Stuffing a zucchini boat is a versatile and delicious way to serve a variety of dishes. By using zucchini as a serving vessel, it not only looks cool, but it adds another vegetable to your meal. We used them in our risotto-filled zucchini boats, and today we are using them again in this gluten-free chicken fried rice-filled zucchini boat recipe.
This recipe calls for soy sauce, which can be a tricky ingredient when you eat gluten-free as most soy sauce is not gluten-free. To safely enjoy soy sauce, you need to find a brand that is labeled gluten-free, like VH, which is a brand available here in Canada. Kikkoman also makes one readily available throughout North American. To ensure your soy sauce is gluten-free you need to know how to read labels and look for alternative names for gluten – a gluten-free scanner app can also be helpful.
Gluten-Free Chicken Fried Rice-Filled Zucchini Boat Recipe
Ingredients:
- 4 medium zucchini
Marinade for zucchini
- 2 tbs Vegetable oil
- 2 tbs gluten-free soy sauce
- 1/4 tsp each of ground black pepper and granulated onion
Fried Rice Sauce
- 2 tbs vegetable oil
- ⅓ cup gluten-free soy sauce – read about gluten-free soy sauces here
- 3 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoons ginger, minced
- 1/4 tsp each of granulated garlic and granulated onion
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Filling for Boats
- 3/4 c of cooked minute rice (or any other one of your favourite rices)
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 2 tbs of oil (divided)
- 1 onion, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 2 tbs butter (vegan, lactose-free butter, or oil)
- 2 eggs
- 4 green onions (scallions)
- Pinch salt and pepper
Directions:
- Cook 3/4 of a cup of minute rice, or other rice, according to package instructions.
- Once your rice is cooked, remove it from the pot and place it in a bowl in your fridge to cool.
Tip: Leftover or cooled rice works better in fried rice than fresh, hot rice.
Prepare The Zucchini:
- Wash and dry each zucchini.
- Cut the top and tip off the end of the zucchini and set it aside.
Tip: If needed, remove any blemishes with a vegetable peeler.
- Cut the zucchini in half, lengthwise, so that you have two long equal halves.
- Using a grapefruit spoon, hollow out the zucchini so that you’ve removed most of the inside flesh, leaving behind an intact, but thin shell.
Tip: You can hollow out your zucchini boats by scoring the zucchini with a pairing knife and using a small spoon. I prefer to use a grapefruit spoon, as it has a serrated edge. The serrated edge allows you to cut and scoop the inside of the zucchini out with the same utensil.
- Set the empty zucchini boats aside.
- Chop the zucchini you scooped out of the boats into small pieces and set aside for the filling.
- Line a rimmed cookie sheet or large baking dish with a layer of foil and then parchment paper.
- Heat oven to 375°.
- Make the marinade for the zucchini by mixing together oil, soy sauce, ground black pepper, and granulated onion together in a bowl.
- Place the zucchini bowls cut side up, on the pan and use a silicone brush (for any pastry or basting brush) to lightly brush the inside of each zucchini with the mixture. Do not allow excess marinade to pool in the bottom of the boats.
- Bake the marinated zucchini boats in the oven for 20 minutes.
- Remove from oven and set aside.
For the Filling
- First, make the sauce by mixing soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, granulated garlic, ground black pepper, and granulated onion in a bowl or measuring cup. Once combined, set the bowl or measuring cup aside.
- In a large pan, heat a tablespoon of oil and then fry ground chicken.
- Break the ground chicken up, with a spatula, into tiny pieces.
- Drain any fat in the pan from the chicken, then set aside.
- Heat 1tbs of oil in the pan that previously contained the chicken.
- Sauté onions in the pan.
- Add garlic and ginger to onions. Cook until garlic and ginger become fragrant.
- Combine the zucchini pulp with the onion mixture and cook until the zucchini is soft and cooked through. You do not want the zucchini to brown.
- Remove the zucchini mixture from the pan and set it aside.
- Melt the butter in the pan.
- Add the cooled cooked rice to the pan and let it get coated and warmed with the butter.
- Next, add the zucchini mixture to the rice-stir well.
- Make a well in the middle of the rice mixture, and pour the sauce into the well- then stir to combine.
- Add the cooked ground chicken to the rice mix and combine.
- Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Crack your eggs into a bowl or measuring cup and beat them lightly with a fork.
- Move the rice and meat mixture over to one side of the pan.
- Add the eggs to the empty space in the pan.
- Using a silicone spatula, lightly scramble the egg and mix evenly throughout the rest of the rice.
- Remove the filling mixture from the pan.
- Evenly divide the mixture among the zucchini boats.
- Lightly pack the mixture into each zucchini boat, using a spoon.
- Wash and clean scallions.
- Slice scallions on the diagonal.
- Sprinkle half of the scallions over the zucchini saving the other half for garnish.
- Place zucchini in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until tender.
- Remove zucchini from the oven.
- Sprinkle the remaining scallions on top of the zucchini boats and serve.
This recipe for gluten-free chicken fried rice zucchini boats is a meal on its own. Each boat contains a well-balanced meal full of vegetables, grains, and protein. A side salad will complete this healthy dinner.
These gluten-free chicken fried rice zucchini boats reheat very well so leftovers make the perfect lunch or dinner the next day too. Just heat and serve. Yum.
Enjoy!
Marinade for zucchiniIngredients
Fried Rice Sauce
Filling for Boats
INSTRUCTIONS/NOTES/TIPS
Prepare The Zucchini:
For the Filling