Aloha Chicken with Coconut Rice

(This post initially published here as part of the Whip It Up challenge.)

Last week I had Asian-inspired food for seven, separate meals. My boss took the New Hire’s out to lunch–Thai food. Handsome & I went out for a birthday dinner with his brother (Happy 25 Scott!)–Chinese food. I had leftovers from both of those–repeat Thai and Chinese food. However, the remaining three meals were comprised of some of the best sauced-chicken I have ever had. It was absolutely delicious, and I–the domestically dormant one–made it! I think I found this on one of your blogs, somewhere…I found the recipe scribbled on a piece of scrap paper and hiding underneath a cookbook. If this looks familiar, please claim it and I’ll link you up. That being said, I have no real name for this dish, but it has chicken, and pineapple, and a fantastic garlic-ginger-soy sauce, and I served it with coconut rice; so I am dubbing it Aloha Chicken.

The recipe will be after the break; here’s the nitty gritties:

• Total Prep-Time: 1 hour 15 minutes. 15 mins prep, 1 hour bake. You have to kind of keep an eye on the chicken, and add the pineapple and red pepper part-way through the cooking process, but that took less than a minute.
• Was the recipe easy to follow: Yes. Tending the sauce takes 10 minutes or so, but everything else is more like a dump-and-toss-in-the-oven method.
• Are the ingredients easy to find: Yes, I love ginger and would highly recommend using fresh ginger root. It’s usually by the fresh mushrooms/herbs at the grocery store.
• Do you need special equipment: I used a cheese-grater to grate the ginger and it worked just fine, although I’m pretty sure there are ginger-graters out there somewhere.
• Does the end result taste delicious: It was like paradise relocated to my taste-buds.
• Would I make it again: And again, and again.

Aloha Chicken
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Line 9×13 baking dish with tinfoil.

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can crushed pineapple, drained (retain juice)
1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips

Sauce:
2 TB pineapple juice
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. fresh ginger root (peeled and grated)
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 TB cornstarch

Combine in a saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, constantly stirring, until thick and bubbly.

Place the chicken in the 9×13 pan, pour 1/3 of the sauce over the top, and bake for 30 minutes, basting once or twice.

Spread the red pepper and the ENTIRE can of crushed pineapple over the top of the chicken (it looks like a ton, but it was my favorite part of the dish. Ok, one of my favorite parts). Spoon remaining sauce over the top and cover the pan with foil. Bake an additional 20 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake for 10 minutes. (I don’t know if this uncovered-then-covered-then-uncovered business does anything special, all I’m saying is it was TOTALLY worth the effort!)

Serve with Coconut Rice

1 cup water
1 1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tsp salt
1 TB butter
2 cups rice (white or brown or whatever)

Bring water, milk, salt and butter to a boil and then add 2 cups rice and let sit, covered, for 20-30 minutes, until done.