These Cheesy Buffalo Chicken Zucchini Boats are perfect for anyone wanting to add vegetables into their diet yet NOT sacrifice taste! These are low carb, Keto friendly and packed full of nutritious goodness – but don’t let that scare you away from making these, they are crazy delicious!
How to Make Cheesy Buffalo Chicken Zucchini Boats
Zucchini season in my house is all year long, Summer is of course, the best and cheapest time to bake and cook with zucchini, but it’s so healthy that I will buy it year round in the stores. While my favourite way – bar none- is to bake up an amazing chocolate zucchini cake I can also handle eating zucchini as a vegetable, and what a great vegetable zucchini is really, when you think about it. How many vegetables can you eat in cake form AND in their healthy normal form? I have also made Tex Mex Zucchini Sticks and my Kale and Zucchini Fritatta that is super healthy!
How to Clean and Prep Zucchini
To prep zucchini to use in cooking, you simply wash the outside of the zucchini and cut off the hard ends. If there are any blemishes, you can remove them with a paring knife, taking off only the outer layer and not gouging it out.
How do I Use Large, Older Zucchini?
A lot of people ask if you can use older, larger zucchini in recipes and I will tell you that the best use for that zucchini is to scoop out the large, hard inner seeds and then use it in my Chocolate Zucchini Bread or my Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes!
Is it safe to eat raw zucchini?
You bet! While raw zucchini is harder on your digestive system than cooked, a lot of people slice it and add it into salads or just eat it in disks with dip. To make sure that you don’t have any tummy issues, I would cook it over eating it raw however.
I took my Basic Crockpot Buffalo Chicken recipe and tweaked it a bit in order to stuff it into zucchini boats and bake them up. I added in some ranch or blue cheese dressing into the chicken filling to make sure that they don’t dry out ( and to tame the heat level a bit) and a little bit of celery adds some crunch to the mix.Then you simply load up some hollowed out zucchini, top with Tex Mex Cheese and voila!
Dinner is served!
Zucchini Tips & Tricks
- This zucchini recipe happens to be gluten-free and suitable for low carb/good carb diets. Just make sure that your ingredients are gluten-free ( the salad dressings) and you are good to go!
- When buying a zucchini at the store, make sure it’s firm, darker green and blemish free. By blemish free I mean spots that are starting to rot, not cosmetic issues as much.
- When growing them in the garden, make sure to wash them really well before you use them! Another tip is to NOT wash them until RIGHT before you use them as the skin will start to deteriorate after washing.
For the first year ever last year I had a LACK of zucchini in my garden! I know, right? Who has a lack of zucchini? My plants just didn’t work out that well, which is a total bummer. Usually during the summer I am looking at zucchini in the store and thinking ” HA! Why pay for something that’s growing like a WEED in my garden!??” Not this year, I have bought it all year round.
Love,
Karlynn
Cheesy Buffalo Chicken Zucchini Boats
Ingredients
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 cup Frank’s RedHot Original
- 1 cup of strong chicken broth
- 3-4 tablespoons Ranch Or Blue Cheese Salad Dressing
- 1/4 cup finely diced celery optional
- 2-3 inches medium Zucchini around 8-10 long sliced in half lengthwise and hollowed out with a spoon
- 2 cups Tex Mex Shredded Cheese
Instructions
- Place chicken breasts in a slow cooker and pour in chicken broth and hot sauce.
- Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for up to 8 hours.
- Remove chicken and sauce into a large bowl ( you need the sauce or it will be too dry) and shred the chicken.
- Add the ranch or blue cheese dressing to the shredded chicken to taste.(this will also prevent it from drying out) and mix in the celery.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- Fill the zucchini boats with shredded chicken, dividing the filling between the pieces evenly.
- Top with shredded Tex Mex Cheese.
- Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until the zucchini is soft and cooked and the cheese has melted.
- Remove and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
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Keshia says
What’s considered one serving? How many halves of a zucchini boat?
Mary Walton says
Tried these this lunch as your recipe except used an Italian cheese blend mix I had on hand. This was the first zucchini boat I ever made and amazingly it was pretty delicious! Light and super easy! Thanks for a great simple recipe!
Cynthia Goodman says
I would love to make a recipe like this for particular 16 year old and hubby but my husband is allergic to zuccini and squash, eggplant..what else might I be able to substitute?
Karlynn Johnston says
You can make it cold in a cucumber boat, or if you wanted carbs you can totally make it in a sub bun!
angela hammill says
fantastic!
Down Under cook says
No this is a savoury & healthy dish Karlyn. Very simple to make. Ancient recipe (1984 \U0001f609) Here are the ingredients:
375 grams coarsely grated zucchini (13 ozs)
2 lean rashers of finely chopped bacon(can be omitted for vegetarians & will still taste good)
1 cup SR flour (cake flour?) ie self-raising
1/2 cup light olive oil
I large (the bigger the better) brown onion peeled & blitzed (or very finely chopped)
1 cup grated tasty cheese
5 eggs
Salt & pepper to taste
Throw all ingredients into a large bowl, stir with a fork or spoon until combined.
Spray a 12 X 9 inch glass or metal dish with non stick spray(I use Canola)
Pour mixture into dish & bake for 35-40 mins in a moderate oven or until lightly golden. Serve warm or cold. Loved by young & old in our family!
PS If you like mint, you can add a small handful, finely chopped when you mix it. Eggs & mint go well together.
BUON appetito\U0001f600\U0001f60b
thekitchenmagpie says
_u**********@li******.com" profile_url="https://www.livefyre.com/profile/110456358/" ns="true">Down Under cook OOh that sounds GREAT!!!
Leslie Cleary says
Mikyla Sherlow I will make these for you next time you visit!
Down Under cook says
This past summer we also had a shortage of zucchini! Bad season in BOTH hemispheres! In the past I have come close to cursing the number of zucchini that my husband brings in from the vege patch\U0001f601 One of my favourite recipes is zucchini slice which I’ve been making for over 30 years. But I guess you already have that recipe. Can post it if you want.
thekitchenmagpie says
_u**********@li******.com" profile_url="https://www.livefyre.com/profile/110456358/" ns="true">Down Under cook IS that the one that is supposed to taste like apple pie? I have a few recipes but haven’t tried it!