Cape Malay-ish Pineapple Chicken with Pineapple Salsa

Slightly sweet, savory and spicy, this pineapple chicken with pineapple salsa is easy to make and so flavorful! Serve it with coconut or plain rice.

Back at the beginning of the first pandemic lockdown, I was already addicted to finding reading material through the Libby app and my own library cards. I borrowed lots of books, of course, but I also searched for magazine with recipes.

One day I came across one called Koe’sister from South Africa. It was brand new, created from a desire to share and preserve family recipes during the pandemic. Published in a mix of English and Afrikaans, it opened a window on a world I had only touched tangentially, through South African friends. 

Funnily enough, as I read one issue, I discovered that one of my expat friends was a contributor! How tiny is this world of ours? 

I also discovered that South African cuisine is as diverse as ours in the United States and includes a subset of culture and recipes from Malays who settled in the Cape area, bringing their love of spices and curries. I was introduced to cookbook authors like Fadella Williams who wrote The Cape Malay Illustrated Cookbook, Cariema Isaacs who has authored four cookbooks - all focused on her Cape Malay heritage and recipes - as well as blogger and author Salwaa Smith and her self-published Cape Malay Cooking & Other Delights.

Both The Cape Malay Illustrated Cookbook and Smith’s blog have many wonderful flavorful recipes but two in particular caught my eye because New York Times Cooking had shared something similar just before I found them. Williams calls hers “pineapple peri-peri chicken” and Smith titles her simply “pineapple chicken.” Both use canned pineapple but Smith’s was closer in flavor profile to the NYT Cooking version.

Of course, these three recipes for chicken with pineapple sent me down an internet rabbit hole, looking for more Cape Malay recipes. Hey, we were on lockdown. I had all the time in the world. 

Cape Malay-ish Pineapple Chicken with Pineapple Salsa

As you can tell from my title, I did finally get around to making some pineapple chicken and I’m here to tell you, it is SO GOOD. I took some liberties by using fresh pineapple and adding the pineapple salsa recommended by NYT Cooking, hence the -ish. 

Ingredients

1 ½ pounds or 680g boneless, skinless chicken breasts

For the marinade:

3 packed tablespoons dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon fish sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for cooking

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt 

3 cloves garlic, smashed and minced

½ teaspoon ground cayenne

½ teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons finely grated fresh pineapple, including accumulated juices

For the pineapple salsa: 

¼ medium red onion, finely diced

1 cup or 170g fresh pineapple

Small handful fresh cilantro, finely chopped

1 red chili pepper, thinly sliced

For serving:

Cooked white or brown rice (also nice with coconut rice)

Method

Cut the chicken breasts into bite-sized chunks. 

In a large Ziploc bag, stir together the brown sugar, rice vinegar, soy sauce, fish sauce, 2 tablespoons olive oil, salt, minced garlic, ground cayenne and black pepper.

Transfer 1 generous tablespoon of the mixture to a medium bowl and add the chopped onion. Stir well. 

Cut the pineapple for the salsa into 1/2 in or 1 cm chunks. Add them to the onion bowl along with the cilantro and chili pepper. Toss until well-mixed and set aside.

Finely grate two tablespoons of the remaining pineapple. Add the pineapple and any juice to the marinade in the plastic bag.

Add the chicken chunks and toss to coat. Squeeze all the air you can out of the bag and seal. Set it aside to marinate at room temperature for 15 minutes (and no longer, otherwise the chicken turns mushy.)

Once the chicken is done marinating, pour the chicken into a sieve or strainer over a bowl to collect the leftover marinade. 

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high and add enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan. Cook the chicken pieces in batches so they don’t touch and are in a single layer. 

Cook until the bottoms are browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn them and continue cooking, until browned on all sides, a few minutes more. 

Remove to a plate and repeat with the next batches of chicken pieces (adding a little more olive oil to the pan if necessary) until all are browned and almost cooked through. 

Once the chicken is all on the plate, pour the leftover marinade into the pan and whisk while it cooks. Make sure to heat it to bubbling for several minutes to make sure it’s cooked through.

Tip the chicken pieces and any juice that has accumulated on the plate back into the pan.

