Sheet Pan Pineapple Chicken
This easy sheet pan meal is my riff on Huli Huli chicken, a classic Hawaiian barbecue staple featuring a sweet and savory sauce made with pineapple juice, ketchup, and soy sauce. Believe me: No one can resist a pan of sticky chicken and pineapple, especially when it’s reimagined with Paleo-friendly ingredients. Don’t substitute fresh pineapple and ginger for canned pineapple and ground ginger! The fresh stuff contains enzymes that break down proteins, so if you use ’em, they’ll make your chicken mushy!
Note: This recipe is part of a weekly menu of Paleo meals from Michelle Tam and Henry Fong, the creators of the blog Nom Nom Paleo and authors of several cookbooks, including Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go!, where you’ll find this recipe and other delicious Paleo recipes.
Sheet Pan Pineapple Chicken
Serves 4
Nutritional Info
Ingredients
- 1 (13.5-ounce) can
pineapple rings in pineapple juice
- 1/2 cup
Paleo-friendly ketchup
- 1/2 cup
coconut aminos
- 2 tablespoons
rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons
honey
- 1 tablespoon
Paleo-friendly fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon
sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon
ground ginger
- 5 cloves
garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 pounds
boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 3/4 teaspoon
Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon
toasted sesame seeds
- 2
scallions, thinly sliced
Instructions
Open up the pineapple can and set aside the pineapple rings.
Pour 1/2 cup of the pineapple juice from the can into a large measuring cup. (We won’t be using the rest.)
Add the ketchup, coconut aminos, rice vinegar, honey, fish sauce, sesame oil to the pineapple juice in the measuring cup. Toss in the ground ginger and minced garlic. Whisk it all together to form a marinade.
Place the chicken in a medium bowl and sprinkle with the salt. Pour in 1/2 cup of the marinade. Set aside the remaining marinade.
Toss the chicken well. Cover and marinate for 30 minutes or up to a day in the fridge.
In the meantime, pour the remaining marinade into a small saucepan and bring it to a boil over high heat. Then, decrease the heat to maintain a simmer for about 20 minutes until the liquid has thickened into a sauce. Remove from the heat and set aside. You should now have about 1 cup of sauce.
Set aside about 1/4 cup of the sauce to baste the chicken, and save the rest to serve with the finished dish.
Heat the oven to 400°F on convection mode or 425°F on regular mode with the rack in the middle.
Arrange the chicken thighs and the pineapple rings in a single layer on a rimmed, greased or parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake for 15 minutes. Then, rotate the tray and brush the reserved 1/4 cup of cooked sauce onto the chicken thighs and pineapple rings.
Bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes or until the thickest part of the thighs register 165°F on a meat thermometer.
Garnish the chicken and pineapple with sesame seeds and scallions. Serve with the reserved sauce!
Recipe Notes
Excerpted from Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go! © 2022 written & photographed by Michelle Tam & Henry Fong. Reproduced by permission of Andrews McMeel Publishing. All rights reserved.
