Spaghetti Squash with Meat Sauce made from chicken but flavored with herbs and spices that make it taste like your favorite Italian sausage meat sauce for a hearty and delicious healthy meal!
Spaghetti Squash with Meat Sauce may sound like a recipe you’ve seen on other blogs, but the difference here is I make the meat sauce with chicken, but season it so it tastes like beef and sausage!
One of the best shortcuts I find in making a delicious meat sauce (and keeping the calories down) is to use spices similar to those used in making sausage.
Of all the spices in the recipe the most flavorful is the fennel seeds, which when cooked with the ground chicken add a distinctly rich flavor to the sauce and make this dish so comforting you won’t miss the red meat or the pasta.
Plus, with the ingredients as healthy as they are you can even go ahead and enjoy a slice of garlic bread with it if you wanted as this dish is only 1 smart point per serving.
Spaghetti squash is one of my favorite pasta hacks while watching our simple carb intake. I do sometimes (when I am craving pasta) add in some angel hair pasta to toss them together. This way I get more volume than just using pasta with half the calories.
A second option if you want different noodles would be to spiralize some zucchini and carrots like in this spiralized pasta recipe for Healthy Thai Peanut Noodles.
Looking for some beef diet friendly options?
Tools used in the making of this Spaghetti Squash with Meat Sauce:
Cast Iron Dutch Oven: The perfect dutch oven for browning then simmering and the lid is a second pan!
Crushed Tomatoes: My go to brand for canned tomatoes, the flavors are like fresh.
Tomato Paste: I used to use the store brand canned variety but this one is my go to and easier to store.
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 pound lean ground chicken breast
- 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1/2 yellow onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons dried basil
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 28 ounces crushed tomatoes
- 6 ounces tomato paste
- 2 spaghetti squash
- olive oil spray
- parsley optional
- Parmesan cheese optional
Instructions
- Add the olive oil to a cast iron dutch oven on high heat.
- Add in the ground chicken and cook until crispy, breaking it into larger chunks.
- Add in fennel seeds, onion and garlic, cooking until the onions are translucent, about 3-4 minutes.
- Add in the basil, oregano, sugar, kosher salt and crushed red pepper flakes.
- Let it cook for 30 seconds while stirring until you can smell the herbs.
- Add in the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste and water and let simmer (uncovered) for 15 minutes on medium heat.
- While the sauce is cooking cut the spaghetti squash into 3 inch tall rings and scrape out the seeds.
- Put them on a large plate and microwave for 10-12 minutes or until tender.
- Carefully remove the squash into a large bowl.
- Spray for just a half second onto the squash, toss and spray another half second.
- Serve into bowls and spoon over the meat sauce.
- Garnish with Parmesan cheese if desired.
Nutrition
Such a great idea to add the fennel seeds! Love this healthier spin on a classic!
I have been obsessed with spaghetti squash lately! This looks so delicious!
Me too! It’s such a good substitute for pasta!
Such a great idea to use fennel to make the chicken taste like sausage!
Thanks, Amanda!
What a great twist on a classic!
I love spaghetti squash and this is the perfect way to eat it!
Such a delicious looking HEALTHY dinner! Love it!
The serving size says 1/4 th of recipe. Shouldn’t that be 1/6th?
Thanks for letting me know, Danielle! I calculated the points for 1/4th of the recipe, so I’ve updated the recipe to reflect that. Thanks again!
I just noticed the amount of sodium and sugar in this. Are you sure that the nutrition is for just one serving and not for the entire pot? If not, this is an unhealthy recipe with a whopping 1889 mg of sodium and 25.7 g of sugar per serving. Rao’s spaghetti sauce which is very good, only has 360 mg of sodium and 3 g of sugar and fewer calories. It seems like the nutritional info and serving size is off.
Danielle, thanks for catching that, I had mislabeled one of the products in my calculator. I’ve adjusted the information!
In step 6 you say to add water, but nowhere does it say how much.