This Baked Curried Chicken & Spaghetti Squash is a splendid mix of savory and sweet. Made on a sheet pan for convenience and easy clean up, this chicken and squash recipe is fuss free, but jam packed with flavor!
Hi-ya friends! How’s it hangin? How was your weekend?
I can’t really tell you how mine panned out… yet.
Okay, let me preface this post by saying it’s currently Saturday on this side of the computer screen. And I’m writing this post early because my main computer crashed.
So as I’m sitting here, cringing and typing away on my laptop, I have ZERO clue if I will even have a post to publish on Monday (today to all you readers).
You see ALL MY PHOTOS were on my main computer. ALL OF THEM.
Yes, you heard me right.
I may have lost EVERY SINGLE one of my photos.
I am currently shooting about 5 weeks in advance. So on top of all my old photos, I may have possibly lost the photos to go along with the next TEN recipes that were scheduled to appear here on NSN.
Are you wondering if I am freaking out?
Well, YES. I AM FREAKING OUT.
But, I’m trying to keep my composure and be all cool… like a cucumber or whatever.
Boy has been working like a mad man trying to remedy the situation and resurrect the google machine back from the dead.
First he tried to fix the computer, but that idea got scrapped when we realized the computer is just done-zo. So then he got me a new computer, which is great.
Well, technically HE got the new computer, and I got his old one. Wait… I got the short end of that stick, huh?
So I guess I have a new-ISH computer, but I need all my photos from the old one. So Boy has been out and about, seeking help, and working like CRAY to somehow transfer files from my old hard drive to the new one.
Basically if you are reading this post and you see pictures, his mission was a (somewhat) success.
HIGH FIVE.
Anyways, since I’m currently over here having baby conniptions and minor panic attacks while I await the fate of my photos, we are going to jump RIGHT into today’s recipe.
Because I need a cocktail. And then a nap.
About this curry chicken with spaghetti squash
AKA SHEET PAN curried chicken breasts and spaghetti squash doused with a sassy curry butter honey sauce.
Basically, meet your new favorite weeknight dinner. That just happens to be PACKED full of flavor, yet a cinch to throw together.
Tender chicken breasts marinated in warm curry and cumin spices mixed with sweet honey and a touch of tangy mustard. Served over delicate strands of roasted spaghetti squash. And tossed with a buttery, luscious, sweet and savory, curry butter spiked sauce. Then topped with crunchy, salty pumpkin seeds, spicy red pepper flakes, herbaceous fresh cilantro and a squeeze of acidic lemon.
FLAVOR BOMB.
This easy-peasy meal is light, yet filling and filled with fabulous flavor.
Trust me, you NEED this meal to grace your table.
What is curry chicken?
Curry is a general term which encompasses a number of dishes originating in the Indian subcontinent. The recurrent feature of curry is the use of a combination of spices and/or herbs, which usually include turmeric, cumin, ginger and hot chilies.
There are a wide variety of dishes called curries, and the use of additional spices and the foods included in the curries (anything from fish to lentils) depends on the geographic region.
This honey curry chicken is a Western curry as it utilizes curry powder, which is a mixture of spices.
How to curry chicken breasts?
This meal is a typical sheet pan meal, minus the sauce. Meaning, the marinated chicken breasts and spaghetti squash can be tossed onto a sheet pan and roasted in the oven, but you will still need to whip together the sauce. But don’t worry, the sauce is SUPER easy and only takes a of couple minutes to prepare.
Let’s do it…
First, you will need to marinate the chicken by combining a bit of melted butter with some honey, Dijon and spices. Whisk that together, add your chicken, turning to coat and set it aside in the refrigerator.
After your chicken has soaked up all the magical flavors of the marinade, preheat your oven and adjust your oven racks to the top and bottom third positions.
Place the spaghetti squash on a sheet pan and drizzle the insides of each half with oil and season them generously with salt and pepper. Flip the squash upside down, so the cut side is facing down, and toss (gently of course) the sheet pan in the oven. Let them roast about 15 minutes before adding the chicken to the oven.
