Think: creamy mushroom sauce on top of spaghetti squash strands with tasty morsels of chicken spread throughout. This Paleo chicken spaghetti is an easy weeknight dish and it’s delicious. It’s a decent amount of food too, so you’ll have plenty of leftovers. You can eat it as a casserole, or mix it all up and eat it like spaghetti.
There are a few steps to making this recipe, but they are all realllly easy. Here’s the breakdown:
- Cook chicken
- Cook spaghetti squash
- Make cream of mushroom soup
- Assemble and bake
Prepare/Cook Chicken & Spaghetti Squash:
You can either cook chicken or buy a rotisserie chicken. I always prefer to make my own. I suggest buying a whole chicken (fryer/broiler) and cutting it into pieces (or you can buy one that’s already pre-cut). I always try to buy local but sometimes I’ll get organic chicken from Kroger. They usually have organic griller packs which include four chicken legs and two chicken breasts. I use a combination of dark and light meat here because sometimes white meat can get a little dry. Anyway, after you rinse the chicken, put it into a pot of boiling water. You can add whatever spices you want to the water – it’ll make for a tasty chicken stock. Simmer and cook the chicken. Once its done, set it aside to cool and then remove the meat from the bones. I use three packed cups of shredded chicken meat in this chicken spaghetti recipe.
Make sure you save that chicken stock. Organic chicken broth typically costs about $4 for a four cup serving. I paid $8 for my chicken and it gave me enough meat to feed four people at least two meals AND provided about 6 cups of chicken stock. Chicken stock is delicious and good for you – and you’ll have plenty left over after making this recipe. I froze the leftover stock and made butternut squash, sweet potato and carrot soup with it. I also saved the chicken bones and put them in my freezer so that once I’ve collected enough, I can make a bone broth. I collect bones and keep them in my freezer… that’s totally weird isn’t it? Here’s my recipe for beef bone broth – if you’re making chicken bone broth follow the same directions but cook it for less time (up to 24 hours).
While your chicken is cooking, prep your spaghetti squash and put it in the oven to bake. Just follow the oven method below or cook your squash however you’d like. If you’re interested in another spaghetti squash recipe, try this ground beef spaghetti squash casserole. It’s a pretty popular dish.
Make Cream of Mushroom Soup:
Now it’s time to make a creamy mushroom sauce. Oh, this is so good. In a saucepan, add oil, onions, mushrooms and a pinch of salt. Once the veggies get nice and soft, add the garlic, serrano pepper and spices. After a couple minutes, deglaze with white wine. Then add the coconut milk and chicken broth and let everything simmer until the sauce is as thick as you’d like it to be. At that point, let it cool slightly and blend it together in a food processor (or with an immersion blender).
Put it all together:
Assemble the cream sauce, chicken and squash in a casserole dish along with the tomatoes and bell pepper. Mix it all together and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.
Enjoy this incredibly delicious chicken spaghetti on a cool fall night. It’s the ultimate comfort food made Paleo and will warm you right up.
Ingredients
- 1 large spaghetti squash cooked (see directions below)
- 3 cups cooked chicken white and dark meat (I cooked 1 whole chicken cut into pieces, see below)
- 2.5 cups cream of mushroom soup
- 1 bell pepper diced
- 1 14 ounce can Organic Diced Tomatoes, drained
Instructions
Chicken Spaghetti Squash (see details on how to prep squash and chicken below)
- In a casserole dish, add cooked spaghetti squash strands, cooked chicken, cream of mushroom soup, bell pepper and diced tomatoes.
- Mix well and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.
- Serve.
To make Chicken:
- Bring a pot of water to a boil.
- Carefully add chicken pieces and any seasonings you’d like to the boiling water. (I added salt, pepper and fresh thyme).
- After about 5 minutes, reduce to a simmer for about 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked.
- Remove chicken from pot and set aside. Once cool, remove chicken from bones.
- Save the broth - it’s liquid gold! (I normally strain before using)
To prepare squash using the oven method:
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, and add a little oil, salt and pepper to cut sides.
- Place squash cut side down in a baking dish.
- Bake for 45 minutes or until you can easily pierce the skin with a knife (cooking time depends on size of squash).
Tish says
Yum! Even better than I expected, and that mushroom soup is amazing!
My Heart Beets says
Thanks, Tish! Glad you liked it 🙂
Jennifer G says
The mushroom soup is very good – love the heat from the pepper and pepper flakes. But the assembled casserole was not appetizing looking. But it tasted good. My family wouldn’t eat it because of the appearance.
My Heart Beets says
Maybe try garnishing it with some cilantro? That’s my trick to making food look pretty 😉
Elizabeth says
This was delicious! And the cream of mushroom soup is so tasty!
My Heart Beets says
Elizabeth, I’m so glad you liked it. Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you!
Meaghan says
How big of a dish to you assemble it all in to bake at the end?
My Heart Beets says
Hi Meaghan, I use a 9×13 casserole dish but really you can use any size, as long as it all fits!
Nic says
This looks phenomenal, is there a calorie count on this per serving?
Pamela says
Great recipe, delicious and easy. I substituted Ro-tel for the canned tomatoes to add a little heat. The mushroom cream sauce is now my go to recipe for many other dishes. I didn’t process the sauce which left the texture of the sliced mushrooms.
My Heart Beets says
Pamela, thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you!
Kerrin says
This dish looks yummy! Have you ever tried with zucchini noodles? I purchased a spiral noodle cutter a few weeks back and I’m eager to try it out.
Roastedgreenchilis says
This is wonderful! I posted on my Facebook page!
Maria says
Oh my… I found your site via your Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie recipe (making that tomorrow) but now… now I think you just made a new fan. I’ve been grain and dairy free for about two years now, and one of the things I desperately miss is chicken spaghetti. So much. This will be happening next week for sure. As an added bonus, I’m in charge of the green bean casserole this Thanksgiving, and I think this mushroom sauce, with a little tweaking, would be perfect! Yay!
My Heart Beets says
Maria, I’m so glad you found my website! Please let me know how the recipes turn out for you 🙂 I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving!
Meggie says
I made this last night and it is fabulous! I love mushrooms so i tripled the amount and added black olives as well. Amazing!
My Heart Beets says
So glad you liked it, Meggie! I love mushrooms – I’m sure 3x the amount was 3x better! I’ll have to try it with black olives too 🙂