I’ve gotten a little lax with my grocery spending lately, so during the month of June I’m making it my mission to use up as many things in my pantry and freezer as possible. First up: chicken thighs! I fell in love with chicken thighs when I made the Maple Dijon Chicken because they are just so easy to prepare and come out so wonderfully juicy. All you really need to do is slather on a sauce and bake.
So, that’s what I did. I whipped up a quick pineapple teriyaki sauce (again using pantry staples), poured it over the chicken and let it bake. I served it over some brown jasmine rice, topped it with some left over sliced green onions, and a side of some frozen broccoli florets (ALSO leftovers from the freezer). All I bought for this recipe was the pineapple. That makes me HAPPY. …and I’m sure I’ll be happy munching on this for lunch tomorrow at work!
P.S. I made four chicken thighs because that’s what I had in my freezer, but this amount of sauce could probably handle up to 6 smallish thighs without needing to make more.
Baked Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken Thighs
Baked Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken Thighs
Servings 4Ingredients
- 15 oz can pineapple chunks in juice ($1.29)
- 1 inch fresh ginger, grated ($0.11)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.16)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce ($0.40)
- 1 1/2 Tbsp rice vinegar ($0.17)
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.03)
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch ($0.04)
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 1 1/4 lbs) ($2.35)
- 3 whole green onions, sliced ($0.33)
- 4 cups cooked rice ($0.69)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Drain the pineapple juice from the can to use in the sauce (it should be about 3/4 cup juice total). Save the pineapple chunks for later. Combine the pineapple juice, grated ginger, minced garlic, soy sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, and cornstarch in a small sauce pot. Stir until everything is well combined and the cornstarch is dissolved. Cook the mixture over medium heat until it begins to boil and becomes thick and glossy. Turn the burner off and add the pineapple chunks to the sauce.
- Coat a small casserole dish with non-stick spray. Arrange the chicken thighs in the dish so that they are not overlapping. Pour the pineapple teriyaki sauce over the chicken, allowing some to get under the chicken pieces.
- Bake the chicken in the preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Top the chicken with the sliced green onions. To serve, scoop one chicken thigh plus pineapple pieces and sauce over a bowl of cooked rice.
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Nutrition
Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, then begin to make the sauce. Pour off the juice from one 15-oz. can of pineapple chunks in juice. You should have about 3/4 cup juice (if you have less, say 1/2 cup, you’ll still be okay).
Combine that pineapple juice in a small sauce pot with 1 inch of freshly grated ginger, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/4 cup soy sauce 1.5 Tbsp rice vinegar, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, and 1 Tbsp cornstarch. Stir until all of the corn starch is dissolved. it will look kind of cloudy, like this.
Cook the sauce over medium heat until it begins to boil, at which point it will become thick and glossy (that’s the magic of corn starch!). This only takes about five minutes. Turn the heat off and stir in the pineapple chunks.
Place the chicken thighs in a casserole dish so that they are not overlapping. You want them to have a little bit of space, so if you’re cooking more than just four, use a larger dish. I don’t bother trimming the fat because it mostly melts off and it tastes good. Yes, I said it. Chicken fat tastes good!
Pour the yummy sauce all over ’em. I lifted up the chicken a bit to let some of the sauce get underneath…
Then just cook it in the preheated oven for about 35 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked all the way through and the sauce is nice and bubbly. DONE!
Sprinkle some sliced green onions on top and you’re ready to serve!
I served mine with some brown rice and leftover frozen broccoli florets. I had plenty of sauce to spoon over the rice and broccoli for a FANTASTIC meal. So easy!
Could you marinate this (and in what mixture) so it’s not just being baked with a sauce on top?
You can split the sauce before simmering it on the stove and use half as a marinade, then pour the other half over the chicken before baking. :)
I realized while we were eating that I forgot to add the soy sauce. It was not great, so I don’t recommend doing that. LOL! I’m definitely going to try again! Such an easy recipe, and I love that you just pop it in the oven. I’m going to try adding some red bell pepper next time.
I accidentally used my pineapple juice to make piña coladas before reading the entire recipe….
hahahahahah!! XOXO -Monti
Right as I was about to put the chicken in the dish we caught the “shouldn’t eat this” smell. Ended up grilling burgers and putting the sauce on those so it wouldn’t get wasted. Drool worthy!
I have also made this recipe for years and when I don’t have boneless chicken thighs and just the bone in, I cook them a bit without the sauce before adding it later. This is just so sauce doesn’t turn so thin.
I have made this over and over for several years and it is always delicious for me and pleases others. One time I had to use powdered ginger ( the horror!) But it was still great.
Do you have any nutritional info for this?
No, I’m sorry, I do not have nutritional information.
For this one, I got inspired by your recent stir-fry chicken recipe, which used storebought sweet chilli sauce. My chilli sauce has been sitting in the fridge for ages and I was very pleased to find a creative way to use it :)
So I made my sauce by mixing 1 cup sweet chilli sauce, 1 inch of minced fresh ginger, 1 garlic clove and a few tablespoons of soy sauce (I just kept tasting it until I thought the flavour was good). I also used fresh pineapple, because that’s what I had :)
Tasty and very straightforward to prepare :) Just enough time to cook rice and some green beans (+ do some vacuuming hehe).
Covered or uncovered?
Uncovered
I made this tonight with a few modifications. I didn’t want to use the oven, so I simmered the sauce (minus the cornstarch) in a high side pan until bubbly and then added my chicken thighs. I put the lid on it and simmered on med-low for 15 minutes. I added the cornstarch slurry and gave that a couple minutes to thicken while I dished up my sides. A fast weeknight dinner and one that works well in warmer months too. Oh, I also added a little fish sauce for some umami flavor and a small pinch of red chili flakes for some warmth to counter the sweetness.
Love the addition of the fish sauce!
Will this work without the rice vinegar/cornstarch? It’s too cold to go out to the supermarket today haha.
Nope, unfortunately those two ingredients are pretty critical. :) I feel ya, though!
Planning on making this tomorrow. Interested to know if you have ever tried it in cjunks rather than whole pieces (using breasts because I have that).
I haven’t, but it’s a great idea! It will likely cook much faster and the sauce will touch more of the meat. :)