Meanwhile, remove the chicken from the marinade and transfer them to a second sheet pan. Brush the chicken with any excess marinade. When the 15 minutes (above) is up, add the chicken to the oven with the squash.
Bake the chicken and the squash, rotating the pans halfway through, until the chicken is cooked fully.
While the chicken and squash are getting their roast on, quickly whip up the sauce – Melt some butter in small sauce pan and add in a bit of curry powder and ginger. Stir in some honey and a dash of lemon juice. Taste and adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper. BOOM. Sauce done.
To serve, simply remove the squash and chicken from the oven. Scrape the strands of ‘spaghetti’ from the squash, slice the chicken and transfer everything to a serving bowl. Drizzle with the sauce and sprinkle with desired garnishes.
Viola.
Dinner is served.
Can you freeze curried chicken?
You can absolutely freeze curry, however some curries will freeze better than others.
Stock and tomato based curries freeze great, while coconut milk based curries aren’t the best to freeze as the coconut milk can separate when thawed.
This easy curried chicken freezes terrifically! After preparing the honey curried chicken as directed in the recipe, make sure you allow the chicken to cool completely. Once cooled, transfer the chicken to an airtight container, or zip-closure bag, and transfer the chicken to the freezer. The baked curried chicken will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Tips the best curry chicken and squash
- The curry chicken breasts do require time to marinate. While I recommend letting them sit in the marinade overnight for the most flavor, you can get away with letting them marinate for as little as 2 hours.
- Make sure you adjust your oven racks to the top and bottom third positions because you will be placing the chicken breasts on one sheet pan and the halved spaghetti squash on another. To ensure even cooking, you will need to rotate the pans from top to bottom during roasting.
- Cook your spaghetti squash CUT SIDE DOWN. I have tried cooking spaghetti squash both ways, cut side up and cut side down. I’ve found cooking it cut side DOWN allows the squash to get a little caramelization and prevents the squash from becoming too dry.
- I am a big fan of sauce, so the curried chicken recipe as written below reflects that. If you aren’t a sauce fanatic, feel free to cut the measurements in half!
Give your plain chicken some curry lovin’ and make this easy Sheet Pan Baked Curried Chicken & Spaghetti Squash. Your taste buds will thank you.
Until Thursday friends, cheers and Happy Presidents’ Day. (⬅️️ I won’t lie I almost forgot today is a holiday. Don’t hate me.)
XOXO
Cheyanne
Craving MORE? Follow all the deliciousness on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram!
More easy chicken dinners!
- Sundried Tomato Chicken (7 ingredients + 30 minutes!)
- Cranberry Chicken and Rice (Festive baked chicken recipe!)
- Spicy Chicken Meatballs (easy saucy baked meatballs!)
More recipes with spaghetti squash!
Homemade healthy baked curried chicken & spaghetti squash recipe👇
Baked Curried Chicken & Spaghetti Squash {Sheet Pan}
Ingredients
- 4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts (about 1 ½ - 2 pounds)
- ¼ Cup + 2 TBS Unsalted Butter - DIVIDED
- ¼ Cup + 2 ½ TBS Honey - DIVIDED
- 2 TBS Dijon Mustard
- 3 tsp Curry Powder - DIVIDED
- 1 tsp Cumin
- 3 tsp Ground Ginger - DIVIDED
- Kosher Salt and Ground Pepper
- 1 large Spaghetti Squash (you can substitute 2 small squash; about 4 pounds total) – halved lengthwise and seeded
- 2 TBS Olive Oil
- 1 Lemon – juiced(about 2 TBS)
- 3 TBS Cilantro – chopped, plus more for garnish
- Optional Garnishes: Pumpkin Seeds, Crushed Red Pepper Flakes, Lemon Wedges
Instructions
- Marinate the chicken: Melt 2 tablespoons of butter. In a Ziploc bag, or shallow bowl, combine the melted butter with 2 ½ tablespoons of honey, dijon, 1 teaspoon each - curry powder, cumin and ground ginger. Stir in ½ teaspoon salt. Add the chicken breasts and turn to coat. Seal, or cover, and transfer to the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, up to overnight.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Adjust oven racks to top and bottom third position. Line 2 baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy clean up and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
- Start to bake squash: Drizzle the insides of each half of spaghetti squash with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Place the squash, cut-side down, onto the prepared baking sheet. Transfer into the oven (on bottom rack) and roast for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, remove chicken from marinade and transfer to second baking sheet. Brush with any remaining marinade in bag. When 15 minutes of squash cooking is up, rotate squash pan to the top rack and add chicken to the oven (on the bottom rack). Bake for 30 minutes, rotating pans top to bottom halfway through, or until chicken is cooked through and reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
- While the chicken and squash are cooking, make the sauce: Heat the remaining ¼ cup of butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until melted. Add the remaining 2 teaspoons of curry powder and ginger, and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the remaining ¼ cup of honey and lemon juice. Season generously with salt and a pinch of pepper. Taste and adjust for seasoning. Reduce heat to low and keep warm until ready to use.
