Pineapple Jerk Chicken with Rice

We now interrupt the 4th of July posts previously in progress to bring you a delicious dish I made for dinner last night...

Pineapple Jerk Chicken with Rice

A few days ago, The Hubs finally grew tired of my gigantic stack of foodie magazines on the coffee table & asked me to please remove them. In the past, they've gotten stashed in a closet upstairs, never to be opened again (unless I'm looking for something holiday specific). This time I decided I'd tear out all of the pages I've "dogeared" and put them into a binder using those plastic sheet protector things so the recipes at least had a shot at being made one day. I've yet to buy the sheet protectors OR the binder, but I did find a couple of recipes whose ingredients made it on my grocery list this week.

The first was a recipe for Pineapple Jerk Chicken with Rice from Rachel Ray Magazine. It is simple to make & full of flavor. The Hubs & I both loved it!

Ingredients:

* 2 cups brown rice
* 4 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1 jalapeño chile—stemmed, seeded and finely chopped
* 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
* Salt and pepper
* 1/2 pineapple, cut into 3/4-inch pieces (about 3 cups)
* 1/2 cup jerk marinade
* One 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed
* 1/2 cup chopped cilantro



Directions

1. Cook rice according to directions on the box.

2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and jalapeño and cook until the onion is browned, 7 minutes; transfer to a bowl.



3. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil to the same skillet and increase the heat to medium-high. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, then add to the pan and cook until browned, 5 to 7 minutes.



4. Add the pineapple and jerk marinade and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes.



5. Stir in the onion mixture, black beans and cilantro.



6. Cook until the beans are heated through, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.



7. Serve over the rice.



My Tid-Bits:

* The Jerk Marinade you use will really dictate the flavor of the dish. Rachel suggests Lawry's, but HEB didn't have it, so I bought KC Masterpiece. It was really good.

* You can use whatever rice you like. I use the Uncle Ben's Boil-In-Bag rice just because it turns out right every time. Each bag is about 2 servings of rice.

* This dish has a tiny hint of spice, but is definitely not hot. If you like more heat, leave the seeds in the jalapenos.

* This recipes makes 4 VERY generous servings.

* I heated up the leftovers for lunch today and it was just as good (and y'all know how I feel about leftovers). I made some fresh rice and heated the chicken/pineapple mixture on the stove top. I would recommend adding a Tbsp or 2 of the marinade to add some of the moisture back into the dish.

And on an unrelated note...I also made Rice Krispy Treats last night "just because." Next time I want to do that, could someone please remind me what a bad idea that is! The Hubs & I had eaten over half of the pan before we went to bed last night.