Chicken and Pineapple Stir Fry

I have tons of peppers in my frig and need to use them up.  My first thought was stir fry!  My husband loves pineapple in savory dishes, but I don’t, usually.  I thought I would make him a treat and add some to this recipe.  I thought it would be too sweet if I used an entire 20 ounce can.  So, I started with a half of can, but to my surprise it was not sweet enough!  I ended up adding the entire can because it tasted so good!  After Wednesday’s gluten-free show with the authors of “The Gluten Free Good Health Cookbook”, I made sure I added lots of fruit and vegetables instead of the usual heavy chicken portions I have used in the past for chicken stir fry.  It took a lot of adding more of this and that, but well worth the effort!  I hope you enjoy!

Gluten-free Chicken Pineapple Stir Fry

Ingredients

Stir Fry

• 2 tablespoons oil, preferably sesame oil
• 1+ lb. boneless, skinless organic antibiotic-free chicken breast, cut in 1/2″ – 1″ cubes
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed, grated or minced
• 1 1/2 cups yellow onion, cut in 1-inch pieces
• 1 large red pepper, cut into strips, 1 1/2″ long
• 1 -2 stalks celery, cut 1/4 to 1/3″ thick
• 1 (20 oz.) can Dole Tropical Gold Pineapple Chunks, chunks cut in half (Reserve juice.)
• 2 green onions, including the greens, sliced
• cooked white rice

Sauce

• 3oz. pineapple juice from canned pineapple (below)
• 3 oz. low-sodium gluten-free tamari sauce
• 1 tablespoons gluten-free white vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons tapioca starch
• 1/4 teaspoon hot chili oil (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat a heavy skillet on medium to medium-high heat with oil.
2. Add chicken; stir occasionally and brown for about 3 minutes.  Undercooked is fine because you will be cooking them more later.
3. Remove from pan and set aside.
4. Add vegetables; stir; lower heat to medium; and cook for about 7 minutes, shorter if you like them crunchy.  Keep in mind that you’ll be cooking them longer later.
5. While vegetables are cooking whisk together the sauce ingredients; set aside.
6. Turn heat to medium high.
7. Add chicken and pineapple to pan; pour sauce over vegetables and stir until thickened, while coating everything.
8. Allow the chicken and pineapple to heat thoroughly, about 3 minutes.
9. Immediately serve over rice.

Substitutions

• You can use corn starch instead of tapioca starch.
• You can substitute the white rice for brown rice, for a healthier choice.  I had some left over white rice cooked in chicken broth and used that.
• You can use white vinegar instead of rice vinegar.

Tips

• The chili oil does not make this dish hot, just a tiny bit spicy.  I only the taste the tiny bit of heat when I taste only the sauce by itself.  Feel free to add more if you’d like.
• Once the left overs cool it will thicken even more.  Just add equal amounts of pineapple juice and tamari sauce to thin out and refrigerate.  Save the left over pineapple juice just in case you need to thin the sauce more when reheating.