Delicious Honey & Garlic Pineapple Chicken with Coconut-Basil Rice

Here's an incredibly delicious meal I actually kind of threw together last week.  I didn't follow a recipe for this one guys.  It's a "Leslie original"!  (If you follow me you probably know that also means a non-structured recipe. haha)   My husband and I really loved this one!  Mr. Cozy appreciates Chinese/Thai food even more than I do and with Asian inspired flavors in this dish, he really loved it!  He's been working so hard, and I want him to be able to come home to some of his favorite meals after a long day.  This is quickly becoming one of those meals!

I decided to marinade some chicken breasts in a garlic and lemon marinade and thought I'd just pan sear the chicken for dinner. Simple, but good.  After sorting through my little pantry, I found some ingredients that I thought would elevate this recipe!  Crushed pineapple, raw honey, Jasmine rice, coconut milk....

My mind was reeling, and I decided to just wing it and bring all of these flavors together with garlic and a little crushed red pepper to make a new delicious Caribbean meets Polynesian meets Asian dish!  (haha, Does that make sense??)  The next time, I will probably tweak it a little more towards the Asian influence because we like that so much.  I think that the sauce would be good to have a little soy sauce and ginger added to it.  Yum!  I like for those flavor to be used as undertones and not be overpowering.  Also, I think I added a dash of balsamic vinegar to the sauce....once again...I didn't write down the whole recipe as I was cooking. (I need to be better at that!)  The recipe I'm sharing with you serves as a good outline of what I did.  Feel free to use your creative liberties when cooking this! :)

These particular flavors marry together to make this chicken moist and incredibly flavorful.  A little savory and a little more sweet come together in this new favorite meal of ours.  I served the chicken over a bed of fluffy coconut-basil rice and poured lots of the honey pineapple sauce over the top!  We also ate a summer favorite, sauteed squash and zucchini on the side.  As I'm typing out this post, I'm thinking about when I can make this recipe again!  We love it so much and I hope you do, too!!!

Garlic Pineapple Chicken with Coconut-Basil Rice

Marinade

(Makes approx. 1/2 c. marinade)

1 1/2 cloves Minced Garlic

1/2 tsp. Chili paste (found in the Asian isle)

or red pepper flake

Juice of 1 large lemon

1 1/2 Tbsp. Raw Honey

1 1/2 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Honey & Garlic Pineapple Chicken

2 large Chicken breasts, pounded evenly

E.V. Olive Oil

Minced Garlic

1 cup Canned Crushed Pineapple

Raw Honey 

or whatever kind you have 

Crushed Red Pepper Flake

Balsamic Vinegar

 Brown Sugar

Salt & Pepper

Coconut Basil Rice

Jasmine Rice

E.V. Olive oil

Lite Coconut Milk

not cream of coconut!

Fresh Basil

Salt and Pepper

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Combine all the ingredients of the marinade and whisk together very well. 

Salt and pepper the chicken and place in a large plastic bag. 

Pour the marinade over the chicken and seal the bag well. 

Smoosh together and allow to marinade in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Take the chicken out of the marinade and dry off with a paper towel.  The flavors should be soaked through, and a dry piece of meat will crust much better than a wet one! 

In a large oven-proof skillet, swirl a couple of turns of olive oil around the pan. Over medium heat, sear the chicken on both sides until brown and crisp on the outside.  (About 3 minutes on each side without touching.)

Remove the chicken from the skillet and set aside.

Using the same skillet, add a little more olive oil.

Add about 1 clove of minced garlic to the pan and cook for just a minute.

Add the crushed pineapple with juice.  Use the juice and a wooden spoon to scrape up the good bits on the bottom.  (I did have to discard some of the black bits that had burned a smidgen.)

Add about a couple tablespoons of honey, couple of dashes of balsamic vinegar, teaspoon of brown sugar, pinch of red pepper flake and salt and pepper.  (Here's where the next time I may omit the salt and add the soy sauce and a bit of ginger.)

Allow this to cook on medium heat for the flavors to meld and the juice thicken up. 

To ensure thickening, I added a slurry of cornstarch and cold water. I don't want a gelatinous consistency, but just a sauce that will sick to the chicken a little more.  It will bubble and look delicious!

Add the chicken back to the pan and top it with some of the bubbling pineapple sauce.

Put in the oven for about 20-25 minutes or so. 

Here is when you should cook your rice!  

When the timer goes off, check in the thickest part to makes sure the chicken is done.

