Pineapple Chicken

I'm not shy about where I get my recipes. One of the best additives I have for soup (baby spinach) came from a recipe in one of the grocery store magazine grabs. The recipe below also comes from Women's World - a weekly that has diet of the week as well as occasional useful health tips and fairly often, some pretty good recipes.

Yep, made some substitutions mostly to use what was on hand, so I'm going to give you the recipe the way I did it. The original recipe did not include a thickener; I opted to add a little cornstarch. Add very little (no more than 2 tsp) as it thickens quickly. If you use fresh pineapple, it will have an even better flavor. I used frozen, prechopped red/yellow pepper. Thaw it first and it works great!

Now, you might ask, frozen pepper? Red, yellow and orange peppers are very sweet, but only really affordable when in season. So, when they are on special, buy 10, chop them neatly and stick them in freezer Ziplocs. This is especially useful if you have family members who don't like green peppers as these taste quite differently. Use them in any kind of casserole or sauce. If you thaw first, they will brown nicely as well.

Pineapple Chicken

1 1/2 lbs. skinless chicken thighs
1/2 tsp. curry seasoning blend
1 red or yellow sweet pepper, chopped
1 can chunk pineapple, drained
1 can unsweetened coconut milk
1 tbsp. packed brown sugar
thickener, arrowroot or corn starch (optional)
1 serrano pepper, thinly sliced (optional)

1. Sprinkle chicken with 1/2 tsp. salt and curry seasoning. In 12 inch skillet, quickly brown chicken on both sides in 1 tablespoon hot olive oil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-high; cook 12 minutes, until tender and no longer pink.
2. For sauce, in another skillet, cook sweet pepper in 1 tablespoon hot olive oil over medium-high heat 3 minutes; set aside. Add pineapple; cook 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Add serrano pepper; cook 1 minute. Stir in coconut milk, brown sugar and thickener; heat through. Serve sauce over chicken.