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23Aug, 20
Clean Food Love
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Grilled Chicken Zoodle Bowls with Tomato-Basil Sauce

Ultra juicy, perfectly seasoned chicken thighs, nestled on top of a bed of crisp zucchini noodles with a garlicky fresh tasting tomato basil sauce that is absolutely lick-your-bowl-clean DELICIOUS!

Be sure to use YOUR favorite marinara sauce or tomato sauce, because that’s where this dish gets a lot of its flavor!

When shopping for store-bought sauce I like to make sure the marinara has no added sugar (tomatoes naturally contain sugar, but there shouldn’t be sugar on the ingredients list).Store-bought jarred marinara sauce, or tomato sauce should only contain just a few simple ingredients such as tomatoes, garlic and herbs.

➡️Did you know:

Zucchini has quite an impressive nutritional scoreboard – from high levels of potassium, B-vitamins, dietary fiber, and antioxidants, all which offer huge benefits to our overall health.

It’s shown that eating zucchini regularly in place of processed carbohydrates (such as pasta) can even help regulate our blood sugar levels, which can greatly benefit diabetics.

Eating zucchini several times per week can help us with our weight loss goals.

Zucchini is extremely low in calories, but gives us the feeling of being full. Therefore, it is a great way to satisfy our appetites without grabbing lots of empty calories or carbs.

Ingredients:

For grilled chicken:

  • 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, most fat trimmed
  • 2 Tbsps olive oil, or avocado oil
  • 2 Tbsps balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
  • 1 Tbsp dried basil leaves

For the tomato-basil sauce:

  • 1 cup tomato sauce, or simple marinara
  • 3 or 4 large, fresh garden tomatoes, diced
  • 3-4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
  • 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp black pepper
  • 2 Tbsps parmesan cheese, finely grated
  • a good handful of fresh basil leaves picked from stem and chopped fine

To assemble your bowls:

  • 4 medium, fresh zucchini, spiralized into noodles
  • additional parmesan cheese, if desired

Instructions:

In a medium bowl, combine all of your tomato-basil sauce ingredients. Whisk well, cover, and refrigerate.

Place the chicken thighs into an air-tight container. Add oil, vinegar, sea salt, black pepper, garlic and basil.

Toss the chicken in the mixture to coat evenly, then seal your container. Refrigerate and allow chicken to marinate for at least 1 hour to overnight.

Thoroughly rinse the zucchini and trim off the ends.

Using a spiralizer, create zucchini noodles. If you don’t have a spiralizer just run a vegetable peeler down the length of the zucchini to create thin ribbons/noodles.

Lightly sprinkle salt on your “zoodles” then set aside.

Remove marinated chicken thighs from the fridge, and allow to sit on the counter for about 10 minutes before grilling.

Discard all marinade.

Grease your grill with some oil (I prefer avocado oil for high temperature cooking) and heat over medium-high heat.

Place your marinated chicken onto the hot grill and let it cook for 4-5 minutes without moving. Flip and cook for a few minutes more, until cooked through; Avoid pressing and flipping too much, in order to achieve moist, juicy chicken.

Once done, remove from the heat, allow to sit for 5-10 minutes, covered, then slice and set aside.

In the meantime, blot your zucchini noodles of excess moisture with paper towels. The salt should have drawn out a bit of water from them, so gently pat them dry. This step is important if you typically get soggy zoodles. At this point, you may lightly sauté your zoodles quickly in a large skillet, just to heat a bit. I keep mine raw, which is great too.

Divide your zoodles equally into serving bowls.

Top each bowl with your tomato-basil sauce and sliced chicken. Sprinkle some extra parmesan, if desired and serve!

Enjoy!

❤Rachel

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