Roasted Chili Chicken w/ Pineapple
Delicious and easy sheet pan dinner with robust flavors inspired by Asian cuisine…this will now be a standard in my wheelhouse. I had attempted to make this dish once before, last summer, but I think second time was the charm and I have now perfected it! The key is the marinade - the longer you keep the chicken marinating in the fridge, the better. At LEAST wait 30 mins, but I didn’t touch it for a solid 6 hours.
As for portions, the recipe below would be perfect for a couple or 3 people with some potential leftovers, so if you are cooking for a family or just more people in general, simply use more of the ingredients. Think of it this way - roughly half a pound of bone-in chicken is perfect for one person. SO…maybe 4 lbs. for a big family meal? And then you just double all ingredients below. You get the idea! Recommend serving with jasmine rice.
Ingredients:
2 lbs. bone-in, skin-on chicken (legs, thighs, breasts, wings or a combo all work!)
Salt and black pepper
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
¼ cup red chili paste (sambal oelek works best!)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 garlic clove, minced
½ of a small yellow onion, thinly sliced
One (16oz) pack fresh chopped pineapple
Sesame seeds, for garnish
2 scallions, thinly sliced, for garnish
¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped, for garnish
Season chicken with salt and pepper and place in a large resealable plastic bag or bowl.
Combine brown sugar, vinegar, chili paste, lime juice, fish sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, and garlic in a medium bowl and stir/whisk together to dissolve sugar and combine all flavors. Pour mixture over the chicken, massaging to ensure chicken is evenly coated all around. Seal bag and stick in fridge to marinate at least 30 minutes or up to 8 hours.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the chicken and pineapple chunks spread out on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil. Drizzle the remaining marinade over everything and place in oven.
Roast until chicken is browned and cooked through. If you have a BBQ brush or similar, take the tray out a couple times during cooking and baste the chicken and pineapple with the juicy marinade/fat goodness, overall cooking for roughly 1 hour. About halfway through the cooking time, sprinkle some of that sliced onion on the sheet!
Remove from oven and transfer to serving platter, and scatter with more sliced onion, cilantro, scallions and sesame seeds if you like. Any or all of them…Your call!
