Herb Chicken + Olive Tapenade
Spaghetti Squash
Imagine the simplest homemade olive tapenade on top of cute little herb covered chicken bites with creamy spaghetti squash.
Give me all the olives, pine nuts and herb chicken. Plus garlic, shallots and coconut milk – it’s fancy, yet really simple to make.
I made this for a client and immediately made it again for me to enjoy. I always like how that happens. This is a quick mid week meal, that seems fancy without the effort.
Of course, you can sub out the squash noodles for pasta or rice even. Make it your own.
Let's talk salt.
Do you prefer salt or sweet?
I crave salty tortilla chips over a sweet dessert any day of the week.
When adding it to a meal, it’s about the balance of flavors. Salt really brings out so many natural flavors of the ingredients. You should never really taste the salt – like the food should taste like salt.
In this recipe, the olives are of course salty and combine with creamy coconut milk, pine nuts and all those dried herbs – it’s a great match.
I added extra ground black pepper at the end to finish it off – because I’m just like that.
More mid week Chicken recipes people love!
Herby Chicken Bites + Olive Tapenade over Shallot Spaghetti Squash
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
- 1 medium spaghetti squash, cut in half + seeds removed
- 2 boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
- 3 cups unsweetened coconut milk, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon marjoram
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2–3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 1 large shallot, sliced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
Pine Nut + Olive Tapenade
- 1/2 cup assorted olives, pitted + roughly chopped
- 1/3 cup pine nuts
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, roughly chopped
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
Mix all of the tapenade ingredients together and set a side.
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400F. Place the spaghetti squash cut side down on a baking sheet tray. Place in the oven and roast for 25 minutes or until tender to the touch. Remove + flip over to let the steam out.
- Meanwhile, pour 1 cup of the coconut milk in a medium sized bowl with the cut up chicken. Let it marinade for 15 minutes on the counter.
- Drip dry the chicken and place it on a cutting board, plate or another bowl. Sprinkle in the salt, pepper, marjoram, oregano and thyme. Toss to coat the chicken pieces.
- Heat a skillet up over medium heat with the olive oil. When the pan is hot, add in the chicken pieces. Spread them around so they all are touching the pan and have some space between them. Let them cook for at least 3 minutes on the first side or until they are brown.
- Using tongs, flip them over and cook for another 3 minutes or the chicken is cooked through.
- Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.
- Add the butter, garlic and shallots to the pan. Sauté until they are translucent and tender. Add in the oregano, remaining coconut milk and fresh parsley. Let it come up to a soft simmer and turn the heat off.
- Using a fork, pull the spaghetti squash away from the cavity and place it into the skillet with the coconut milk. Toss to combine. Either pour into a serving bowl or keep in the skillet.
- Add the chicken bites back to the skillet on top of the spaghetti squash. Drizzle the olive tapenade on top and enjoy.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 35
- Category: chicken
- Method: stove-top
- Cuisine: dinner
Did you make this recipe? Take a picture and tag me @whitesparrowfoodco or #whitesparrowfoodco I’d love to hear what you thought of the recipe!
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