I get a lot of requests for my pineapple chicken recipe — it is not exactly an old homestead-type recipe, but my family loves all sorts of cuisines from around the world. It gives us a chance to learn about different cultures and their food (perfect for our homeschooling social studies unit) while tasting new and delicious foods! We thoroughly enjoy making an assortment of cuisines from the comfort of our kitchen and we can easily adjust recipes as needed to meet our food allergies like seafood, MSG or fish sauce and we know exactly what the ingredients are!
We especially enjoy this pineapple chicken whenever we are having a homemade “Chinese” food night! We often opt for making our own versions of delicious homemade Chinese food rather than takeout because of our many food allergies and who likes to feel yucky after a meal!?!
I usually just toss a bunch of ingredients together like I do for my pineapple chicken — I often do not measure, so writing a recipe for this was definitely tricky for me! So, let’s get started!!
As you can see, we ended our 2020 with the most scrumptious meal consisting of a veggie stir fry, ginger beef, pineapple chicken and rice. It was absolutely delicious!
For the veggie stir fry, I added onion, carrots, celery, cabbage (coleslaw mix works great for this), baby bok choy, and broccoli along with water to steam and soy sauce (using Tamari or coconut aminos works wonderfully if you are of need of gluten free). I simply season with salt, pepper, ginger and garlic.
Ginger beef – https://www.ourcityhomestead.com/homemade-ginger-beef/
I always start with the chicken since it seems to take the longest! I used about 8 chicken tenders (the tenders come from the breast meat or 2 to 3 whole chicken breasts) and I chop them up into bite size pieces and place into a bowl. Add an egg and cornstarch, salt and pepper. Let it sit for a few minutes. The chicken will be gloopy.
Heat up a pan with a bit of oil and then toss the chicken in piece by piece. Cook on one side until browned and then flip. Once browned on both sides, remove from pan, and place on paper towel lined plate for any excess grease to drip off. Next, it’s sauce time!!
The sauce is simple. Chop up an onion – I used half of a large onion in the pineapple chicken and the other half went into the ginger beef. Sauté until tender with salt and pepper. Add a can of pineapple chunks to the onion. Once bubbly, stir a cornstarch slurry into pineapple mixture and cook until thickened. Add red pepper, and toss in the sauce. Stir 1 to 2 minutes.
Add chicken to the pineapple sauce. Stir well and serve immediately. The chicken tends to lose its crispiness once it sits too long in the pineapple sauce.
Here’s my version of pineapple chicken from my kitchen of never measuring! I sure hope it becomes your family’s favorite!
Homemade Pineapple Chicken
8 chicken tenders or 2 to 3 whole chicken breasts, cut into pieces
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
fresh cracked pepper
1/2 cup cornstarch
oil for frying
1 onion, chopped
1 – 540ml can pineapple chunks with juice (do not drain)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup water with 2 tbsp cornstarch mixed in
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped into large pieces
Place chopped chicken into a bowl with the egg, salt, pepper and cornstarch. Stir well. Let stand for 8 minutes. Mix well. The mixture will be quite gloopy. Add to a hot pan with oil. I only use enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Brown well, flip and brown on the other side, about 10 minutes. Be sure to thoroughly cook the chicken. Remove from pan and place on a plate that has been lined with paper towel to soak any excess grease.
For the sauce, sauté onion until its translucent in a splash of oil and water. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Once onion is tender, add pineapple with juice and bring to a boil. Once bubbly, add sugar, cornstarch and water solution and stir until thickened. Add more cornstarch solution if sauce is not thick enough. Do not add just cornstarch or sauce will become lumpy. Add red bell pepper and stir well. Cook about 2 minutes. Add cooked chicken and stir well. Serve immediately.