- To serve: Use a fork to scrape the squash into strands and transfer to a serving bowl and toss with cilantro and half of the sauce. Garnish with pumpkin seeds and crushed red pepper flakes. Top with chicken and serve with lemon wedges and remaining sauce on the side. Enjoy!
Oh no, you poor thing. That is the worst feeling ever. If you lose, we lose – we want all those amazing photos and recipes. On a different note, this recipe looks incredible. Love the cleverness of that marinade. It has so many of my favorite things, but I have to admit, I am a curry rookie. But gonna give this one a go!
Girl, you need a cocktail! I would be so upset if I lost all my photos! Usually I try to store them on my camera until after it is posted, but I also don’t shoot so far in advance so it’s easier for me. I hope everything works out ok!
Flavor bomb indeed – Tender chicken breasts marinated in warm curry and cumin spices mixed with sweet honey and a touch of tangy mustard. Count me in! This is a warm and delish dinner indeed!
I am so sorry to hear the bad news on the computer photos glitch. NIGHTMARE in my book, I’d be beyond bummed, but sadly I can relate – been there before – scary. I make sure to keep all photos (RAW, JPGs, edited for web) all on Dropbox and hi res JPGs in iPhoto which goes to iCloud, too. Ain’t nobody got time for that crap. Hang in there sister! <3
That computer is a big a-hole!! lol! So sorry you lost all that work girl. Sucks so bad but glad you had these photos cos they are gorgeous! I have a couple spaghetti squashes and need to use them up soon. I’m going to make this recipe with them. Can’t wait because I LOVE anything curry and I’m putting extra pumpkin seeds in mine! 🙂
Oh No!!! I am grimacing and cringing over here and keeping my fingers crossed boy and you manage to retrieve ALL your photos from that bum old hard drive! I’m assuming you didn’t happen to have them on an SD card or thumb drive as back up? One time I went and deleted photos to 2 of my posts that I had saved on my computer and then proceeded to empty my trash can – only to realize I didn’t upload those pictures to my site – fortunately, I still had the unedited ones so my butt was saved.
But, back to this – Cheyanne, curry and cumin are simply glorious and I so love the sound of that chicken – and pairing it with spaghetti squash makes for one super delish and super healthy meal!
Am hoping everything works out soon, lady!
Oh god. That’s really stressing, Chey. I feel. I have also faced the same kind of problem in past by deleting a couple of draft folders, but never all of them. I hope things get better for you. I am so much in love with this pretty yellow looking dish. Baked chicken breast and spaghetti squash in a pan sound like the best idea ever. Wishing you hopes. 🙂
Girl, come over for some beer! You totally need a break from this kind of stress! I have been there too when my computer blew up, so I get it. Glad you have Boy (i.e. tech support) to help you! Forget all that and keep on keepin’ on with this chicken spaghetti squash business to get your mind in the right place! XOXO
Holy crap you’re living one of my fears! How terrible, seriously, I know the experts say time and time again, “run a back-up” but I never do. But now I am! I am getting an external drive this coming weekend and doing it! I really hope Boy can save ALL your photos! I hope these pics are a good sign…This chicken looks so fabulously flavorful and don’t you just love the beautiful hue curry lends to its dishes? I can almost smell it baking! Take care and fingers crossed for you!
