Friday, April 8, 2011

Asian Style Chicken with Pineapple Fried Rice

I'm making dinner tonight for a friend who recently had a baby. I remembered this last night at dinner. Today I looked in my freezer to see what was available and decided on chicken something. Yes, you heard that right. I had NO IDEA.

After a trip to the gym, lunch and then putting Evan down for his nap I got started. I knew I wanted to chop the chicken into chunks to make it cook faster so I started to work cutting the boneless, skinless breasts into one inch cubes. As I sliced I started to think about cooking the chicken in olive oil and Italian spices, but changed my mind when I realized that I had a pineapple that needed to be eaten. I quickly switched gears and decided to cook the chicken in Braggs liquid aminos (sort of tastes like soy sauce), with coconut oil, ginger, garlic, sliced onion and a bit of pepper. For the last 10 minutes of cooking I added some cubes of pineapple. I'm pairing this with rice cooked in water and pineapple juice, then sauteed with more pineapple and peppers in coconut oil and a dash of Braggs liquid aminos. Makes me wish we were having more than just leftovers for our own dinner tonight!

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed (I used three large breasts)
Onion, chopped or sliced
Fresh Ginger, about a 1 inch chunk from the root, peeled then pressed through a garlic press
Fresh Garlic, 3 cloves, put through a garlic press
Black Pepper, to taste
Braggs Liquid Aminos, to taste (I used appx. 1/2 cup)
Coconut Oil - 1 tbls, maybe a bit more if you like the coconut taste
Water
Pineapple cubes (as much as you like)

Throw everything but the coconut oil and pineapple in a baking dish and stir until the chicken is well coated with the spices and Braggs. Throw in the coconut oil in one spot. (It will melt after it heats up and disperse through the dish.) Add water so that it covers the chicken about halfway. Bake at 400 until done. In the last 10 minutes or so of cooking throw in the pineapple chunks and stir.

Pineapple Fried Rice

Brown Rice, cooked according to package but put a little pineapple juice in the water too (I pressed a few slices in a lemon press to get the juice out.)
Coconut oil
Pineapple chunks
Pepper chunks
Braggs Liquid Aminos
Black Pepper, to taste

Saute pineapple and sweet pepper chunks in coconut oil until they just start to soften. Add in rice, Braggs and pepper and saute until the rice is hot and everything is mixed. Easy!

Sorry, no pictures again. I'm in a rush to get my friends this meal so Evan and I are headed out the door with no time to stop for pictures.