This post is sponsored by Dole® Frozen Fruit in collaboration with Markerly, all opinions are my own.
A sweet and spicy Pineapple Firecracker Chicken. This 30 minute meal offers a perfect mid-week solution with a sauce that embodies sweet heat with a tantalizing flavor punch. It is easy enough for a weeknight, but tasty enough for a dinner party! Your guests are sure to be pleased with the tender chicken, sweet mini peppers, fragrant onions, and sweet pineapple chunks. The chicken thighs stay nice and tender and the whole thing is slathered in intoxicatingly delicious sauce. You won’t be able to get enough!
Pineapple Firecracker Chicken
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This recipe is so easy, so flavorful, and so amazing you seriously don’t want to miss it. Don’t believe me? Check out this video highlighting just how easy it is to make:
Lately I have been finding myself in a bit of a flavor rut. We recently moved into a new home, and have been doing lots of work to it in order to get it looking awesome. We had some new counters installed, and the kitchen updated a bit, so in order to show it off I decided to have some friends over for dinner. Only then I couldn’t think of what to make. And never made it to the store. I had only a little bit of time before I needed to feed everyone, and nothing planned. I started thinking about take out options. I mean, I had promised to feed them.
One of my favorite things to get at a local restaurant is their firecracker chicken, seconded by sweet and sour. I started thinking about it, and thought how yummy it would be to make a cross over of sweet and sour and firecracker, and so I came up with Pineapple Firecracker Chicken. It has that heat you expect from firecracker chicken, with the sweetness of sweet and sour. And some acidity to boot!
With DOLE Frozen Fruit in the freezer, and some quick thinking, disaster was averted, and instead of take-out, I served my guests a hearty, delicious, flavorful meal that I pulled together in minutes. I just grabbed a bag of frozen pineapple chunks out of the freezer, a few peppers out of the garden, and in under 30 minutes, I had a wok full of tantalizing pineapple firecracker chicken just begging to be eaten. I usually keep frozen fruit on hand for things like smoothies, but loved how versatile the DOLE Pineapple Chunks are, and how easily and perfectly they worked for this savory wok dish! Honestly they could be used for anything from appetizers to drinks to main dishes, and of course dessert!
This dish made me super happy because it was so delicious and came together very quickly. I used Rice Vinegar, which you can find at almost any grocery store in the Asian Food section. But if you can’t find it feel free to sub in extra Apple Cider Vinegar. I also used sesame oil to add extra flavor to the chicken. This can be optional, though I recommend using it. Additionally, there is a whole cup of brown sugar in this recipe. While you can cut down on the sugar if you want, keep in mind, this dish does have a kick to it, and the sugar helps soften that a bit. Adjust according to personal preference. And adjust the amount of hot sauce as well. I found that as I have the recipe listed, it has enough heat to make me happy, while not being too hot for my kids to eat.
I am so glad I had a dinner challenge, and had to think outside my normal flavor box. And I am so glad I had DOLE Pineapple Chunks in my freezer, not only was I prepared for anything, I got to create an absolutely mouthwatering meal. This recipe is a great use of the pineapple, but you can find other unique and fun recipe ideas using DOLE frozen fruit here. It is all natural fruit with no added sugar, making it perfect for smoothies, paletas, sangria and other fun recipes, plus it is available all year with no washing, cutting, or mess. I could do with fewer messes. And if you don’t use it all, you can just re-seal the bag!
Don’t you just want to dig in?
Pineapple Firecracker Chicken
Ingredients
- 3 Tbs Olive Oil
- 2 lbs Chicken Thighs
- 1/4 tsp sesame oil
- 3 Tbs minced garlic
- salt and pepper
- 2 cups sweet mini peppers chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped white onion
- 16 ounces Frozen Dole Pineapple Chunks
- 2 Tbs Sriracha
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 Tbs Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 Tbs Rice Vinegar
- 1 Tbs corn starch
Garnish
- Green onion
- Red Pepper Flakes
Instructions
- Cut chicken into even sized pieces.
- Chop up onion and peppers into nickle sized pieces
- Heat 3 Tbs olive oil in a wok over medium-high heat
- Add minced garlic, chicken, sesame oil, salt and pepper, and cook until just browned about 1-2 minutes
- Remove from wok, leave some of the juices/oil behind.
- Add onions and peppers to pan and saute for 30 seconds, add in Dole Pineapple Chunks,
- Add sriracha, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, and rice vinegar.
- Bring to a low boil, add chicken back in, and corn starch, stir well and immediately so corn starch doesn't form lumps. it will help the sauce thicken.
- Let simmer for 6-8 minutes until chicken is cooked through, and sauce is thickened.
- Remove and serve over rice! Garnish with green onion and red pepper flakes if desired
Notes
Nutrition
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
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