Stir well to coat the chicken in the cooked marinade and heat until the chicken is piping hot and ready to serve. Serve with rice and the spicy pineapple salsa.

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing recipes from African cuisines and cultures. Many thanks to our host, Sue of Palatable Pastimes. Check out the links below:

• Cape Malay-ish Pineapple Chicken with Pineapple Salsa from Food Lust People Love
• Chicken and Jollof Rice (Nigerian) from Palatable Pastime
• East African Chapati from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Githeri from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Red Harissa Chicken from Sneha's Recipe
• Rgaif (Moroccan Flat Bread) from Karen's Kitchen Stories

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Creamy Hatch Chili Pepper Spinach Chicken

Truly, the title "creamy Hatch chili pepper spinach chicken" says it all: Tender breasts in a spicy, succulent sauce! Serve over rice or pasta to complete the meal. 

Years ago, when we lived in Brazil (circa 1993-1999) one of my closest friend’s husband was from New Mexico. They made it a point to travel home during Hatch chili pepper season (or would enlist relatives to make their purchases) and they would return to our small town of Macáe with bags and bags of frozen roasted peppers to use all year. I had never heard of Hatch peppers but being a lover of all things chili pepper, I was quickly hooked.

The name Hatch chili actually refers to the area in which they are grown - the Hatch Valley - but generally they are a long green pepper with a mild heat but lots of flavor.  

We moved to Houston in 1999 and I hoped for New Mexican peppers, but Hatch peppers hadn’t made it there yet. It took another few years but eventually, Hatch season became a thing, even that far east due to Central Market, the upscale purveyor of gourmet food owned by the parent company of Texas grocery store H-E-B. 

Central Market brought in the peppers by the truckload and the immense roasters (think huge turning cages like you'd put raffle tickets in!) and roasted them fresh outside of their stores. Since then, other area supermarkets have gotten in on the action and the Houston air on the weekends right now is filled with aroma of charred peppers.

Make note: If you are lucky enough to be able to travel to New Mexico, the Hatch Chile Festival takes place every year on Labor Day weekend in Hatch, NM. This year they celebrate their 50th anniversary so it should be a lot of fun. 

Creamy Hatch Chili Pepper Spinach Chicken

Yep, it’s Hatch chili pepper season again and, as promised, here’s my first recipe using that wonderful pepper. It’s quite easy to make but the flavor is out of this world wonderful! Because I lack freezer space, I like to roast my own in the oven but you can use the already roasted ones, if you can get your hands on them. 

Ingredients - to serve six

For the creamy hatch chili pepper sauce:

4 fresh hatch chili peppers

juice from half a lime

2 cloves garlic

1 cup or 240ml heavy cream

Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

For the chicken:

3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 8oz or 225g each)

1 tablespoon white vinegar

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil

For optional garnish: chopped cilantro or parsley

Method

Broil the peppers on a baking sheet until they’re charred and black all over on both sides. 

Put them in a plastic bag for about five minutes to loosen the peels. Open the bag and let the peppers cool until you can handle them with bare hands. Rub or pull the peels off. Cut the stem end off and discard. If you like things spicy, leave the seeds. If not, remove the seeds and discard. 

Chop the garlic cloves roughly. 

Place the peppers in a food processor with the garlic, lime juice and sour cream. 

Blend until combined and smooth. Add a good pinch or two of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. 

Refrigerate until you are ready to cook the chicken. The earlier ahead you make this, the better it is! 

Cut the chicken breasts in half lengthwise. 

Sprinkle them with the vinegar on both sides then sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. 

Drizzle your pan with olive oil and then pan fry the chicken breasts over a high heat until golden both sides. You may need to do this in two batches, depending on the size of your pan.

In that case, remove the browned breasts to a plate then pan-fry the second batch. The chicken does not need to be cooked completely through at this point. It will finish cooking, simmering in the creamy hatch sauce.

When all the chicken is browned and on the plate, add the baby spinach leaves to the pan and cover for a few minutes, until the spinach starts to wilt. 

Remove the lid and cook for a few more minutes until the spinach liquid evaporates.

Add the creamy hatch sauce back to the pan. Stir to combine and heat gently to warm. 

Tuck the browned chicken pieces into the sauce. 

