Pineapple Chicken and Rice

I'm not sure if I ever actually wrote down why I started posting recipes.


Last summer, I cooked the same thing every week.  Scott was bored.  I was bored.

School started and I found myself still cooking the same thing every week and relying more and more on Wan Chai Ferry.  (You know.  The frozen dinners in a bag?  The Spicy Garlic Chicken is my very favorite.  I could/would eat it every day.)  I knew something had to be done.

I started reading food blogs.  I knew I had to start cooking with more variety.  Since I already loved to bake, this was just the next step.

These days, I have a running list of recipes I want to try and dinners that we have the ingredients for.  I shop based on ingredients now, instead of just what looks good.  Slow-cooker recipes are for the weekends, as well as new recipes.  The stand-bys are for during the week.  If I know how something is going to turn out, I'm more likely to make it on a weeknight.  The blogging of recipes gives me something to do, something to post about, and keeps me accountable for trying new things.  

BUT, I still love Wan Chai Ferry, and we still eat it once a month or so.  I truly love the taste, and I have not yet been able to replicate it.  Actually, this is the first time I tried something that could pass for Wan Chai Ferry.


It. is. a. WINNER.  Please make it.

I found the bones for this recipe here.  But I have trouble following recipes.  I took it up a notch with garlic and ginger.  And because I'm the person who refuses to look in the pantry before going shopping, I ended up using a bit of crushed pineapple instead of pineapple chunks. 

Pineapple Chicken and Rice
4-5 chicken breast tenders, cut into bit-size pieces
1/2 cup flour
1 t. salt
1 T. lemon pepper seasoning
Olive oil

1 bell pepper
3/4 cup sugar snap peas
1 medium onion
4-5 green onions
1 can of pineapple chunk, in juice (use about half the pineapple in the stir-fry)

Sauce:
2 t. soy sauce
1 tsp. grated garlic
1 tsp. grated ginger
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
Pineapple juice and water to make 1 cup of total liquid
2 T. cornstarch
2 t. chicken bouillon


Rice:
5 cups water
1 1/2 cups jasmine rice  (please, please, please use jasmine rice.  you'll thank me later.)

Mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a small saucepan and boil for 2-3 minutes.  Then let simmer until you're ready for it.

Preheat over to 375 degrees.  Mix together the flour, salt, and lemon pepper.  Dredge the chicken in it.  Heat about 8 T. of olive oil in a frying pan and brown the chicken.  Don't cook it the whole way.  Just give it a crispy coating.

Put the now-crispy chicken into a glass baking dish and cover it with about 2/3 of the sauce.  Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes.

In the same frying pan (pour out excess oil), stir fry the vegetables and pineapple.  Then toss them with the rest of the sauce.  After the chicken has cooked for 20 minutes, add the vegetables and bake for another 15 minutes. 

Make the rice and serve the stir fry over it.  Jasmine rice only needs to cook for about 15 minutes.