Stuffed Delicata Squash with Chicken Sausage
Easy Thanksgiving Recipes
November 21, 2017
Spicy Hermit Cookies
December 19, 2017This seasonal dish has all things holiday written all over it! This Stuffed Delicata Squash with Chicken Sausage is a comforting weeknight meal the whole family with enjoy.
So I shared a picture of this dish over on my instastories last week after whipping it up one night and had a lot of people ask for the recipe so I am now sharing it with you on the blog! This recipe was actually inspired by another fellow RD and food blogger Kara Lydon’s Thanksgiving Stuffed Acorn Squash. It is basically all things fall and Thanksgiving and had to re-create it! I did make a few changes based on food preferences and ingredients I had available. I decided to swap the acorn squash for delicata for few reasons. First off delicata squash takes less time to roast in the oven and you can even eat the skin! I also used chicken sausage instead of chickpeas for protein and swiss chard for greens, because that’s what I had. What’s great about this dish is you can easily swap in whatever protein or green you have on hand or like.
I served it up for dinner and the hubby loved it. The little guy had mixed reviews. He loved the cranberries, pumpkin seeds and apples, and had a few bites of the squash and farro. He is still learning to like meat so he didn’t really touch the chicken sausage. But I will say he did try a couple bites of turkey on Thanksgiving so we are getting there!
He is also still not a huge fan of mixed dishes, which is fairly common among toddler. It often has to do with eating multiple textures at the same time. Sometimes I will serve the individual foods separated, but I keep trying to offer mixed dishes so he gets used to it!
- 4 small/medium delicata squash
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- salt/pepper to taste
- 1 cup farro ( I used Trader Joe's 10-minute cook Farro)
- 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 small onion ( or ½ large), diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 small apple, peeled and diced
- 12 ounces chicken sausage ( used Al Fresco Apple Chicken Sausage)
- ½ bunch swiss chard, steams removed and chopped
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- ¼ cup roasted pumpkin seeds
- ⅔ cup craisins
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Chop the top and bottom off of each squash, cut in half lengthwise, remove seeds with a spoon. Drizzle cut side with 1 tablespoon of olive oil then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Lay cut side down on aluminum foil. Bake for 25 minutes.
- While squash is baking add farro and chicken broth to a sauce pan and turn on medium high heat. Bring to boil, cover then reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, let stand for 5 minutes.
- In a large saute pan on medium heat add remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add in onions and cook for 2-3 minutes, add in garlic and cook for another minute. Then add in sausage and apple and cook for 5 minutes or until apple pieces are tender. Add in swiss chard and cook, stirring occasionally until wilted. Add in thyme, rosemary, pumpkin seeds and craisins and cooked farro. Stir to combine then turn off heat.
- Once squash is cooked and tender, remove from oven and flip over. Evenly fill each delicata with the stuffing mixture. Reduce oven temperature to 375 then place back in the oven to cook for another 10 minutes.
- Once cooked sprinkle with parmesan cheese and serve.
If you are looking for ways to get your kids involved in preparing this dish with you here are some ideas…
- Drizzle the squash with olive oil and sprinkle with salt/pepper
- Have them measure out the ingredients (farro, chicken broth, thyme, rosemary, pumpkin seeds, craisins, parmesan cheese)
- Crumble the chicken sausage
- Tear the swiss chard/ green leaves into small pieces
- Pour ingredients into the pan *
- Mix the ingredients on the stove *
*with assistance from an adult especially if the stove is hot
