Green chile spaghetti squash skillet – good easy spaghetti squash topped with spicy Colorado green chile and cheese for a quick meal you'll want to eat over and over!

At Avdaye, we add lots of tips in all of our recipes – because we are a home cook without any formal training, and we find we are more confident making dishes when we understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe. Our goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.

Garlic & Green Chile Spaghetti Squash

Strands of slightly sweet, garlicky spaghetti squash tossed in a smoky, spicy green chile sauce topped with crumbled cotija cheese for a good low carb meal that is full of flavor.

This spaghetti squash bowl has become one of our favorite new recipes – it is our go-to lunch, and so easy to whip up.

We hope you love this good low carb skillet as much as we do!

How To Make Green Chile Spaghetti Squash

For our favorite green chile sauce recipe, please click here. It was inspired by our recent trip to Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and Cañon City Colorado.

If you'd like to buy green chile sauce, grab for brands who usse roasted green chiles and not a lot of fillers.

Watch labels closely – many green chile sauces use flour to thicken, so if you're keto or celiac, you need to be extra careful or consider making your own to prevent gluten contamination.

How To Bake Spaghetti Squash

This recipe is simple and easy to prepare in a few minutes – but you do need to have cooked spaghetti squash.

Thankfully, cooking spaghetti squash is incredibly simple and can be done from whole:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut squash in half.
Using a spoon, scrape out strings and seeds, leaving squash flesh.
Place squash on baking sheet.
Bake until soft, about 45 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool until you can hold squash without burning hands.
Using a fork, scrape squash flesh as it “shreds” itself. Scrape all the way to the peel.
Remove spaghetti squash “strands” and set aside for cooking with green chile sauce.

To use spaghetti squash prepped and cut in a bag from the grocery store:

We personally love using pre-prepped bags of spaghetti squash from the grocery store.
They are uncooked cubes, but you can microwave them right in the bag and then shred into a skillet with browned garlic and shallots.
Follow bag instructions to microwave.
After microwaving, let cool until you can touch without burning fingers.
Shred with two forks and set aside.

Kitchen notes

This easy meal should be eaten within 2 days for bests flavor.

While the recipe is ok to eat for up to four days in the refrigerator, we personally think the texture gets too mushy after a day or two.

Recipe FAQ's

Can we use leftover spaghetti squash?

If you cooked a bunch of spaghetti squash and want to use it up, this recipe is suited to using leftover cooked squash!

What brand green chile sauce do you love?

We prefer to make our own green chile from Pueblo chilies – but because Pueblo chilies can be hard to find even in Colorado (outside of Pueblo), we will often grab for a medium green chile sauce from 505 made from Hatch chilies.

What can we put over this bowl for a heartier meal?

This dish was meant to be a great fresh, easy base for a meal – top with grilled or roasted meats, fish, vegetables, tofu, or chicken for a filling dinner.

Serve it with

This recipe is amazingly rich, spicy, and hearty on it's own – but it is great with steak, pork, chicken, and fish for a complete meal!

Toss grilled meats or veggies on top to make your own spaghetti squash bowls, or serve alongside your favorite dishes for a hearty squash noodle bowl.

You can also top it with our favorite green chile pork carnitas recipe!

Green Chile Spaghetti Squash Skillet Recipe

Ingredients

16 oz cooked spaghetti squash, about 1 whole squash, shredded
2 tbsp butter
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 medium shallot, diced
½ cup green chile sauce, some will want more sauce, we sometimes go up to a cup of sauce depending on our tastes that day
1 tsp fresh cracked pepper
1 tsp celtic sea salt
½ tsp cumin
¼ cup crumbled cotija cheese
cilantro, to garnish, optional

Method

In large skillet on medium high heat, melt butter until foamy.
Add shallot and garlic and heat until soft and fragrant, stirring to prevent burning, about 1 minute.
Add spaghetti squash to pan and toss well.
Season with salt, pepper, cumin. Mix well.
Add green chile sauce to pan and stir. Cook until piping hot, about 5 minutes.
Top with crumbled cotjia cheese and cilantro, if desired.
Serve immediately.