For the rice:  In a medium sized pan, heat some olive oil over medium heat and pour in your rice.  I always cook 1 cup of rice for us two.  That way we have a little for leftovers. 

As your rice toasts for a few minutes, you're giving it a delicious nuttiness and enhancing the flavor.  After about 5 minutes, or when you start smelling the toasty goodness, add the normal amount of your liquid.  The liquid in this case, is the coconut milk!  Add some salt and cook the rice as normal.

When finished cooking and has sat for about 10 minutes, fluff with a fork and add chopped basil and salt and pepper.  Stir together.

This dish comes together beautifully!  Serve the chicken sliced over the rice and top with lots of extra sauce.  Like I said, it's really good with sauteed fresh vegetables on the side!  Enjoy!

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Spicy Cajun Jambalaya with Moist Skillet Cornbread

     So on my day off work, and my gardening finished (I love my new pots of geraniums by our front door) I was ready to cook a hearty meal for us.  My line of thinking was something spicy...something with the smoked turkey sausage I had...and I was craving some iron skillet cornbread, so it needed to go with that too -light bulb!- Cajun Jambalaya!

     This is a healthy recipe, because I added beans (the recipe didn't call for them originally), lots of veggies, whole grain rice and yummy smoked turkey sausage.  The combination of all of this, plus tomatoes, fat free vegetable broth and spices, then you've got a rich, feel-good meal that tastes incredible and is good on the waistline, too!  I try to be very aware of our health whenever I'm cooking.  I pretty much use only olive oil,  fat free or low sodium broth, soups and stocks, use turkey sausage almost always instead of pork sausage, and cook with lean meats as much as possible.  When something calls for veggies, like this recipe, I just chop up extra to add in for easy nutrition or add a can of rinsed beans for good protein!  As you know, not all my recipes are this healthy, and on those days I have to use good portion control.  No food is off limits totally when you're smart about it.  That was just my two cents on healthy meal planning. :)

     This dish originally called for sausage, chicken and shrimp.  I just had sausage on hand and ready so that's the only meat I used, but I think all of them together would be traditional for jambalaya and so tasty.  It just goes to show that you don't have to be a stickler to recipes, just let your pantry help guide you through.  I think cooking for family should be a casual and an enjoyable experience.  Cooking and baking just makes me happy, and doing it for others brings me joy!

     I served up this delicious jambalaya with a basic skillet cornbread recipe.  I got the recipe on the back of the House-Autry Stone Ground Yellow Cornmeal's bag. (I think it's the same general recipe on every cornmeal bag.) I like to add a dash of black pepper to the batter for an extra savory note, and add some creamed corn to sweeten up the cornbread and make it incredibly moist!  Put a little butter in the cast iron skillet and melt it in a very hot oven, so when you pour the cornbread batter in it will sizzle and brown the edges to the crisy goodness you want!  You gotta know how to make cornbread in the South!

(Stirring in the black pepper)

(Looks at those bubbly brown edges instantly after pouring in the batter!)

(Nothin' like Southern food.)

This meal is a comforting and delicious way to end the day.  I hope it finds it's way onto your dinner table soon!

Jambalaya Goodness

1/4 c. olive oil

1 pkg. Butterball smoked turkey sausage, sliced  

3/4 c. green bell pepper, diced

3/4 c. celery, diced

3/4 c. onion, diced

2 Tbsp. minced garlic

1 Tbsp. cajun seasoning

3 dried bay leaves

few dashes of hot sauce

few dashes Worchestershire sauce

1 can beans (pinto or black), drained and rinsed

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, drained

1 c. rice

3 cups liquid

(I used 1 can vegetable broth-2 cups- and 1 c. water)

In a large pot, add about half the oil and saute the smoked turkey sausage over medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Once browned a bit, place on paper towels to drain and set aside.  In the same pot add the rest of the oil and add the peppers, celery and onion.  Cook for about 8-10 minutes or until tender.

Add garlic and sausage back to the pot. Season with Cajun seasonings a little salt and pepper, bay leaves, hot sauce, Worchestershire sauce and add beans and diced tomatoes.  Stir well.

Next add rice and slowly add broth and water.

(The original recipe calls for this to cook for about 15 minutes, but I used brown Basmati rice and it took a good 45 minutes or so to cook.) So, I just put the lid on it and let kept it at a low simmer on med-low heat, stirring occasionally.  Most of the liquid will get soaked up in the rice and flavor it very well.  Enjoy!
Serves 4-6

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