Chicken Sausage-Stuffed Zucchini Boats
with Couscous, Tomato, and Basil
- Wheat
- Milk
Send your taste buds on a flavorful cruise with this delightful dish. Hollowed-out zucchini “boats” are filled with savory couscous that’s studded with bites of Tuscan-spiced chicken sausage. They’re then blanketed in a layer of Monterey Jack and baked to turn things nice and melty. Once they emerge from the oven, the boats are topped with a spoonful of marinated tomatoes and freshly torn Thai basil. Don’t forget to share all that deliciousness with your first mate!
Ingredients
1 unit
Zucchini
9 ounce
Italian Chicken Sausage
1 tablespoon
Tuscan Heat Spice
¾ cup
Israeli Couscous
(Contains: Wheat)
1.5 ounce
Tomato Paste
1 unit
Roma Tomato
½ ounce
Thai Basil
¼ cup
Monterey Jack Cheese
(Contains: Milk)
Not included in your delivery
4 teaspoon
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
Adjust rack to top position and preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wash and dry all produce. Trim and halve zucchini lengthwise; scoop out and discard seeds. Rub all over with a drizzle of olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Arrange cut sides down on a baking sheet. Roast on top rack until browned and tender, 15-20 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat a drizzle of olive oil in a large, preferably oven-safe, pan over medium-high heat. Add sausage and Tuscan Heat Spice. Cook, breaking up meat into pieces, until browned all over, 4-5 minutes (the sausage will finish cooking in the next step).
Stir couscous, tomato paste, and 1½ cups water (2½ cups for 4 servings) into pan until combined. Bring to a simmer and cook until mixture has thickened, couscous is tender, and sausage is cooked through, 6-8 minutes. (TIP: If pan seems dry, add a splash of water.) Season generously with salt and pepper. Turn off heat.
Meanwhile, dice tomato. Pick basil leaves from stems; discard stems and roughly chop leaves. In a small bowl, combine tomato, half the basil, and a large drizzle of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Stir remaining basil into couscous mixture.
Remove zucchini from oven. Flip cut-sides-up, then stuff with as much couscous mixture as will fit. Nestle on top of remaining couscous mixture in pan. (TIP: If pan is not ovenproof, transfer everything to a baking dish at this point.) Sprinkle stuffed zucchini with cheese. Return to top rack until cheese has melted, 1-2 minutes.
Top stuffed zucchini with tomatobasil mixture. Serve straight from the skillet or divide between plates.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Dec 2025- Flavor: Many loved the delicious blend of spices, though some found it too spicy; adjusting the Tuscan Heat spice to taste is recommended.
- Ease of prep: Customers appreciated the simple one-pan cooking method, finding it quick and easy to prepare.
- Suggestions: Consider adding more zucchini or using larger ones; many felt the provided zucchini was too small for proper stuffing.
- Portions: Several noted an imbalance, with too much couscous and not enough vegetables; adding extra zucchini could help.
- Texture: Some found the zucchini boats became mushy; try reducing cooking time or chopping zucchini into the filling instead.
Reviews from our home cooks
We just ate this one tonight and we were at first put off by the single zucchini for two people. We followed through and not only were the flavors INCREDIBLE but we are also full! Neither of us had tried couscous before OR chicken sausage so it was a risk but it has been rated 10/10 here in our house! We are amazed at the quality of the ingredients and the meals! Truly incredible dish
Delicious! The zucchini boats fell apart after roasting and seemed too flimsy for stuffing. Instead, I chopped them up and added them to the couscous, and it turned out great! My kids loved this dish.
It was really hard to decide what to rate this meal. It was excellent all around with the recipe so that was not the problem, however, Hello Fresh sent a zucchini that was about an inch in diameter and not even 6 inches long. How do you go about stuffing something like that???!! I scrapped that one and went to the store to buy a decent sized zucchini. You need one at least 2.5" and 8" long to have enough seeds to scoop out to make a boat. Once you have that the meal is amazing!!
The major problem is that the heat from the Tuscan spice adds little to the dish and ends up being too forward. You're masking the flavor of the sausage (which isn't bad) as well as the parsley and chives. The liquid ratio for the couscous needs to be upped a bit. It was starting to dry and was not quite to al dente by the time the zucchini was coming out of the oven, so tougher than it should have been. It would have worked better to treat it like pasta (prep in a separate pot and mix with the sauce at the end).
This looked questionable, I thought too much tomato paste, but it was amazing!! The fresh tomatoes complimented the couscous so well and the tasted zucchini was smooth additional texture (I left seeds in btw)
We add the zucchini guts to the meat. Good fiber and makes the meat/couscous a little lighter. We only cook the zucchini for about 10". I liked the 1 pot!!! The couscous came out great!! Lastly-- no salt needed.
The meal had one small zucchini. Really? For all that couscous? I was surprised how spicy the sausage was, but it was okay. I would've loved less couscous, less meat and more vegetables. But if the zucchini could just get "more," that would be great. Nice meal though. We liked it.
The sausage was very spicy and the couscous wouldn't get soft enough no matter how much splashes of water I used or how long it was cooked. That being said, the bites with the zucchini were tasty.
Amazing flavor, great portion size, awesome blend! Didn't use the zucchini as a boat, but cooked the entire middle! Highly recommend, one of my favorites!
Great recipe...the zucchini was a bit small, so not much fit in the "boat"...would probably just chop up the zucchini in big chunks if I were to make it again.