Oh my goodness, no wonder you’re freaking out, Chey! I feel you pain cause I normally have photos for few weeks in advance too. These stories remind me I always need to have a backup of all published and unpublished pictures. Especially in my case (aka Ben’s case) Once I erroneously deleted a few folders of the unpublished pictures (for a couple of recipes), and I also emptied the bin which I usually don’t do immediately for any case. Needless to say the flash cards had been already emptied:) But I hope everything is fine with your computer, and you’ll successfully retrieve all the pictures. Once you’ve done this, we’ll celebrate by exchanging some food. You’ll send me some savory stuff including this delicious dish, and I’ll send you something, too:)
OMG, Cheyanne – back up, back up, back up! I finally got myself a backup drive (Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB Portable Hard Drive) – it’s only $59 at amazon and automatically backs up everything on my computer. Go get your self one right now girl! I’m so sorry – you must be totally stressing out – hopefully Boy can figure it out and get those pictures and info off the old computer – fingers crossed for you! PS: I need to get on the spaghetti squash bus – every time I see a recipe using it I think I need to go get one. XO
Cheyenne, I’m so sorry. That is my worst nightmare. You are so lucky to have the boy is who is so talented with computers! Woo hoo! I am loving spaghetti squash these days and I love that you made this on a sheet pan. Easy and healthy!
OMG I’m so sorry to hear about your laptop… BUT high-five for the boy 😉 What in the world we would do without our boys hehe … I’m saying this because my hubby-boy recently solved some huge WP issues I had 😉 Please, don’t mention cocktails and xanax. I need those even without any technical problems hahaha This chicken and spaghetti squash looks really amazing Cheyanne. LOVE the colour and the spices you’ve used. Since I didn’t master making the spaghetti squash I will try this with whole wheat pasta instead. Sharing and pinning my friend! 🙂
I truly feel for you! A few years ago my computer crashed and I lost SO many photos…it was heart breaking. And 5 weeks in advance? I’m so sorry you lost all that work! I’m glad you’re back up and running and hope the catch up work isn’t too daunting. I’m thinking this curry chicken and spaghetti squash is the best sort of comfort food for tough situations, so there’s that. This dish is stunning and looks mouthwateringly delicious!
Hello Spaghetti Squash, I love you :). My Mom got us all hooked on squash while I was growing up and now I can’t get enough of the stuff. I’m sorry to hear about your computer crashing, that’s the worst. I hope you didn’t lose all of your photos. I would be freaking out as well. I’m sending you some positive calming vibes. HI-FIVE BoY!!! The Boy rocks 🙂
Oh Chey!!! I feel like we may have been holding hands (virtually) praying for this to all work out this weekend… Girl, you know I had a heart attack for you. Ugh, wth??? I’m so, so sorry that all of that crap happened. Glad to see your usual gorgeous photos here, though. Like, what sparkly hat did you pull these out of??? You always manage to make magic happen, no matter what. Okay, sending good thoughts over your way and totally drooling over this amazing deliciousness. Big hugs and extra big punching bags for you know what. XOXO.
Oh no, I feel stressed just reading about your photo nightmares!!! Makes me feel the need to find my external hard drive that I haven’t backed up to in uh…tooo long. I had my computer crash during finals week my sophomore year of college and lost the paper I had just finished. Stuff of nightmares, I tell you! About this meal though…it could definitely help bring your spirits back up. It looks SO flavorful – I’m loving that curry sauce. Must try this!
Since I see this breath taking pics here! I’ll let go of the beer and xantax cocktail for you, sigh of relief for you! cause I will be freakign out. I do hope you got your pics back and didn’t loose a thing! happy monday girl!
