Winner Winner Pineapple Chicken Dinner

Ingredients:

• one large chicken breast (1 - 1/12 pounds)
• 15 oz. can of pineapple chunks, liquid set aside, or fresh if available
• tri-colored bell peppers (1 cup total - yellow, red, green, orange, whatever you have), diced
• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 2 stalks sliced green onions, whites separated from greens
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• 2 tbsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. sesame seeds
• sprinkle of ginger (i had a jar of the dried spice kind)

(Photo totally stolen from www.cleanfoodcrush.com)

Directions:

1. Cook quinoa according to directions. Generally 1 cup of quinoa requires twice as much water. I like to toast the quinoa for about 4 minutes in the skillet prior to adding the liquid. I also throw in a cube of homemade chicken stock to amp up the flavor. Bring to boil, lower the temp to low and allow to simmer for approximately 15 minutes or until germ curlicue has become separated.
2. Cut raw chicken into bite sized pieces and season with salt and pepper. Warm sesame oil in large skillet. Cook chicken for a few minutes on each side until cooked through. 
3. Add white part of the onion, peppers, and ginger to the skillet with the chicken. Cook until peppers become tender, less than 10 minutes. If you need to add a little more oil at this point go ahead!
4. Add the pineapple chunks and half the liquid to the pan and let everything cook down for a few minutes. Once fragrant, it is done!
5. Place 1/2 - 1 cup of quinoa on a plate (or in a hollowed out pineapple - see pics) and top with the 1/4 - 1/3 of the skillet contents and a splash of the remaining pineapple liquid. Garnish the dish with the green part of the green onions, sesame seeds, and a drizzle of soy sauce. Hoison sauce would also work as a delicious substitute.

Notes:

I used a recipe as inspiration for this dish, but I didn't have all the ingredients so I sort of just made it up as I went along. I've shared the picture from the original receipt because...I mean come on, look at that beauty. 

I've also shared a picture of my own meal since it was slightly different. It was delicious. I ran out of soy sauce, so I topped the rest with super hot sauce I got in Texas and it was a good substitute for gluten free people (I'm looking at you Jax). I also just blatantly forget the sesame seeds. Oh well. If you don't have quinoa, I'm sure rice will work - a fragrant jasmine for sure. Thinking of trying it with shrimp at some point!