This healthy dinner recipe is like summer in a bowl – fresh zucchini noodles topped with sweet mini tomatoes, basil from the garden, mozzarella pearls, and chicken hot off the grill. Caprese Chicken Zoodle Bowls is my new favorite dish!

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My mother-in-law gifted my sister-in-law and I each a spiralizer a few months ago and I’m still amazed at how fast a simple vegetable can turn into a noodle-like consistency. The only thing I have “spiralized” so far is zucchini, but I’m planning to noodle as many vegetables as possible this summer. You can find a similar spiralizer here.

I made an effort to spend most of the day outdoors on Sunday since it was the summer solstice, and came up with this recipe as a way to enjoy the first official day of summer. It was a warm, sunny and humid day in Chicago with a high around 80 and no thunderstorms {a day without rain is a rare occurrence lately}. I ended up with over 25,000 steps for the day according to my Health app, including several walks and a sweaty run. One of those walks was to the Logan Square Farmers Market, to pick up sunburst tomatoes for this recipe.

We ended the afternoon by walking to the grocery store for the rest of our dinner ingredients, and spiralized the zucchini as soon as we got home. It works best to cook “zoodles” one serving at a time {one zucchini per person}. I sauteed each zucchini for 4-5 minutes with 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Toss the zucchini occasionally while they cook.

K was in charge of the grill for this dinner. He prefers to marinade chicken for at least two hours before grilling. Any mild marinade will work for this recipe – we used Hawaiian dressing (1/2 cup) and marinaded it for 2 hours in a container {refrigerated}.

I hope you enjoy this summer in a bowl!

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Caprese Chicken Zoodle Bowls

A healthy dinner recipe made with spiralized zucchini.

Course dinner

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken tenders
• 1/2 cup Hawaiian dressing
• 1 cup mozzarella pearls
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes
• 1 cup sunburst tomatoes
• 4 zucchini
• 8 basil leaves
• 1/2 lemon {juiced}
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinaigrette

Instructions

1. Spiralize four zucchini. Saute each zucchini separately on medium heat with 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, one lemon squeeze, 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning, and salt/pepper to taste. Stir occasionally while cooking, for 4-5 minutes.

2. Slice tomatoes and chiffonade 8 basil leaves.

3. Grill chicken tenders on medium heat for ~4-5 minutes on each side.

4. Slice the chicken and top zoodles with tomatoes, mozzarella pearls, and basil. Dress with balsamic vinaigrette.