6 ingredients make this the easiest ever - PLUS, it's low-cal, low-cost, low-salt, and low-toil!
This recipe is a nice change from all the traditional heavy foods made over the holidays. This sweet pineapple chicken is an easy recipe for 2 or more. It's just 6 ingredients - you can fill up the slow-cooker with four of the items and leave it for the 4-6 hour cooking time. Of course, you'll want to check it every so often to see how the chicken is cooking and later on to taste the gravy like broth. Make sure it's not cooking too hard and stir it once in a while. Then, about 30 minutes before it's done, add the other two items and finish it up. It’s super easy and very tasty.
I like to accompany this recipe with extra chunked pineapple pieces and roasted vegetables on the side. Together they are both low-cal, low-cost, low-salt and low-toil recipes. When you add the last two items to the chicken, then roast the vegetables in the oven and everything is done at the same time. Plate them up and enjoy!
Serves 3-4 people.
Prep the slow-cooker.
I don’t use my small slow-cooker a lot, so I grab it out of the cupboard, rinse it out and I’m ready go. My little one is a 2-quart capacity cooker. It's good for making this recipe for 2 and also for hors de oeuvres.
Ingredients:
1# Chicken – boneless, skinless of your favorite parts
½ C Pineapple juice (15 oz can of chunk pineapple)
1/3 C Brown sugar
1 T Soy sauce
2 T Cornstarch
1 T Water
Slow-cook the chicken:
- Cut up the chicken into 2” chunks.
- Turn the slow-cooker on high.
- Stir the brown sugar, soy sauce and pineapple juice together in the slow-cooker. (We buy a 15 oz can of chunk pineapple – there’s plenty of juice in it to fulfil the needs of this recipe. Plus, we have chunk pineapple to add at the end for more pineapple flavor.)
- Add the chicken chunks and cover.
- Let the slow-cooker cook on high until it begins to simmer. Then turn it down so it still comes to a simmer but does not boil.
- Let it cook for 5 hours, checking it periodically. With my slow-cooker, I adjust the dial a few times so it doesn’t simmer too hard.
- Check for sauce thickness. This recipe created a nice gravy type sauce. Some packages of raw chicken have more liquid in it than other chicken, so the juice in the slow-cooker might not be thickening as fast as you think it should. If you like it thicker, stir the cornstarch and water together in a small bowl and pour about half of it in the chicken mixture as it simmers. Stir to combine well. Let simmer for another 20 minutes. It should be thickening. If not, add more of cornstarch and water mixture.
- If you like more pineapple flavor, add some of the pineapple chunks from the can about 20 minutes before you serve it.
Serving accompaniment:
- Serve with roasted vegetables in extra virgin olive oil, including whatever veggies you like best. We like to roast chunks of fresh brussels sprouts, carrots, sweet peppers, onions and broccoli on a parchment paper lined rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Roast at 400F degrees for 10-15 minutes, stirring once half-way through. - Season with salt and pepper or whatever herbs and spices you prefer.
- We like this meal with buttered fresh lefse. It's a thinner version of bread and does not overwhelm the meal.
- Make a lefse wrap! The next day I even use the leftover chicken with just a little of the sauce and some of the roasted veggies to make a delicious wrap with a triangle of the lefse. It's very tasty cold or heated up. It's just another easy meal to make out of the first easy meal. Mmmm....mmmm....mmmm!
This is a meal I like to make for the two of us. I get it started and he does the taste testing along the way. Then I roast the veggies and we both sit down to a delicious meal, “Baking our own Memories.”
Comments