Sometimes you need an easy weeknight dinner. Okay, for most of us that is probably the majority of the time. However, it’s easy to fall into the trap of fast dinners that aren’t particularly healthy. Good news! This Chicken Italian Sausage and Zoodles recipe is both easy and healthy, not to mention delicious.
In our house, we’re big on easy weeknight dinners. By the time the end of the workday rolls around, neither of us usually feel like cooking anything very involved. Plus, making anything that requires a bunch of prep work means that we won’t be eating dinner until 9pm. While that isn’t unheard of around our house, we typically try to keep dinner closer to 7:30. This Chicken Italian Sausage and Zoodles recipe is one of our easy wins. It has the side benefits of being healthy, low carb, gluten free, dairy free, peanut free, tree nut free, egg free, and so on.
While I do recommend using the spiralizer attachment on a stand mixer if you are making your own zoodles, the hand-held version works as well but just takes a bit more time. That said, if you are planning to make zucchini noodles in any sort of large quantity, I strongly suggest the stand mixer attachment.
Scaling this Recipe for a Dinner Party
Regarding scaling this recipe. While the recipe below is sized for 4 servings, it could certainly be scaled up for a dinner party. The only special scaling “gotcha” that you need to plan for is to have an extra pan for cooking the zoodles. When they are raw they take up a lot of space before decreasing in volume as they cook. If you don’t have two large pans, you could work in batches, it will just take more time.
Also, for scaling this recipe for a dinner party, I suggest completing the final mix of all ingredients in a large bowl and then moving it to a casserole dish or ½ sheet pan for keeping warm and serving.
What You Need
Equipment
- Cutting Board – For cutting the stem ends off of the zucchini and cutting mushrooms.
- Chef’s Knife – For cutting the stem ends off of the zucchini and cutting mushrooms.
- Spiralizer – I have an attachment for my stand mixer. However, I’ve also used the handheld ones in the past. If you want even faster, you can buy fresh or frozen zucchini spirals from the grocery store.
- Large Bowl – For catching the zucchini spirals.
- Heavy Duty Egg Slicer – Optional. For slicing mushrooms. Depending on the size of your mushrooms, you may need to halve or quarter them before using the slicer. I say “heavy duty” because we’re now on our at least 4th egg slicer. We killed two of them that just had wires instead of blades before we upgraded.
- Large Sauté Pan or Skillet
- Spatula
- Rubber Scraper – I use this for getting all of the sauce out of the jar and stirring everything together once I have the sauce in it.
- Paper Towel Lined Plate
Ingredients
- Baby Bella Mushrooms – White Button Mushrooms work fine too.
- Salted Butter – If you prefer, you can use unsalted butter or more avocado oil instead. This is just for cooking the mushrooms. My personal preference is salted butter, so that’s what I use. However, it’s not integral to the recipe.
- Chicken Italian Sausage – I chose chicken Italian sausage for this recipe in the interest of having slightly fewer calories. However, from a recipe point of view, regular Italian sausage would work just fine.
- Avocado Oil or Olive Oil
- Zucchini – I used 4 large-ish zucchini. I typically plan for one zucchini per serving. If only small zucchini are available, you’ll want to increase the quantity. In those cases, I usually buy 1.5 zucchini for each serving I’m planning.
- Kosher Salt – To taste. While I hate saying “to taste” that is truly the case for this recipe. You could technically add no salt or pepper and still have something quite good.
- Ground Black Pepper – To taste.
- Minced Garlic – I buy pre-minced garlic in bulk.
- Rao’s Marinara Sauce – I use 1 (22-ounce) jar. Any low / no sugar red sauce will work.
- Crushed Red Pepper Flakes – This is optional and to taste.
Getting Started with Making Chicken Italian Sausage and Zoodles
The prep work on this is really just spiralizing the zucchini into zoodles and slicing the mushrooms. I have a spiralizing attachment for my stand mixer that makes the spiralizing step a snap. In the interest of expediency, I use a heavy duty egg slicer (i.e. one with blades rather than wires) to slice my mushrooms.
The next part of the program is to cook your ingredients and set them aside. Then we’ll combine everything together at the end with the sauce.
