chopped herbs.
Lauren why cant use use the pulp in the mixture with the chicken onion garlic etc. Cook it and fill in the zuchinni boats?
Also I am on the SCD diet and I wanted to buy the unsweetened bbq sauce you mentioned. Us that legal for Specific Carbohydrate Diet?
Thanks so much
You can saute the zucchini mixture and add it to the chicken mixture, but you’ll have extra filling that won’t fit into the boats which you can bake separately in ramekins. As for the BBQ sauce I think it is SCD-okay but you can check out the ingredients yourself — I’ve linked it to Thrive Market which lists ingredients.
I made this recipe last night for my family and it was a hit. The Primal Kitchen BBQ sauce is a real find. Thanks very much.
So glad you enjoyed the recipe!