Ooooh, I ate good for lunch today! 🤤 I whipped up this really easy Skillet Pineapple BBQ Chicken, spooned it over some rice, and fixed a little broccoli for the side. I absolutely love skillet chicken dishes because the browning action that you get in a skillet makes super flavorful pan sauces without the need for a million ingredients. This sauce combines sweet pineapple, tangy BBQ sauce, and the savory chicken drippings for a to-die-for sauce. So easy and delicious, so little needed. This is the perfect easy weeknight dinner!
See this recipe used in my weekly meal prep.
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Make it Spicy or Mild
I’ve had a thing lately for super thinly sliced fresh jalapeños, so I added those to the dish at the end, but they are entirely optional if you don’t want a spicy dish.
Can I use Chicken Breast?
Also, you can totally do this with chicken breasts instead of thighs. I do suggest pounding the chicken breast to an even thickness first to help them cook evenly (You don’t want the tip to get tough and rubbery before the thick part cooks through).
Try Other BBQ Sauce Flavors!
P.S. I used regular BBQ sauce in effort to make a “base” recipe but as I was standing in the sauce aisle at the grocery store my mind was spinning with all the fun BBQ sauce flavors that would go great with this. Or maybe it was spinning because I had just gotten out of a really hard circuit training class. Either way, there are a lot of options!
Skillet Pineapple BBQ Chicken
Servings 6Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.02)
- 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs* (about 2.3 lbs.) ($6.85)
- Pinch Salt and pepper ($0.05)
- 20 oz. can Pineapple slices in juice ($1.19)
- 1/2 cup BBQ sauce ($0.68)
- 1 jalapeño (optional), sliced thinly ($0.08)
- 2 green onions, sliced ($0.25)
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet over medium. Once hot add the cooking oil and swirl to coat the surface. While waiting for the skillet to heat, season both sides of the chicken thighs with a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Once the skillet is hot and the oil is shimmering, add the chicken thighs and cook until golden brown on each side and cooked through. Remove the cooked chicken to a clean plate.
- While the chicken is cooking, drain and reserve the juice from the canned pineapple slices.
- After removing the chicken from the skillet, turn the heat down to low and add about 1/2 cup of the reserved pineapple juice. Stir to dissolve and loosen the browned chicken bits from the bottom of the skillet. Once everything has been loosened from the skillet, add the BBQ sauce and stir until a thick sauce forms. Taste the sauce and add salt if needed. If your sauce gets too thick, simply add another splash of the reserved pineapple juice.
- Add the cooked chicken thighs and pineapple slices to the skillet, dredging both sides in the pineapple BBQ sauce. Spoon any excess sauce over the chicken.
- Adjust your oven’s rack so that the skillet will be about 6 inches from the broiler unit and turn the broiler on to high. Transfer the skillet to the oven and broil for about 5 minutes, or just until the BBQ sauce caramelizes on the edges of the chicken and pineapple. If you don’t have an oven safe skillet** you can transfer the chicken, pineapple, and ALL of the sauce to a casserole dish for broiling, or skip the broiling step and enjoy as is.
- After broiling, sprinkle the sliced jalapeño and green onion over top, and then serve.
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Notes
Nutrition
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Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Pineapple BBQ Chicken – Step by Step Photos
Heat a large skillet over medium, then add a tablespoon of cooking oil and swirl to coat the bottom of the skillet. While waiting for the skillet to heat, season both sides of six boneless, skinless chicken thighs with a pinch of salt and pepper.
One the oil is hot and shimmering, add the chicken thighs and cook until golden brown on each side and cooked through. Remove the cooked chicken thighs to a clean plate.
While the chicken is cooking, drain and reserve the juice from a 20 oz. can of pineapple slices (packed in juice, NOT heavy syrup).
After removing the chicken from the skillet, turn the head down to low and add about 1/2 cup of the pineapple juice. Stir to dissolve the browned bits off the bottom of the skillet. You want to stir and gently scrape until it all comes off the skillet and is floating around in the liquid.
See how the appearance of the pineapple juice has changed after all the chicken bits are dissolved into it? Add 1/2 cup BBQ sauce and stir until a thick sauce forms.
If the sauce is too thick (say, if the skillet was too hot and the juice reduced too much), you can add a splash more of the reserved pineapple juice. Taste the sauce and add salt if needed. The chicken I used was heavily brined, so that seemed to season the sauce well enough with salt. And when I say brined, that’s like when you look at the package and it says “contains up to 15% broth” or “sodium chloride solution”. That’s basically a brine that makes the meat super tender and juicy.
