I’ve wanted to try some variation of stuffed zucchini boats ever since I saw them on Pinterest a couple years ago. Since then, I’ve seen other people do the same versions of stuffed zucchini boats again and again including turkey taco, southwestern, etc.. I’m sure those are all great but copying something I’ve already seen done all over the place just felt boring. So I started thinking about what flavors would go well stuffed in a zucchini boat. That’s when I remembered the stuffed tomatoes I made https://cookinglowkey.com/2015/10/couscous-stuffed-tomatoes/. I used a white wine reduction with couscous and kalamata olives in that dish so I thought I’d put a twist on that with my zucchini boats.
Baked zucchini doesn’t have a ton of flavor naturally so I knew I wanted to use bold flavors either in the stuffing or in a sauce. This led me to a white wine reduction. I knew from my past experience with a white wine reduction sauce that it has a very bold flavor that takes over the dish which is exactly what I wanted. Having already created a basic white wine reduction however, I decided to spice things up by adding Sriracha to the sauce. I may never leave Sriracha out of a white wine reduction ever again because it added another element to the sauce that makes it unbelievably flavorful.
So once I decided on the sauce I knew I wanted to do couscous stuffed zucchini boats because couscous is perfect for soaking up strong sauces. If you’re gluten free I would recommend subbing the couscous out for quinoa because that’s better with sauces than rice. You can also leave out the chicken to make this dish vegan or vegetarian. Once you try this sauce I can guarantee you’ll never use a different white wine reduction again. Enjoy!
- 1 Large Zucchini
- 1 Box Plain Couscous
- 1 1/4 Cup Vegetable Broth
- 2 Cloves Minced Garlic
- 8 Baby Sweet Peppers
- 2 oz Kalamata olives (roughly 20 full olives, cut them in half, you can buy them already halved)
- 3/4 Cup White
- 1 Large Lemon cut in half and juiced
- 1 Tbsp Sriracha
- 3 Tbsp Light Butter
- 3/4 lb Chicken Breast
- 1/2 Tsp Salt/Pepper
- 1 Tsp Olive Oil
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.
- Season chicken with salt and pepper then add oil to a fry-pan over medium-high heat and cook until done.
- Cook Couscous to box instructions but use vegetable broth instead of water.
- While the chicken and couscous is cooking, mince the garlic, chop 8 baby sweet pepper into rings and halve the olives if they aren't cut in half already.
- Add the sweet peppers, olives and garlic to the couscous and combine.
- Once the chicken is finished cooking, chop finely into small pieces and add to the couscous mixture.
- Cut your Zucchini in half long ways then using either a knife, spoon or ice cream scooper, scoop the insides of the zucchini out leaving 2 "boats."
- Rub the outside of the zucchini lightly with oil and place hollow side up into an oven safe dish.
- Fill your zucchini boats with some of the couscous mixture until they're full (there will be a good amount of the couscous mixture left).
- Cook at 400 degrees in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Well those are cooking, combine white wine, lemon juice, butter, sriracha, and 1 Tbsp juice from the kalamata olives jar in a small sauce or saute pan.
- Bring sauce to a boil for 45-60 seconds then reduce heat to a simmer and cover.
- Let the sauce simmer until the zucchini is done (roughly 5-7 minutes).
- Remove zucchini from the oven.
- On a plate, place a large scoop of your couscous mix out then place one of your zucchini boats over the couscous mix.
- Drizzle half of your sauce over everything on the plate then repeat this process for the second plate and serve immediately.
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