To cook the mushrooms, melt 2 tablespoons of Salted Butter over medium high heat. Then sauté the mushrooms until they release their juices. About 6 – 8 minutes. Remove them from the heat and set them aside.
Next we’ll cook the Chicken Italian Sausage. Add the crumbled sausage to the pan and cook through. For me this is about 8 – 10 minutes. Because we’re using chicken sausage and there isn’t as much fat as in regular pork sausage, you may need to add a little bit of oil while cooking. Once it’s done, remove it to a paper towel lined plate.
Then, in the same pan, add some avocado oil and then the zoodles. The pan will be pretty full at first. Just remember: they cook down a lot. Cook the zucchini noodles until they start to soften but still have a bit of crunch. This usually takes about 8 – 10 minutes.
If there is a lot of liquid accumulated in the pan, I suggest draining it part way through cooking. Either way, once cooked, go ahead and strain the zoodles to eliminate any excess liquid. Set them aside.
After that, we sauté the garlic for about 30 seconds and then pour in the entire jar of Rao’s Marinara Sauce. Finally, we mix back in the sausage, mushrooms, and zoodles. Stir to get everything evenly distributed and coated with sauce.
Serve warm in wide, shallow bowls like you would pasta. If desired, I suggest topping the Chicken Italian Sausage and Zoodles with some shredded or grated Parmesan cheese.
Enjoy!
Chicken Italian Sausage and Zoodles
Ingredients
- 8 ounces Baby Bella Mushrooms Sliced. White Button Mushrooms would be fine too.
- 2 tablespoons Salted Butter Unsalted would be fine.
- 1 pound Chicken Italian Sausage Crumbled and cooked. Regular Italian Sausage would work as well, it would just increase the calories.
- 1.5 – 2 tablespoons Avocado Oil or Olive Oil
- 4 Large Zucchini Spiralized
- Kosher Salt To taste
- Ground Black Pepper To taste
- 1 tablespoon Garlic Minced. Approximately 6 cloves of garlic.
- 22 ounces Rao’s Marinara Sauce 1 jar. Any low / no sugar red sauce will work.
- 0.5 tablespoons Crushed Red Pepper Flakes Optional and to taste
Instructions
- Spiralize 4 Large Zucchini into zoodles and set aside.4 Large Zucchini
- Slice the 8 ounces Baby Bella Mushrooms and set aside.8 ounces Baby Bella Mushrooms
- Heat 2 tablespoons Salted Butter over medium high heat. Sauté the mushrooms until they release their juices. About 6 – 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.2 tablespoons Salted Butter, 8 ounces Baby Bella Mushrooms
- In the same pan, crumble and cook 1 pound Chicken Italian Sausage. Remove to a paper towel lined plate and set aside.1 pound Chicken Italian Sausage
- In the same pan, heat 1.5 – 2 tablespoons Avocado Oil or Olive Oil. Add the zoodles and cook until they begin to soften but still have some crunch. About 8 – 10 minutes. You may need to drain out some of the excess liquid halfway through cooking. When you remove the zoodles from the heat, strain them to eliminate additional liquid and set them aside. Season with Kosher Salt and Ground Black Pepper to taste.1.5 – 2 tablespoons Avocado Oil or Olive Oil, 4 Large Zucchini, Kosher Salt, Ground Black Pepper
- Add 1 tablespoon Garlic (minced) with some additional oil if needed to the pan and sauté for about 30 seconds.1 tablespoon Garlic
- Pour in 22 ounces Rao’s Marinara Sauce (1 jar) and stir to combine. Optionally, add 0.5 tablespoons Crushed Red Pepper Flakes or to taste.22 ounces Rao’s Marinara Sauce, 0.5 tablespoons Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
- Mix the Chicken Italian Sausage, Mushrooms, and Zoodles back into the pan with the sauce. Heat through.
- Serve warm. Top the dish with some shredded Parmesan cheese, if desired.
Equipment
- Spiralizer Or buy zoodles already spiralized.
- Heavy Duty Egg Slicer Optional. For slicing mushrooms.
- Measuring Spoon
- Strainer
- Paper Towel Lined Plate
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