Add the cooked chicken back to the skillet along with the pineapple slices, dredging both sides of both in the pineapple bbq pan sauce. Adjust your oven’s rack so that the skillet will be about 6 inches from the broiler unit, then turn the broiler on to high. If your skillet is not oven safe, you can put everything in a casserole dish or just skip the broiling part (it’s still quite delicious at this point!).
Broil the chicken and pineapple for about five minutes, or until it’s caramelized on top and the edges. Sprinkle thinly sliced jalapeño and green onion over top, then serve!
Seriously though, that pan sauce… And I can’t lie. If you sprinkled some Monterey jack cheese over the skillet pineapple BBQ chicken before broiling, it would be like a BBQ chicken pizza minus the crust.
So good! So flavorful!! Best recipe I’ve made in a long time
YUM! We are typically more of a savory meal family, but this just sounded so intriguing and easy that I had to try it – so glad I did! I did make a couple of additions to suit our tastes, I added garlic powder (next time will add fresh garlic) and added soy sauce because it just tasted a little flat, which could have been the Kinder’s mild bbq sauce I used – next time I’ll try a bbq sauce with more flavor/spice. I served it with unseasoned, steamed baby green beans and coconut rice. It would be good with plain Jasmine rice, but I’m glad I went all out and made coconut rice (for the first time), it really completes the meal. I’ll be making this often, it’s made from common ingredients, super easy, presents beautifully and tastes so good! I’ll be checking into more recipes by this blogger and I highly recommend this recipe for everyone who likes pineapple!
Just made this recipe and it came out great!! Used this recipe to meal prep for my work week. Lots of flavor from the pineapple, and the barbecue sauce wasn’t too strong/salty. I’ll definitely be making this again!
Wonderful! My stepson and I like to take leftovers for lunch, so I used a bigger pack of thighs and there was still enough sauce. Might try with bite sized chicken breast and pineapple chunks and serve over rice next time, just for easier eating at lunchtime. Thank you!
This was easy, quick and delicious, also a pretty presentation! I used pineapple chunks because that’s what I had and served with rice. Will make again.
This was super delish, easy to make, easy cleanup. All ingredients on hand except the chicken.
Paired with coconut rice as suggested and it was perfect!
Thank you!
Can you use this recipe with pork chops? I’ve made this many times and love it, but wondering if it would be the same for pork.
Yes, you could definitely do this with pork chops. I would do boneless, though, as bone-in chops would take too long to cook through.
As promised this reciped was tasty, quick and economical. My husband’s “this was good” is my top priority. Simplicity is a high priority for me. Smaller portion pounded breast was perfect for the two of us. I’ll be exploring more of your site!
As promised this reciped was tasty, quick and economical. My husband’s “this was good” is my top priority. Simplicity is a high priority for me. I’ll be exploring more of your site!
This was awesome! I always double everything. Next time I might lightly brown the chicken in the pan make the sauce and cook them in the oven to save time then broil. I made rice with this and it was sooo good! Will definitely be making this again. One of my favorite recipes for chicken for sure!
THANKS FOR THE RECIPE,AM GOING TO TRY IT THIS WEEK,……
My sauce didn’t really thicken up. I like it when more specific times are given. The chicken gets golden brown after about 4 mins each side, but I normally cook 6-8 mins so it’s darker brown but I was trying to follow the recipe. I broiled probably longer than 5 mins.
Flavor was okay sauce was runny – will try cooking the sauce only for longer. I served with coconut rice and roasted broccoli
Unfortunately, it’s often impossible to provide more specific time frames because there are so many variables that affect how long things take to cook (type of stove top, type of cookware, size of cookware, size of ingredients, variances in heat settings from one stove top to another), so we try to offer other visual queues to help. In this case, if the sauce was runny, it probably just needed a slightly higher heat or to simmer just a bit longer.
My boyfriend loves anything with pineapple so I decided to give this a go. I made it for dinner when his parents came over. It was a huge hit. Everyone loved it. I served it with some brown rice. 10/10 will make again.
Had some fresh pineapple I waited too long to cut. It has to be used immediately! So I made this tonight. It was SCRUMPTIOUS!!!! We added peanuts on top for a little added salt and crunch. It was truly delicious! Budget Bytes is my “go to” website if ever I want to know how to use something or do something. So glad you’re out there!!!
I’m glad to see you had success using a fresh pineapple. I have one I need to cut up and use, too.