After the little timing fiasco with the roasted potatoes yesterday I thought I would be smart and look ahead to make sure we were all set on timing for tonight’s Hawaiian Chicken with Coconut Rice. While I did check how long everything would take at 5pm (it said 50 minutes), I missed the part where it said to marinade the chicken for at least an hour or even 24 hours. I feel like these blog posts are so saturated that it’s easy to miss the details if they aren’t all at the bottom (where I typically scroll to for the recipe).
Ben was working out, but already had told me based on the timing that he wanted me to start cooking at 6:30 so I quickly threw the chicken in a a zip lock bag with all of the ingredients for the marinade. I used thinly sliced chicken breasts for the first time and actually LOVED it! I usually buy chicken breasts and spend so much time cutting it up so that it actually cooks all the way through without getting dry. Thin sliced was the way to go!
She also suggested putting the ingredients in a blender to mix it all up but I couldn’t fathom putting ketchup in my blender cup that I drink out of everyday! I just started adding the ingredients to a gallon sized bag and planned to give it a good shake at the end. I then hit my next debacle- my brown sugar was rock solid!
Apparently if brown sugar is slightly open and air gets into it, the entire thing hardens! I tried smashing it against the counter to break it up with no luck and tossed it in the trash. Of course just after I thew it away I saw on the box a microwave solution just in case your brown sugar hardens. It did also expire in October 2020 so maybe better to just leave that behind anyway. I decided to substitute with white sugar since I keep that in an air tight jar!
After getting the marinade together, I thought I could stall by making rice. Ben is the rice maker in this house so I put him on rice duty, adding in the coconut milk with water to bring to a boil. After the rice was ready he thought it looked funny, the coconut milk had clumped together. He gave it a stir and it was good to go!
I set out to cook the chicken in the frying pan (we don’t have a grill although I think the smokey flavor would have been amazing).
I had way more marinade than chicken – either I used less chicken or the marinade did not fully soak in a half hour. The thin chicken cooked quick (thank god). I tossed some canned pineapple rings in the pan while it was still hot. She suggested fresh pineapple but it honestly felt like more effort to cut it up than I was willing to commit to for dinner.
Once I pulled the Chicken out of the pan I realized that I was supposed to brush the honey on the chicken after it was done cooking (see image of what my face looked like in image on above right LOL). I of course, put the honey in with the marinade. Not sure it made that much of a difference, it was on the chicken, that’s what matters, right?
Overall Rating: “It doesn’t have that much flavor” – Ben
“That’s because it was supposed to marinade for at least an hour” -Me
“Oh.” – Ben
After we started eating though, we honestly couldn’t stop! Despite my few blunders, this Hawaiian Chicken with Coconut Rice ended up being very tasty! Between the coconut and the pineapple, we were dreaming of being in Hawaii. Ben goes to Hawaii every year in February and is disappointed that we wont be going next month. He did however make a suggestion of a dinner that we should look into cooking. He loves to eat this in Hawaii…more to come on that in another post. I’ll be on the hunt for a good Pinterest recipe to share with you, don’t your worry!
As always, let me know if you try it, either sticking straight to the recipe or modifying as you go!
Link: https://www.joyousapron.com/hawaiian-chicken-with-coconut-rice/
xoxo
Krysta
Ps- Can you tell I live a colorful life just from the fun plates?!
