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For most of us, eating healthier involves eating more veggies than we were accustomed to. Maybe a lot more. It’s natural to feel some resistance to the new flavors and textures of foods that weren’t a regular part of your diet before, but usually, they grow on you if you give them a chance.
One of the simplest, most effective ways I’ve found to incorporate more veggies like that into our diet is to simply toss them all together with proteins and seasonings we already like. This Barbecue Bacon Chicken Casserole is the perfect example.
Now, spaghetti squash is one of the few types of squash I actually like. But my husband? The texture weirds him out and he flat-out groans every time he sees I’ve bought one. Determined to turn that rejection into acceptance, however grudging, I set out to make a spaghetti squash recipe he wouldn’t mind eating by including some of his favorite flavors: bacon, barbecue sauce, and garlic. If you’d like to make your own barbecue sauce, here’s a great recipe from Mickey, but thanks to the companies offering AIP-friendly barbecue sauce these days, you can also use store-bought!
- 1 pound bacon, chopped
- 1 red onion, diced
- 2 pounds chicken breast, chopped
- 2 cups spinach
- 1 spaghetti squash, baked, seeded, and shredded
- 1½ cups AIP barbecue sauce
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- Sea salt to taste
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and grease a large baking dish with coconut oil or lard.
- In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon until just shy of crisp, about 7 minutes. Remove the bacon from the pan, leaving the fat.
- Cook the onion and chicken in the bacon fat until the chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes.
- Add the spinach and cook until wilted, stirring frequently, about 3 minutes.
- In a large bowl, combine the chicken mixture, spaghetti squash, barbecue sauce, garlic powder, salt, and half of the cooked bacon. Mix well.
- Transfer to the greased baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining bacon.
- Bake 30 minutes, then serve hot.
7 comments
There’s an excessive amount of BBQ sauce in this. I wondered pouring it in if there wasn’t some mistake and then when the thing was finished and I tasted it, I knew for sure. If I make it again, I’d use half the amount of BBQ sauce. Even your photos do not show a color that would reflect this much sauce.
Hi Jill! I use a carrot-based BBQ sauce that has more of an orange-ish color in the photo. I LOVE BBQ sauce and use it liberally to mask the flavors of the veggies for picky eaters, but by all means adjust it according to your tastes.
Can someone please confirm the amount of BBQ sauce? I agree with Jill that 1.5 cups sounds like too much and seems like it would change the color.
Can you portion this out and freeze leftovers for simple, quick meals later?
Can this be made without any BBQ sauce? Would it need some sort of liquid-y substitute?
This was so good! I didn’t have an issue with the recommended portion of BBQ sauce (I make my own) but we had a really large spaghetti squash so maybe that was the difference. But this was so good! My husband and I got a little possessive of the leftovers.
We made this tonight and thought it was delicious. But I agree that the amount of BBQ sauce could easily be reduced by half and still make for a tasty dish. In fact, with that much sauce, the end result was more like a pile on the plate than the cube shown in the image. Still, it was delicious and we’ll definitely make it again. Another change I’d make would be to pre-cook the squash for half the time because re-baking it turned it to mush.