Spoon it over to cover. Simmer till chicken is cooked through.

Sprinkle with a little chopped cilantro or parsley to garnish, if desired. 

Serve over rice or pasta. 

Enjoy! 

Do you get Hatch chili peppers where you live? For more information about these great peppers and possible substitutes, Chili Pepper Madness is a great source. 

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Spinach Chicken!

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Chicken Chili Verde – Instant Pot

Cooked completely in an Instant Pot, this Chicken Chili Verde is flavorful, delicious and easy! Serve yourself a warming bowl of this chili tonight.

My family knows that my favorite kind of book will contain both recipes and stories. I call them cookbook memoirs and have just discovered via a quick Google search that cookbook memoir is a legit genre. Amazon calls them food memoirs, culinary biographies or culinary memoirs. 

A few years ago my elder daughter gave me Julia Turshen’s book Small Victories for Christmas and within just a few hours, I had bookmarked 23 recipes I wanted to try! I haven’t actually made them all yet but every one I have cooked has been delicious.

Twenty-three bookmarks!

Her quick chicken chili verde instructions weren’t even strictly a recipe. They were just a small paragraph on a page headed Seven Things to do with Leftover Chicken but when I searched my Eat Your Books  bookshelf for tomatillos, it popped up. As you can see from my adaptation, I didn’t start with leftover chicken but using an Instant Pot made it pretty quick to cook anyway.

Chicken Chili Verde – Instant Pot

Adapted from Julia Turshen's Small Victories: Recipes, Advice + Hundreds of Ideas for Home Cooking Triumphs <Amazon affiliate link. My two boneless, skinless chicken breasts weighed about 1 1/2 lbs or 680g. If your chicken weighs a bit more or less, it’s all good. I used some special little tomatillos from Melissa's Produce called tomatillos milperos, which are smaller with a more concentrated flavor and less acidity than the normal variety. I highly recommend them but use whichever fresh, firm tomatillos you can find if you can't put your hands on some.

Ingredients

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 lb or 680g)

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 medium onion

1 bell pepper

1 fresh jalapeño

2 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil 

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 lb or 450g tomatillos

1 1/2 cup or ml chicken stock, plus more as needed

1 can (15.5 oz or 439g) white beans

To serve:

sour cream

grated cheese

green onions

Optional: sliced fresh jalapeños

The little tomatillos

Method

Season the chicken breasts with fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Set aside.

Remove any peels and stems then, finely mince or use a food processor to chop the onion, bell pepper, jalapeño and garlic finely. I used my little food processor. 

On the sauté low setting, cook the onion, bell pepper, jalapeño and garlic in the olive oil in the Instant Pot until they are softened, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Remove the husks from the tomatillos and cut them in pieces. Since I was using the small ones, I just cut most of them in half.

Add the spices, tomatillos and chicken stock to the sauteed vegetables. 

Turn sauté to high and bring the mixture to a quick boil then turn the Instant Pot off. 

Nestle the chicken breasts in the pot and pressure cook for 10 minutes. 

Natural release the steam for 10 minutes then manually release completely. 

Remove the chicken from the pot and, as soon as it’s cool enough to handle, shred it. 

Drain and rinse the cannellini beans. 

Add the shredded chicken back to the pot along with the rinsed beans. 

Sauté on low for about 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently and adding a little more stock (or water) if it gets too dry. 

Taste for salt and add a bit more if necessary, keeping in mind that the grated cheese will also add salt when you serve.  

Serve with sour cream, grated cheese and green onions. I also like to include some fresh jalapeño slices.

Enjoy! 

It’s MultiCooker Monday so my blogger friends and I are sharing recipes made with our small appliances. Check out the links below. Many thanks to our host and organizer, Sue of Palatable Pastime. 

• Air Fryer Zucchini Spears (Toaster Oven) from Sid’s Sea Palm Cooking
• Chicken Chili Verde (Instant Pot) from Food Lust People Love
• Homemade Chicken Broth (Instant Pot) from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Homemade Pumpkin Puree - Pressure Cooker from Sneha’s Recipe
• Instant Pot Aloo Gobi Matar from Magical Ingredients
• Pumpkin Pasta Bake (Instant Pot) from A Day in the Life on the Farm

Multicooker Monday is a blogger group created by Sue of Palatable Pastime for all of us who need encouragement to make better use of our small appliances like slow cookers, Instant Pots, Air Fryers, rice cookers and sous vide machines. We get together every third Monday of the month to share our recipes. If you are a food blogger who would like to post with us, please request to join our Facebook group. 

