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    Italian Stuffed Zucchini Boats

    January 18, 2025

    When your garden is overrun with oversized zucchini, don’t despair! Instead, get excited—it’s time to make Italian stuffed zucchini boats!

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    Italian Stuffed Zucchini Boats with ground chicken, basil, mozzarella and tomato cream sauce

    That Huge, Oversized Zucchini? That’s a Good Thing!

    Zucchini has a way of taking over the garden and growing to a size that even the most devoted zucchini fan can feel intimidated by. Whether these giant zucchinis are coming out of your own garden or are hand-me-downs from a neighbor—one of our favorite perks of summer—we encourage you to see them as a gift, not a problem! Figuring out what to do with overgrown summer produce is kind of our favorite thing to do, and zucchini is surprisingly versatile. Obviously you can make and freeze zucchini bread, try our zucchini fritters (no really, try them!) but these chicken zucchini boats are something our families look forward to ever summer because they’re just so darn good. Scooped out into a “boat” the zucchini is loaded Italian-seasoned ground chicken, then topped with mozzarella and baked in a creamy tomato sauce to melty, meaty, Italian stuffed zucchini perfection.

    zucchini boats, tomato sauce, cream, mozzarella, parmesan, ground chicken and kale for zucchini boats

    Everything You’ll Need To Make These Easy Stuffed Zucchini Boats

    You’ve probably got the zucchini—people usually turn to zucchini boat recipes when they’ve got some big zucchini that they don’t know how to cook!—but what else goes in zucchini boats? Well, we’ve tried to keep this recipe pantry-focused and basic. Feel free to make a few swaps as needed, too. You could use ground turkey in place of the ground chicken if you’d like (or if it’s what you happen to have), and the fennel seeds and pepper flakes are both optional. For the kale, you could easily use any hearty green—absolutely any kind of kale will work, as will collards, or even mustard greens. Here’s what you’ll need to make these delicious stuffed zucchini boats:

    • Zucchini

    • Ground chicken

    • Fresh garlic

    • Herbs & spices: Italian seasoning, fennel seeds, red pepper flakes

    • Tomato paste

    • Crushed tomatoes

    • Heavy cream

    • Parmesan cheese

    • Mozzarella

    • Kale

    • Fresh basil

    ground chicken and spices in a cast iron skillet
    tomato sauce in a cast iron skillet
    tomato sauce in a cast iron skillet with heavy cream, parmesan cheese and kale
    creamy tomato sauce in a skillet with zucchini boats

    How to Make Zucchini Boats

    Italian flavors inspired our simple stuffed zucchini recipe, and like all great rustic Italian recipes, this one couldn’t be simpler. Here’s how to make these easy stuffed zucchini boats:

    1. Scoop out the zucchini to make zucchini boats! By scraping out the seedy part of the zucchini, you’ll remove a lot of the moisture that can sometimes make zucchini recipes soggy. A big metal spoon is a great tool for doing this, or even an ice cream scoop.

    2. Cook the ground chicken. Sauté the ground chicken in olive oil with fresh garlic, salt and herbs until it’s cooked through. Put it in a bowl while you use the same skillet to make the tomato sauce the zucchini boats will bake in.

    3. Make a quick & creamy Italian tomato sauce. Stir together tomato paste, garlic, and herbs. As soon as they’re fragrant, pour in the crushed tomatoes. Simmer for a minute, then stir in heavy cream, some parmesan cheese and kale.

    4. Stuff the zucchini boats! Nestle the scooped-out zucchini boats. Load each boat with the Italian-seasoned ground chicken. Cover with a lid or foil and bake for 10 minutes.

    5. Cheese time! Top the chicken-stuffed zucchini boats with mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Bake (uncovered this time) until the cheese is melty and bubbly. Garnish with fresh basil and dig in!

    zucchini boats with ground chicken and spices in a creamy tomato sauce in a skillet
    zucchini boats with ground chicken, spices and parmesan cheese in a creamy tomato sauce in a skillet
    zucchini boats with ground chicken, spices, parmesan cheese and mozzarella in a creamy tomato sauce in a skillet
    zucchini boats with ground chicken, spices, parmesan cheese, mozzarella and basil in a creamy tomato sauce in a skillet

    Tools You’ll Need

    More Zucchini Recipes To Try

    Italian Stuffed Zucchini Boats with creamy tomato sauce, parmesan and mozzarella cheese with basil

    Zucc-erific!

    Try this super satisfying stuffed zucchini boat recipe recipe, and let us know how you like it, OK? Share a photo and tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper so that we can see your stuff! Happy eating!

