June 16, 2020 ~ How about that title for this meal? Just trying to dress up another chicken meal! We eat a lot of chicken if you haven’t noticed. The ButcherBox varieties help to shake things up a bit. Prior to our 30-day challenge chicken was in short supply. It’s how we ended up with the pork butt with the bone in it, pre-dinner challenge. That’s a story for another day.
This meal was mine to own. It was a “make it up” as you go kind of cooking. It’s the kind of cooking I grew up on. My mom was good at a little of this, a little of that, taste it, refine, add more stuff, cook it until done, and never be able to repeat it. We were a family of six with a limited income. My dad got paid every two weeks. My mom, or my dad, would food shop the Saturday morning after payday.
My dad was a good contributor to family life except maybe clean the house. I can’t remember him running a vacuum or cleaning a bathroom. In the big scheme of things, so what? He did so many other good things that many men of that time did not. For example, he made the best lumpy Farina. Not many can say that about their dad.
We were a family of figuring out how to make do with what we had like my mom’s “little of this, little of that” cooking. It is with this spirit that I made this dinner. We were going food shopping the next day. Remember, we are only going once a week to minimize the risk of COVID-19. I had to figure out a meal based on what was left to work with. I admit it was overkill on the sweet side. I tried to shake things up a bit with an onion. We gave it a fancy name despite its lack of fanciness.
Pan-Seared Pineapple Teri Chicken
I have become a believer in pan-searing since we started this little journey. It never occurred to me that this was done because it helps make the meat stay juicy. For all of the rest of my time on this Earth, I will pan-sear meat whenever possible.
1 lb of chicken breasts
2 tablespoons of butter
1/2 cup Dole pineapple tidbits – in a can – it’s what I had so it’s what I used. I was trying to stock up for things like hurricanes and pandemics so I bought a bunch of canned goods a while back.
1/4 of an onion
6 tablespoons World Harbor Teriyaki – Hawaiian sauce
1/4 craisins – low sugar
1/2 cup of orange juice
1/2 cup of Jasmine rice per person – any rice will do, whatever you like usually makes us happy so go with that.
Broccoli
Pre-heat the over to 400 degrees
1. Cook the rice first – boil in a bag is what I use
2. Sear the chicken in one tablespoon of butter
3. Once the chicken is seared put them in a foil-lined pan. I foil-line the pan so I don’t have to wash it or at least that’s the idea. Sometimes it doesn’t work and food leaks onto the pan.
4. Add some orange juice to the pan to keep the chicken from drying out. Add two tablespoons of the teriyaki sauce to the top of the chicken breasts. Put it in the oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes depending on how fast or slow your oven cooks.
5. While the chicken is cooking dice up the onion.
6. Melt the other tablespoon in a pan and add the onions. Let the onions get soft, maybe even a bit brown, before adding the pineapple and craisins.
7. Cook it all up, to your taste, then add the rice. Stir it all up and cook it some more.
8. Cook the broccoli. We use the steam in a bag kind and heat it in the microwave.
I served it with the rice mix on the plate first, the chicken on top of it, and broccoli to the side. Tom, of course, had green beans. We all know how allergic to broccoli he is.
Total calories per person = 600 calories.
There are no rules with this kind of cooking except, for us, to keep the calories absolutely no higher than 700 calories.
I admit this meal is a bit much sugar wise for Tom the diabetic. It’s just right for Tom with ALS. Sometimes you can’t serve two masters and that’s okay. The meal worked for me because calorically it was spot on balanced against the exercise burn I had.
We all enjoyed this meal. The chicken was tender and flavorful. Would we want this again? Perhaps.
Until the next time!