Crock Pot Hawaiian Chicken
I went to a friend’s house one night for a bunco gathering. I’d never played bunco before and was surprised at how easy and fun it is to play. It was a large group of women and joining them was a great way to meet lots of new people. Another perk of the night was that in this group, whomever hosted the group, served everyone dinner. That sounds like a lot of work if you’re the host, but since I was just a lucky fill in for the night, I got to play and eat with no effort on my part. Our host for the night had a Hawaiian themed meal planned. One part of that meal included Hawaiian crock pot chicken served over rice. I was surprised at how much I liked it. Anything that can be made ahead of time in a crock pot is always a plus, especially when you’re hosting a crowd. She served the chicken and rice with a simple side salad and everyone commented on how good it was.
I like dinner recipes with chicken as the main ingredient, although I think I tend to cook the same dishes time and time again. After trying Hawaiian chicken, I decided to find a recipe for it to make for my own family. With a little searching around, I found this one from herecomesthesunblog.net. The original recipe is great for when you’re serving 5-6 people, but for my own family, it was too much food. I’ve kept the ingredients list below the same as the original recipe, but for my smaller family, I cut the BBQ sauce back to 1/2-3/4 of a bottle and use only 2 chicken breasts. I keep the crushed pineapple amount the same because my family likes that much, plus I don’t want 4oz of crushed pineapple hanging around (although you could use it up in a smoothie or just eat it out of the can!). I cut the rice in half to only 2 cups of cooked rice also. When I use only 2 chicken breasts I can fit it all into my smaller crock pot (I think it’s a sauce/appetizer sized crock pot) which makes clean up super easy. I’ve used this mini crock pot to cook actual meals in since I was single and living on my own. It works well when you’re cooking for only 2 people too.
Once the chicken is ready, I cook brown rice on the stove top to serve under the chicken. You can simply scoop the cooked chicken on top of the rice, serving as much or little of the sauce as each person likes. The chicken is really tender and mine shreds easily with a fork, no knives required!
During my search for a Hawaiian chicken recipe, I found a few that mentioned adding corn starch to your sauce if you want it thicker. I tried this once before and found it didn’t add or take away from the taste and honestly, my husband and 2-year-old didn’t notice the difference, so now I just dish it as is. I’ve served it with white and brown rice and prefer to use brown rice to make it a bit healthier. You could also use other cuts of chicken if your prefer. The original dish I first tried included drumsticks which could make it cheaper and be a kid pleaser as well. The BBQ sauce I use is regular recipe but you could use a spicy one if you’d prefer. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 bottle of barbecue sauce
1- 8oz can crushed pineapple
4 cups rice
*See notes above for serving only 2-3 people.
Directions:
- Drain juice from the crushed pineapple and pour the remaining pineapple into a crock pot. Add an entire bottle of barbecue sauce into the pineapple. Stir them together until well blended.
- Add chicken breasts into the barbecue mixture and stir to evenly coat the chicken. Cook on low setting for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.
- Serve over cooked rice.
Summit House 