This oven baked Italian zucchini is the perfect weeknight meal. It’s healthy, quick, easy, and yet incredibly filling! It takes your favorite Italian flavors from rich, tomatoey marinara sauce to creamy, nutty parmesan cheese and combines it all into the best low-carb vessel: mild flavored, tender zucchini!
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📋 About the Recipe
Topped with a delicious homemade Italian filling made from ground chicken, marinara sauce, onions, and garlic, this Italian zucchini is incredibly healthy with a huge burst of flavor. Think of it as an Italian chicken parmesan made a bit healthier and lighter but with all the same great flavor!
In my opinion, there is nothing worse than soggy vegetables, and often zucchini falls victim to sogginess more times than some others. However, by following this recipe, I ensure a crisp, yet tender, forkful of zucchini in every bite.
The addition of the breadcrumb topping allows the stuffed zucchini to become perfectly golden brown, while adding a crunchy texture. The combination of crunchy breadcrumbs and crisply cooked zucchini rids it of it’s notorious sogginess.
As an additional bonus, each step only takes a few minutes with the oven doing most of the hard work for you. These stuffed Italian zucchini are also very similar to a zucchini or squash casserole, but without the caked on cheese that makes it nearly impossible to clean the baking dish.
The entire “casserole” is cooked right inside the zucchini itself, making the meal and cleanup a breeze and proving that a healthy (and delicious!) dinner can truly be made (and cleaned!) in less than an hour!
🛒 Ingredients
A few notes about the ingredients:
- If you prefer ground beef or ground turkey, you can use those instead of the ground chicken.
- When buying store-bought marinara sauce, look for ones with whole ingredients (such as tomatoes, onion, and garlic), little to no “unfamiliar” ingredients (such as sodium benzoate or calcium chloride), and little to no added sugar.
- For a non dairy and/or gluten free version of this recipe, you can omit the breadcrumbs and cheese or create your own crispy topping with pulverized nuts and nutritional yeast instead.
📓 Instructions
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.
Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and hollow out the inside until there is a deep canal through the middle. (You can either choose to discard the seeds and inners or add it with the onions and garlic in the upcoming step.)
Arrange the zucchini in a shallow baking dish. Set it aside.
In a large skillet set over medium heat, drizzle a light layer of olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add in the ground chicken.
Season the chicken with the dried basil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Brown the chicken until it is almost cooked through, then add the chopped onion, garlic, and pepper and cook until the onion and pepper are tender.
Add the marinara to the skillet, stir, and simmer until the sauce starts to thicken, about 5 to 10 minutes. Then, turn off the heat.
Drizzle the zucchini with a light drizzle of olive oil and season them with a pinch of dried basil, oregano, salt, and pepper.
Fill the canal with the meat sauce and allow it to form a mound on top of the zucchini. (If you have extra filling, you can save it for later and use it as pasta sauce or use it to fill additional zucchini or other vegetables.)
In a small bowl, combine breadcrumbs, freshly grated parmesan cheese, and mozzarella.
Sprinkle the cheese and breadcrumbs over the top of the zucchini.
Place the baking dish in the oven and allow the zucchini to cook for about 20 minutes until they’re fork tender, the cheese melts, and the tops become golden brown.
Serve zucchini warm from the oven.
Check out the how-to steps in this web story!
🔍 FAQs
Yes! There are many different kinds of zucchini, as well as many varieties of summer squash. Green zucchini, intended for this recipe, has a mild flavor and a soft, delicate texture. Depending on the season, zucchini can range in sizes from a few inches to about a foot in length. Their width can vary tremendously too.
For this recipe, it is recommended to find hearty zucchini that can hold a decent amount of filling once hollowed out. For different kinds of eaters, from kids to grown adults, you can choose a variety of sizes for different serving sizes or simply cut a larger zucchini in half once cooked.
