It’s that time again. Squash season. I effing love squashes. No, like I REALLY really really really, oh really love them. There are so many of them to choose from! And they’re so colorful. The super market hasn’t looked this pretty in a while. Ugh, I’m like a child’s story book today. Gag me.
But for real. Colorado is looking pretty damn beautiful lately. I love fall. It’s been raining. There’s been lots of lightning. And it’s finally not 90 degrees in my room so I sleep through the ENTIRE night without a drop of sweat on me. Which is pretty impressive with my sweating history. Meaning present history. Wait, what?
Anywho, this recipe is a leftovers recipe. Have you not heard of this yet? Damn you new reader! Get with the program. The recipe is a recipe I made in the past, but my pictures looked as close to vomit as possible so not enough people were interested in trying it. SO, I’ve remade this recipe in hopes that more of you will try out this delicious recipe and love it as much as I do. The bummer part of this recipe is that, well, it just pretty much always looks like dog doo. I tried to fancy it up. Tried to make it look better from the last, but alas, it just ain’t gonna happen. So if you don’t try this recipe out because you think the picture looks gross, jokes on you, your taste buds will remain unpleased. And hate you.
I’m getting excited for the weekend. I will actually spend time OUTSIDE of the coffee shop for once this week and get around other people who love food as much as I do. Think about how weird I must look in the coffee shop when I’m editing pictures of food. Or looking at pictures of myself that are going into my cookbook. Talk about self centered. So, in hopes of showing people that I do like other people other than myself, I will be attending the Do it Better! Paleo Conference which will feature the amazing Michelle from Nom Nom Paleo, Melissa who is the Author of Well Fed Cookbook and The Clothes Make the Girl, and Holly from Holly Would if she Could. Yep. Pretty sweet f*cking line up. I’m pumped. Who wouldn’t want to learn from the best?! And I read their blogs when I was first starting out paleo. Pretty cool. You should go too!!
Soooo there is a dead squirrel outside my house and it smells really bad. I saw these two squirrels fighting in the trees the other day. I’m pretty sure a squirrel on squirrel murder occurred outside of my house last night. Do I call the police?
Leftovers: Chicken Bacon Alfredo
- Prep Time: 25 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 1 spaghetti squash, cut in half lengthwise, seeds removed
- 1 larger delicata squash, cut in half lengthwise, seeds removed
- 1/2lb chicken tenders
- 4–6 slices bacon, diced
- 1/2 cup canned coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your 425 degrees.
- Cut spaghetti squash delicata squash in half and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and excess threads. Don’t be dainty.
- Place open side down on a baking sheet (use aluminum foil or parchment paper for easy clean up) and cook for 20-25 minutes. You will know when they are done cooking when you can poke the outside skin and it ‘gives’ a bit.
- Now you can either cook your chicken at the same time or after the squash is done cooking. Whatever you’d like. Just place chicken on a foil or parchment paper lined baking sheet, sprinkle some olive oil over the chicken (or other kind of fat), salt and pepper it, and sprinkle just a bit of basil on top. Easy peasy. I cooked my tenders for around 15-20 minutes, or until cooked through. Keep that sh*t moist bro.
- Once your squash is done cooking, pull it out of the oven, dethread the spaghetti squash into a large bowl with a fork. Go against the grain, if spaghetti squash had grain.
- Now throw your diced bacon into a skillet and cook until done. Use a slotted spoon to pull out your cooked bacon, but leave behind the grease.
- Take your delicata squash and hollow it out. Unless you want to eat the skin, be my guest. If you’re smart though, you’ll just use the insides and dump them into your warm skillet filled with bacon grease. Then add your coconut milk. You may need to add a little bit more coconut milk depending on how runny you like your sauce. Mix thoroughly with a ladle to break up the squash a bit. I used a pink ladle. It works the best.
- Add seasonings to the mix and salt and pepper as needed. Mix thoroughly and cook on low for about 5 minutes to simmer.
- Now dice up your cooked chicken.
- Pour sauce over spaghetti squash and add your chicken to the mix.
- Mix well.
- Top with bacon. Duh.
- Eat it like you mean it.
This was sooo good! I added extra chicken / bacon and used acorn squash but this was a really good one, and I have leftovers today!
So I recently found your site and I’ve been dabbling with paleo and this is amazing. I made this recipe tonight (only change was acorn squash because I couldn’t find delicata and added cayenne because I like New Orleans-style spicy alfredo). Holy crap this was ridiculously awesome. I was doing a tester recipe because my husband was out of town and he is not a squash fan. Or rather, he THINKS he’s not a squash fan. He’s a huge bacon fan and I guarantee he will eat this. I’m so in love with your site (and your sense of humor). I’m going to stick around! 🙂 Thanks!
I used sauteed Kale (didn’t have any squash) and it was still fantastic.. I almost ate the entire thing in one sitting!
JULIIIIIIIII….my teen son adores you. He could live off regular pasta bacon alfredo…
i adore you, i could live off bacon. can’t even begin to tell you how many times we have had this…..
YUM!
i’m beyond excited for the cookbook….and for you. I’m proud of you. ;o)
I used a yam (the whitish looking one, not with the bright orange flesh) instead…Ah-mah-zing!!!
Omg!!! Yet another recipe that turned out sooo delicious!! I made them for dinner one night, my 4 year old son loved it, my husband couldnt get enough! I was only able to get one serving because by the next afternoon it was gone! The hubby ate it all!!! Thank you soooo much!!!
This is ridiculous good. Just made it for lunch. I could eat this everyday.
This recipe looks GREAT. I’ve never cooked with coconut milk but I’d really like to try. If you are using other flavors like thyme, basil, oregano, etc does it still have the coconut flavor?
Hey Juli!
I know I’m a little late on this recipe, but I have a quick question…does it matter if I use 1/2 fat coconut milk or should I use full fat? I have a can of 1/2 fat from trader joes, but want to make sure it’ll work before I start tonight..thanks so much!
it’s really up to you. i use full fat but readers comment all the time about using 1/2 and it works just fine!
Wow! I made a few changes to the recipe, so bear with me. I popped multiple cherries with this recipe, having never had spaghetti OR delicata squash before.
1) I also couldn’t find delicata squash, so I used kabocha – I had never tried this one, either, so I cannot pass a judgment as to whether it was a good substitution. All I know is that it had a funny name and looked adorable, so I bought it.
If you are clueless like me and asked yourself “why the hell does this sauce need SQUASH in it,” it’s because it thickens the sauce so it becomes creamy rather than soupy (d’oh).
2) I’m primal rather than paleo, which means I eat full-fat dairy (and often). I still used coconut milk in the sauce, but I also dumped 1.5 cups of shredded parmesan in there (I’m sure if you have self-control, 3/4 cup would be plenty). I used chopped garlic from a jar instead of garlic salt. The result was….AMAZING. This would make for a perfect winter “cream” soup on its own – I’ll just add some chicken broth next time.
3) I followed the directions otherwise. IT WAS MIND-BLOWING. 10000x better than regular spaghetti alfredo.