Sticky pineapple chicken
This sticky pineapple chicken is something I cook 3 or 4 times a year. It's another simple dish that keeps our mealtimes exciting and our kiddos love it! You can reheat it/freeze it/prep the night before. This is a meal for busy families.
Ingredients
- 1 onion diced
- 2-3 peppers any colour chopped in 2cm cubes
- Thumb size piece of ginger chopped
- 4 cloves garlic crushed
- 2-3 chicken breasts cut in to small pieces
- 1 ripe pineapple if it's not ripe it wont work for this recipe
- 2 tbsp corn flour
- 6 tbsp pineapple juice you can take this from your pineapple as you chop it
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 4 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp soft dark brown sugar
- Glug of olive oil
Instructions
- Start by preparing all your ingredients. This will speed up and simplify cooking and it allows you to prep in advance if needed.
- In one bowl add you chopped onion, pepper, ginger and crushed garlic
- In another bowl add you small chunks of chicken breast. I cut the breasts in three, lengthways and then chop each length in to small chunks.
- Be sure to thoroughly clean your utensils, surfaces and hands after handling raw chicken.
- Then take your pineapple and using a serrated knife slice into two halves, lengthways to create roughly even halves.
- Run a sharp knife around the inside edge of the pineapple skin - leave a few mm of pineapple on the skin so that your pineapple keeps its shape and creates two boats/bowls to serve in.
- Run a sharp knife down the centre of the pineapple. From a few mm below top to a few mm above the bottom creating two halves to the inner fruit. You can create quarters by running your knife horizontally across the pineapple which might make scooping out easier.
- Using your spoon/ice cream scoop you want to carefully transfer all the pineapple fruit and juice in to a bowl. This is easier to show so I’d encourage you to watch the video below before from 20 seconds in.
- Set your pineapple boats/bowls aside and now chop your pineapple into chunks removing the hard core first.
- In a separate bowl you are going to make your sauce. Add your corn flour, pineapple juice and tomato purée - give it a mix.
- Then add 3 tbsp of your soy sauce, the white wine vinegar and sugar and give it all a final mix.
- Put a wok/large pan on a medium to height heat and add your olive oil followed by your chicken and stir for a few minutes until the chicken is well coated and beginning to cook.
- Then add your bowl with the onions, peppers, ginger and garlic. Stir fry for a further 3 minutes.
- Add your sauce to the pan, give it all a good mix and cook on a medium to low heat for 5-6 minutes. Watch it doesn't burn.
- Add the last tbsp soy sauce to your chicken and veg followed by all your pineapple chunks and any remaining juice. Cook on a low heat for a further 5 minutes while you prepare your sides. If you want to add some chilli oil or hot sauce for a bit of a kick, add it to taste in this step.
- Ladle the sticky pineapple chicken into your pineapple boats/bowls. Garnish with coriander/sesame seeds if you like and serve with your sides.
- You can freeze this recipe if you want to make extra for a rainy day.