If you’re not a fan of zucchini or simply want to diversify this dish, you can add the same Italian filling to other vegetables. Substitute the zucchini for any color bell pepper (or make these Mexican stuffed peppers), large tomatoes, poblano peppers, spaghetti squash, yellow onions, or portabella mushrooms, each sliced in half and hollowed out. Depending on the vegetable you choose, you may need to adjust the cook time in the oven.
Additionally, if using peppers or a thicker-skinned veggie, add a small amount of water to the baking dish to help steam and soften the vegetables.
These stuffed zucchini go well with nearly any side dish! Make it a complete meal with extra vegetables, a side of pasta or homemade garlic bread, or one of the recipes below!
- Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup
- Bucatini Cacio e Pepe
- Garlic Mashed Cauliflower Potatoes
- Lemon, Shallot, and Herb Quinoa
💭 One More Tip
Store any leftover Italian zucchini in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to 3 days. If you’d like to prepare this meal ahead of time, you can make the filling up to 2 days ahead and then slice, season, and fill the zucchini the day of cooking.
🍴 Related Recipes
Share your cooking with me! If you make this recipe, I'd love to know! Tag @yourhomemadehealthy on Instagram or leave a comment with a rating and some feedback at the bottom of this page!
📖 Recipe
Italian Zucchini
Equipment
- baking dish
Ingredients
- 4 green zucchini
- olive oil to coat the skillet and for drizzling
- 1 lb ground chicken
- ½ teaspoon dried basil plus extra for sprinkling
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano plus extra for sprinkling
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- ½ a medium yellow onion chopped
- 1 bell pepper any color, chopped
- 2 cups marinara sauce
- 3 tablespoon unseasoned breadcrumbs
- ⅓ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- ⅓ cup shredded mozzarella
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.
- Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and hollow out the inside until there is a deep canal through the middle. (You can either choose to discard the seeds and inners or add it with the onions and garlic in the upcoming step.)
- Arrange the zucchini in a shallow baking dish. Set it aside.
- In a large skillet set over medium heat, drizzle a light layer of olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add in the ground chicken.
- Season the chicken with the dried basil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Brown the chicken until it is almost cooked through, then add the chopped onion, garlic, and pepper. Cook until the onion and pepper are tender.
- Add the marinara to the skillet, stir, and simmer until the sauce starts to thicken, about 5 to 10 minutes. Then, turn off the heat.
- Drizzle the zucchini with a light drizzle of olive oil and then season them with a pinch of dried basil, oregano, salt, and pepper.
- Fill the canal with the meat sauce and allow it to form a mound on top of the zucchini. (If you have extra filling, you can save it for later and use it as pasta sauce or use it to fill additional zucchini or other vegetables.)
- In a small bowl, combine breadcrumbs, freshly grated parmesan cheese, and mozzarella.
- Sprinkle the cheese and breadcrumbs over the top of the zucchini.
- Place the baking dish in the oven, uncovered, and allow the zucchini to cook for about 20 minutes until they’re fork tender, the cheese melts, and the tops become golden brown.
- Serve the zucchini warm from the oven.
- Store any leftover Italian zucchini in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to 3 days. If you’d like to prepare this meal ahead of time, you can make the filling on the stove up to 2 days ahead and then slice, season, and fill the zucchini the day of cooking in the oven.
Notes
- If you prefer ground beef or ground turkey, you can use those instead of the ground chicken.
- When buying store-bought marinara sauce, look for ones with whole ingredients (such as tomatoes, onion, and garlic), little to no “unfamiliar” ingredients (such as sodium benzoate or calcium chloride), and little to no added sugar.
- For a non dairy and/or gluten free version of this recipe, you can omit the breadcrumbs and cheese or create your own crispy topping with pulverized nuts and nutritional yeast instead.
- If you’re not a fan of zucchini or simply want to diversify this dish, you can add the same Italian filling to other vegetables. Substitute the zucchini for any color bell pepper, large tomatoes, poblano peppers, spaghetti squash, yellow onions, or portabella mushrooms, each sliced in half and hollowed out. Depending on the vegetable you choose, you may need to adjust the cook time in the oven.
Nutrition
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