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    Italian Stuffed Zucchini Boats

    Updated on January 18, 2025

    • Serves:  4
    • Prep Time:  30 min
    • Cook Time:  40 min
    • Calories:  599
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    Ingredients

    • 4 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise
    • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
    • 1 pound ground chicken
    • 6 garlic cloves, minced
    • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
    • 1 ½ teaspoons Italian seasoning
    • 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
    • ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
    • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
    • 1 (14 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
    • 1 cup heavy cream
    • ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
    • 4 cups kale, ribs removed, torn into small pieces, packed
    • 2 cups shredded mozzarella
    • ¼ cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves

    Method

    1. Preheat the oven to 400°F, with a rack in the center position.

    2. Using a small spoon, hollow out the flesh of the zucchini, leaving ⅓-inch thickness around the edges.

    3. Heat the olive oil in a large, cast iron (or other ovenproof) skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is glistening, add the chicken, half of the minced garlic, 1 teaspoon of the salt, 1 teaspoon of the Italian seasoning, fennel seeds, and ¼ teaspoon of the red pepper flakes, and cook, breaking the meat up with a wooden spoon, until the chicken is browned, 8-10 minutes. Transfer the chicken mixture to a medium bowl.

    4. Add the tomato paste to the same skillet, along with the remaining minced garlic, remaining ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning, and remaining ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes and cook, stirring until fragrant, about 1 minute.

    5. Stir in the crushed tomatoes, remaining 1 teaspoon salt and bring to a simmer. Stir in the heavy cream, ¼ cup parmesan and the kale, cook stirring, until the kale is wilted, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat.

    6. Nestle the zucchini into the sauce. Fill the zucchini boats with the chicken mixture. Cover with a lid or foil and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the skillet from the oven, top the chicken with the mozzarella and remaining ¼ cup parmesan cheese. Bake, uncovered, in the oven until the cheese is melted and beginning to brown, about 15 more minutes.

    7. Garnish with the basil, before serving.

    Nutrition Info

    • Per Serving
    • Amount
    • Calories 599
    • Protein 53 g
    • Carbohydrates 26 g
    • Total Fat 32 g
    • Dietary Fiber 7 g
    • Cholesterol 171 mg
    • sodium 1868 mg
    • Total Sugars 10 g

    Italian Stuffed Zucchini Boats

    Questions & Reviews

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    • Lise

      This was an amazing recipe! It did not fit in the skillet so I cooked it in a large ceramic pan. I never made my own ground chicken Italian sausage. It is so delicious! I served this with homemade French bread. EVERYBODY loved it. It is definitely a keeper.

      The only thing I must disagree with is it took WAY longer than the recipe's 10 minutes for me AND my family to prep this. It took us closer to 45 min-an hour before it even made it to the oven. It is not a weeknight meal, but will be a fun Sunday meal in the years to come.

      Thank you for sharing this fantastic recipe!!

      Thanks Lise, we are so glad you and your family loved it!

    • Rebecca

      Delicious! I used both fennel and red pepper flakes but cut the cream in half. I have a non kale eater in the house so I used spinach instead. I served them with a warm baguette. My pan only held 3 1/2 zucchini boats but it worked fine for my family. Saved the extra meat and sauce for lunch the next day. Everyone loved the meal.

      Thanks Rebecca, we are so glad you and your family loved it!

    • Ashley

      Loved this recipe, it's so yummy and perfect during zucchini season.

      Thanks Ashley, we are so happy you loved it!

    • Christine

      Amazing flavors! This is such a tasty way to use up the abundance of zucchini in the garden. Even my non zucchini loving children gobbled it up! Doubled the recipe for entertaining and had to assemble and cook it in my Pyrex dishes but it still turned out spectacular. This will definitely be on our summer rotation.

      Thanks Christine, glad you enjoyed it!

    • Frances

      Terrific, I "skinned this" for my own way of cooking--using almond milk instead of cream, way less cheese--and instead of some of the seasonings used penzey tuscan and penzey italian sausage seasoning, which mimicked what was added in the recipe--didn't do the extra garlic--used diced tomatoes in tomato juice instead of crushed and added a tab of red wine and and a tab or two of chicken broth and let it cook down a bit---really like the method of putting stuffed zucchini in sauce in skillet in oven. They were terrific. I also parboiled the zucchini boats after hollowing out in boiling water one minute and then drained them---I used the zucchini that was carved out in with the ground meat and cooked it as that was being done.

      Thanks Frances! Glad you made it your own and enjoyed it!