Baked Pineapple Chicken Bowls
Savory, sweet and sour with the juiciest of pineapple chunks and the most tender chicken bites baked to absolute perfection.
Pineapple chicken. Now that’s a combination of flavors that can never go wrong.
All this is missing is a drizzle of Sriracha. Because at the end of the day, everything needs Sriracha. EVERYTHING. Even if it’s just a small drizzle.
But if you don’t have the highest tolerance for spicy foods, I guess I can forgive you.
The sweet and savory sour flavors here will still stand alone just fine.
But really, my favorite part about this are the juicy pineapple chunks.
That’s all you really need anyway.
The pineapples and Sriracha. The chicken, as juicy and tender as it is, can stay by the sidelines, I guess.
Baked Pineapple Chicken Bowls
Ingredients
- 1 cup pineapple juice
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup reduced sodium soy sauce
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon Sriracha, optional
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ½ cup cornstarch
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups diced pineapple, canned or fresh
- 1 green onion, thinly sliced
- ¼ teaspoon sesame seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9x13 baking dish or coat with nonstick spray.
- To make the sauce, whisk together pineapple juice, brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and Sriracha in a medium bowl; set aside.
- In a large bowl, season chicken with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in cornstarch and gently toss to combine. Working one at a time, dip chicken into the eggs.
- Heat vegetable oil in a large saucepan. Add chicken and cook until golden brown, about 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate; discard excess oil.
- Add chicken and pineapple to prepared baking dish. Top with pineapple juice mixture.
- Place into oven and bake until the sauce has thickened, about 55 minutes, turning over every 15 minutes to evenly coat the chicken.
- Serve immediately, garnished with green onion and sesame seeds, if desired.
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This is amazing! A bit labour intensive but well well worth it. I used four chicken breasts and doubled the sauce. Also used fresh pineapple. Can’t wait to try this out on company. Will serve on fried rice.
I tried the recipe and followed the advice to make the sauce on the top of the stove using some cornstarch to thicken, next time I would cut back on the sugar. For the chicken I used the cornstarch then fried without using the eggs added the pineapple and the sauce then served immediately, quick meal less fuss.
The end result was very tasty, but I made a tweak. Dipping the chicken in egg AFTER the cornstarch makes no sense, unless you’re then breading it in more starch or flour. I reread the directions again and again and figured I’d try it. I did as directed (cornstarch –> egg –> fry) for the first batch, and sure enough, you get a weird, smooshy coating; essentially chicken coated in scrambled egg. For the second batch I skipped the egg and just put the cornstarched chicken in the oil to brown up and it was nice and crispy, and stayed that way after the bake. I also used chicken thighs instead of breast– a little higher fat content but they will stay juicy inside after both stovetop and oven, whereas chicken breasts will start to dry out with that much cooking. Hope this helps!
This is our new favorite recipe! Thank you for making cooking fun again! You have helped us try some great new recipes and this one will surely be one we repeat often!
Hi from Australia
I am slowly working my way through your recipes.
My family loves them – tonight was baked pineapple chicken bowls – fantastic – perfect. Thank you for sharing these
I am wondering if I can substitute The cornstarch with anything?
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment when making substitutions and modifications.
Made this a couple nights ago and followed the recipe insofar as ingredients/amounts but made substantial changes to technique. After tossing 1″ chicken pieces in cornstarch & egg and Browning in oil (in 2 batches), the chicken was completely cooked through. So, I couldn’t understand why it would need further cooking in the oven for 55 minutes. At that point, I quickly stir-fried my fresh pineapple chunks, then poured off the excess oil remaining in the skillet. I whisked 2 Tbls. cornstarch into the sauce ingredients, poured it into the skillet, brought it to a boil, then turned down the heat and added the chicken and pineapple back into the sauce. Let it heat through about a minute, and DONE! Total cooking time, start to finish, about 12-15 minutes and the coating on the chicken stayed crisp, the chicken didn’t get mushy (as a couple of reviewers posted; that may be due to the bromelain in pineapple breaking down the chicken), and due to the addition of the cornstarch to the sauce, it thickened up just fine! Sprinkled with scallions and sesame seeds and served over Jasmine rice, a truly delicious dish!
I have made this recipie multiple times because we love it , but my sauce never thickened. This time I removed 1/4 cup of the juice mixture and whisked in 1 tablespoon of cornstartch and then added it back to the juice mixture before putting it on the chicken and pineapple. After 45 minutes in the oven it actually thickened up.
Way to improvise, Lauren! I’m glad it worked out this time. Thank you for sharing that!
Is there a sweetener I can replace the brown sugar with? Hoping to make this for my grandmother who can’t have refined sugar.
My roommate and I cannot get enough of this dish! I am allergic to eggs, so I substitute the egg with apple sauce and he goes back for seconds and thirds! This website is definitely our go-to!
Yum!!! The chicken turned out excellent! Better than Chinese takeout. I would definitely make this again. Although, I used canned pineapple and when I make this again, I would use fresh pineapple.
Oh my goodness! Just finished eating this and daaaaaaamn that was indeed delicious! Thank you.
I don’t see when I use the onion.
Please refer to step #7:
Serve immediately, garnished with green onion and sesame seeds, if desired.
Wow!! Fast ,simple and tastes good. It’s a keeper.
This is a new family favorite…everyone loved it!! I followed the recipe exactly and it was perfect. Thank for all the incredibly delicious recipes. Damn Delicious is the first site I go to when looking for something new, healthy, and tasty.
So good! I used a pork roast instead of chicken and it was delicious.
Does this reheat well? I live alone so a average sized recipe is usually to big for me.
Yes!
Tried this tonight but my sauce is watery so my chicken became uncrisp :/ anyway to thicken the sauce up?
Cornstarch (mixed with water) should do the trick!
this is so good. I just made this for dinner and my husband, who is a very finicky eater, loved it. He said it was better than take out.
Has anyone tried using orange juice instead of pineapple? Don’t have pineapple, is there such a thimg as Orange Chicken ?