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!
This is on our menu this week and I’m so excited! It is so tasty and I just want to drink the sauce haha!
Used on about 12. Not as slathered but just as good. Love thus recipe!
Would this meal freeze well?
Sometimes sauces thickened with cornstarch separate after they freeze and thaw, so that might be the only problem.
Could I let the chicken marinate in the sauce overnight? Anything I candy to cut down on prep time before cooking during the school week is always helpful! If I can just throw this in the oven when I get home tomorrow that would be AWESOME!
-*can do not candy lol
That would probably work. :)
This looks amazing! I’m so excited to try it, but I do have a question. If I don’t have fresh ginger, will ground ginger work? If so, how much would you use? Thanks!
Surprisingly, fresh ginger and dried/ground ginger have very different flavors, so there’s no hard rule for substituting the two. That being said, the dried ginger will probably also be delicious and I’d probably go with about a 1/2 teaspoon.
Blast! I made this tonight. Everything would’ve been perfect, except that a chunk of brown sugar fell into the sauce. Fearful that it would be too sweet, I did 1/2 cup juice and 1/4 cup water. I totally watered it down. It was really good – all the elements were there. My husband says it was good enough that we’ll try it again, sans water!
I made this with the new way to bake frozen broccoli you taught us (cooks at the same temp.) and tonight was one of the best meals, easiest I have made in a long time. This recipe will be in our normal rotation. Easily a 5 star meal.
I’m definitely going to try the Sesame Chicken recipe tomorrow. I have some chicken thighs and was planning to just bake them with seasonings but this recipe looks easy enough and I’m sure, judging by the reviews, that it will taste delicious.
Delicious. Made this for dinner last night. I had crushed not chunk pineapple. The crushed was perfect, but it didn’t have the 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of juice so I added what it did have plus some water to equal that amount when making the sauce. I cooked mine about 10 more minutes as one of the thighs in the pkg was large. Also toward the end of cooking, I flipped the thighs over for 5 minutes so they could cook upside down for 5 mins. Then back right side up at the end. Delicious. Next time I might add a fine dice of jalapeno or red pepper flakes for some kick. Perfect just as it is. I also served w/Rice & I had leftover carrots on the side. Thank you!
just made this for supper, was really good but my sauce and pineapple chunks were really dark in color due to the soya sauce I guess. But tasted delicious.
This website is PERFECT for college students on a budget. My room mate and I made this tonight and it was absolutely amazing! We used chicken breasts instead, but still turned out great. The sauce was a little salty but not overdone. Great instructions and flavor was awesome. 10/10!
OMG-just found your site ! Lots of good ideas for the budget minded and broke retirees. I have several recipes lined up to make over the next few days ! Thank you so much for sharing, and will let you know how this one works- I am also going to try the mandarin oranges as I have lots of those to use.
This is amazing. Sooo tender, so easy, so cheap. You are my current blog hero. I love the concept and the execution. Thanks a million.
Made these tonight & they were good! Used chicken breasts & added a bit of red pepper flakes. Tender & tasty!
Thank you for this post.. I usually have pineapple and oranges on hand so I planned this for supper…Well the pantry had neither …I am going to use pears and maybe add apples….Will let you know how this turns out….Serve with onions and peppers .. either in the sauce or stir fried on the side….yummy….