OH NO! I’d be in panic mode too…but I’m hoping all is well since we’re seeing these delicious photos! For some reason I’ve been craving chicken with curry so much this year that I’ve already made it twice and will be making it a third time this week (to bring to a friends!). Mine is more Chicken Divan with broccoli and rice, I need to make yours! This looks divine! (Not to be mistaken for divan… poor attempt at a joke!) Have a great week, my friend! xoxo
Delicious sweet and savory recipe and sounds like BOY was more like BOY WONDER since I’m seeing your beautiful photos here today. What a stressful weekend. I hope hope HOPE you were able to get everything you needed off the old computer. Mine has been doing funny things lately and running slow and I’m a little nervous myself. Anywho, this recipe looks absolutely scrumptious and delicious and I don’t have many recipes with curry. I recently discovered my husband of 24 years loves curry? Really? Why he chose to mention it for the first time last week, I don’t know. Ha ha. Glad to have a new recipe for him. I hear the weather is gorgeous down there and so I hope you are finding time to enjoy it despite all the computer stress. XOXO
Oh no Chey!! I’d be in somewhat of a panic too! I’m so glad I’m seeing some gorgeous photos, so hopefully the situation is remedied. I have not had chicken curry in quite a while. My mother used to make it when I was young, and her recipe was fantastic! I love how your recipe is a sheet pan meal, my fave! So easy! And I love how you’ve served it with spaghetti squash! Love this one! Pinning and can’t wait to try!
Ugh!!! That sucks, Cheyanne! Well, more than sucks!!!! I can’t imagine how you feel! All that work. Positive thinking that you’ll get all your pics back! Speaking of pics, these look gorgeous! And sheet pans dinners are the way to go. No fuss and all kinds of yummy deliciousness packed into one. Plus, the colour just looks so vibrant and perfect for these dreary winter days. Pinned! Hope your week goes well and good luck with your computer/pics! xo
Oh no! Computer issues are the WORST… and reminds me that I need to backup a lot more than I do. I’m assuming you were able to get your photos?! I sure hope you were able to recover everything! Now onto this delish recipe.. How did you know that I JUST bought a spaghetti squash? Now I know what I’ll be doing with it 😉 I love all things curry and can’t wait to try! These photos totally have my mouth watering, Cheyanne!
I see pictures!! Yay 🙂 I can only imagine how scary that was. It’s crazy how much of our (food blogging) life relies on the health of a little box. Hoping you got all your photos back safe and sound. Love, love this dish as I’m a curry lover, for sure!
Ugh I feel your pain! I thought that happened to me a few weeks again when I was a clutz and spilled coffee over my laptop. I had a major freakout and then rushed it into a repair shop. Luckily, they were able to save it all, but it was scary. Do you back up to an external hard drive? I do that, though not as often as I should. And you should look into crashplan! It automatically saves everything on your computer everyday and gives you a report, so if you’re computer does fail, somehow you can get it all back. Totally worth the $$! Now onto this dish…GORGEOUS! You are reminding me that it’s been WAY too long since I’ve made anything with curry. I love the pretty color, Cheyanne! Wish this was my dinner for tonight, especially with that spaghetti squash. Pinned, of course! Hope your Monday is off to a great start!
Oh no! That’s a terrible way to spend a Saturday. I’d been totally freaked too! So glad it seems as if he was able to save the photos – I hope all the other ones were OK too! As for this dinner, it’s calling my name! I’ve been all about curry everything recently and I love lightening things up with some spaghetti squash! Total winner here! And gorgeous too! Hope your week is super boring and uneventful to make up for your weekend craziness! XO
So glad that your man has saved your computer :-)) or we wouldn’t have such a flavoursome and beautiful chicken dish here today. That curry marinade is definitely a winner!
This exact thing happened to me last week!! I feel your pain – i lost all my posts and all my travel snaps with no possibility of recovery. I hope yours has a chance of recover!! This looks like a delicious dinner – the colour is so gorgeous 🙂