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Caldo Tlalpeño

Caldo Tlalpeño is a deliciously nutritious chicken and vegetable soup, perfect for chilly days, served with fresh cheese and chipotle chili pepper on top. And avocado, if you've got some!

This dish is originally from Tlalpan, Mexico, one of the 16 administrative alcaldías or boroughs of Mexico City. It is the largest borough by area but most of it is forested rather than urban. According to Wikipedia, the city still boasts colonial era mansions and cobblestone streets. Frankly, it sounds lovely and totally worth putting on my list of places to visit, even if it didn’t also have a Six Flags amusement park. Which it does!

I love that this caldo is even mentioned in their tourist information. They are rightly very proud of it. What makes it so wonderful, in my opinion, is the fresh tomatoes in the broth. They give it a light, bright flavor, so much better than plain old chicken soup.

Despite photographic evidence to the contrary, I did serve this to my family with the crumbled fresh cheese as well as the required chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, I just completely forgot to put it on when taking the pictures. Some recipes mentioned adding avocados as well but I didn't have any. Add it cubed or sliced when serving, if you do.

Caldo Tlalpeño

I used unsalted homemade chicken stock for this dish so I did season the chicken with a little fine sea salt before poaching it in the stock. If you are using stock with salt, you can skip this step. I give the approximate weights for the vegetables below but know that if you have, say, a little more carrot or fewer green beans, this caldo will still be delicious. 

Ingredients

For the chicken:

1 1/2 lbs or 675g boneless, skinless chicken breast

¼ of a medium white onion

1 clove garlic

8 cups or 1.9L chicken stock 

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

For the caldo:

2 tablespoons canola or other light oil

4 medium carrots (about 13 oz or 370g)

1/4 white onion (

3 tomatoes (about 1 lb or 450g) 

1 clove garlic

5 oz or 142g green beans 

1 can (16 oz or 454g) chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 sprigs coriander

4 epazote leaves (These are apparently a traditional ingredient and I was lucky enough to find some at my nearby Fiesta supermarket. If you can’t put your hands on some, just add a little more cilantro.)

To garnish:

Crumbled fresh cheese

Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

(Avocado is also recommended but as I mentioned above, I didn't have any.)

Method

Season the chicken breasts with the salt (if using a salt free stock - see note above) and set aside for a few minutes. Cut the onion into thick slices and smash the garlic clove with the side of a large knife. 

Add the onion and garlic to a large pot along with the chicken. Pour in the stock and bring it to a soft boil over a medium flame.

 

Turn the fire down to simmer, put the lid on your pot and cook the chicken for 45 minutes. 

Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside until it is cool enough to handle. Use two forks to shred it.

Strain the broth into a heatproof bowl and discard the onion slices and garlic. 

Finely chop the onion and peel and slice the carrots. Core and chop the tomatoes. Cut the green beans into bite-sized pieces.

Add the oil to the pot and sauté the chopped onions and the carrots for about 10 minutes or until the onions are translucent and the carrots are starting to soften. I find the carrots cook faster if I put the lid on the pot so you might want to do the same. Just don’t forget to stir occasionally.

While the onion and carrots are cooking, place the tomatoes and garlic in the blender with a cup of the strained chicken broth. I have a hand blender so I popped mine in the hand blender vessel and whizzed them smooth with it. 

Add the tomatoes to the onion and carrots. 

Cook over a low heat for about 12 minutes or until the carrots are tender. At minute 8, add in the green beans. Give it a good stir. 

When the beans are just about cooked through, add the rest of the reserved chicken broth, chickpeas, epazote, cilantro, and shredded chicken. 

Cook over low heat for 6 more minutes. Season with salt, if needed.

To serve, spoon the chicken and vegetables into bowls. Top with broth. Serve the cheese and chipotles in small plates at the table so that everyone can add what they’d like to their bowls. It is traditional to add one chipotle pepper to each bowl!

