AIP Core BBQ chicken casserole with spaghetti squash, bacon, and nightshade-free barbecue sauce

Cooking two different dinners under one roof, one for you and one for everyone else, wears a person down fast. This casserole is built so you don't have to. Chicken, bacon, and a full serving of spaghetti squash go into one dish under a barbecue flavor everyone already trusts, and the only real decision is which bottle of sauce goes in.

Standard barbecue sauce is built on tomato and chili, both nightshades, so this recipe swaps in a certified AIP, nightshade-free version, the one substitution that keeps the whole dish compliant. Chicken breast gives you complete protein for tissue repair, and the spinach folded in near the finish is its own source of vitamin A, which the gut lining depends on while it heals.

Serve it at the table, not off the stove. A dish that reads as ordinary comfort food to everyone else at that table is still doing real work for you, and there is something steadying about eating the same dinner as the people you love instead of a separate plate.

Ingredients

• 1 pound bacon, chopped
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 2 pounds chicken breast, chopped
• 2 cups spinach
• 1 medium spaghetti squash, pre-baked and shredded
• 1.5 cups AIP-compliant (nightshade-free) barbecue sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• Sea salt to taste

Method

1. Heat the oven to 400F. In a large skillet, cook the chopped bacon until nearly crisp. Lift it out and set aside, leaving the fat in the pan.
2. Cook the diced onion and chopped chicken in the bacon fat until the chicken is cooked through, then add the spinach and stir until it wilts.
3. In a bowl, combine the chicken mixture, shredded spaghetti squash, barbecue sauce, garlic powder, salt, and half the cooked bacon.
4. Transfer to a greased baking dish and scatter the remaining bacon over the top.
5. Bake 30 minutes, until bubbling and set. Serve hot.

If you have not pre-baked the squash, halve it, scoop the seeds, and roast it cut-side down at 400F until tender, then shred the strands with a fork before you begin.

*Adapted from acleanplate.com*

Provenance: re-grounded from /Users/Christopher/Documents/Claude/01-Projects/ARM/aip-source-archives/a-clean-plate/bbq-chicken-casserole.md. Method reworded in ARM's own words; the source ingredient list was used as factual reference only; no third-party text reproduced. Any health-related statements are hedged and flagged for verification.