Enjoy!

It’s Sunday FunDay and my friends and I are sharing Mexican dishes to commemorate The Day of the Dead (el Día de los Muertos), a Mexican holiday where families welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives for a brief reunion that includes food, drink and celebration. Check out all the links below! Many thanks to our host, Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla. 

• Atola - East Indian by Sneha's Recipe
• Caldo Tlalpeño by Food Lust People Love
• Dia de Los Muertos Sugar Skull Cake by Amy’s Cooking Adventures
• Enfrijoladas de Pollo by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Fiambre Rojo for Día de los Muertos by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Pan de Muerto (Mexican Day of the Dead Bread) by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Pan Seared Tilapia with Shrimp by Palatable Pastime
• Taco Casserole by Making Miracles
• Vegetarian Tortilla Soup by Mayuri's Jikoni

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Southwestern Chicken Tacos

The filling for these Southwestern Chicken Tacos includes corn, black beans, tomatoes, jalapeños, onions and cilantro so, to serve, all you need to add is cheese and the tortillas! (And extra cilantro, if desired.)

We are fans of pretty much any kind of taco in this house. In fact, Tex-Mex recipes of all kinds are popular. My typical taco is made with seasoned ground meat, either beef, pork, turkey or chicken but occasionally I like to be more adventurous and make something that is a little different.

The addition of beans and corn stretch your chicken budget, which is always a good thing, while adding extra protein and flavor, again both always welcome. Don't like black beans? Use your favorite bean instead!

Southwestern Chicken Tacos

This makes enough filling for more than a dozen generously filled tacos. We use either corn tortillas or the half corn/half flour ones my local grocery store sells freshly made in their bakery section, simply toasted in a dry pan over a medium flame. 

Ingredients

For the taco filling: 

1 1/2 lbs or 625g boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced thinly

Fine sea salt 

Freshly ground black pepper

2 cups or 300g fresh sweet corn (cut off the cob or substitute frozen niblets)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, cut in thin wedges

2 ripe Roma tomatoes, cored and chopped

1 fresh jalapeño, stem removed, chopped

1 can (15.25oz or 432 g) black beans, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon tomato paste 

2 tablespoons taco seasoning

For garnish: small handful cilantro

To serve:

12-15 fresh corn tortillas 

grated extra sharp cheddar or Colby Jack cheese

cilantro, cleaned and hard stems removed (optional)

Method

To make slicing the chicken breasts thinly easier, I put them in the freezer for about half an hour first. This firms them up enough that a sharp knife can make clean cuts. 

Season the chicken lightly with fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

In a nonstick skillet, pan-fry the chicken in batches, until slightly golden on both sides. Remove from the pan. 

Tip the corn in and fry until it gets browned, possibly with little charred bits. Add another drizzle of olive oil, if necessary. 

Add in the onions and sauté until they turn translucent and are golden. 

Add in the tomatoes and jalapeño. Stir well. 

Mash half of the black beans with a fork.

Add all the beans (mashed and whole) to the pan with the taco seasoning, tomato paste and 1 cup or 240ml water. Stir well to combine. 

Put all the chicken back in the pan and stir again. Heat to warm through. 

Garnish with some cilantro. Serve with pan-toasted tortillas, grated cheese and extra cilantro and let everyone assemble their own. 

Enjoy! 

Happy Sunday FunDay! As you can guess from the recipe titles below, today we are getting a head start on National Taco Day tomorrow. Why that’s not on a Tuesday, I have no idea but the important thing is that we will be celebrating! There may even be margaritas. ¡Olé! Many thanks to our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm!

• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Ancho Chili Chicken Tacos 
• Amy’s Cooking Adventures: Breakfast Tacos 
• Making Miracles: Honey BBQ Chicken Tacos 
• Palatable Pastime: Shredded Chipotle Chicken Tacos 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Grilled Tacos 
• Food Lust People Love: Southwestern Chicken Tacos
• Culinary Adventures with Camilla: Spiced Smashed Potato Tacos with Homemade Purple Corn Tortillas 
• Sneha’s Recipe: Tofu Tikka Tacos

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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