The Artist’s Palate: Hawaiian Chicken with Wild Rice
This meal is beautiful on the plate and was inspired by my youngest daughter Zoe, an artist with an amazing eye for style and color.
To know Zoe is to love her. She likes dressing up and looking her best every day. As a baby and until this day, she does not like to just sit around in her pajamas. She has always liked getting up and getting her day started and spending hours painting. I think everyone in our family owns large and small canvases created by Zoe Taylor.
Zoe always loved food and eats with her eyes. If it doesn’t look pretty on her plate, she will not dare try it. At a football game last year, she reluctantly tried a chicken kabob that had pineapples on it. She loved it! She devoured it and asked me to make them at home. Of course, as requested, I made kabobs on the grill, but because they were so good, I wanted to make it as part of healthy meal prep.
I decided to cook chicken tenderloins (or you can slice chicken breasts) with the same marinade, and as a side, I added wild rice loaded with fresh onions, garlic, carrots, and broccoli. I was a little worried about Zoe liking it because it did not look like the kabobs that she was accustomed to enjoying. Well, she tried and loved it, and now it’s a go-to meal for the entire family.
This meal is simple, quick, healthy, and tasty! And pretty! The entire family enjoys it and it tastes even better the next day.
Hawaiian Chicken
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: Approximately 30 minutes
Ingredients
6 chicken tenderloins (or butterflied chicken breasts)
1 can of pineapple chunks
1 cup soy sauce
2 TB brown sugar
2 tsp garlic, minced
1 tsp blackened seasoning
1 tsp black pepper
3 TB olive oil
Preparations
Rinse chicken and butterfly breasts, if using instead of tenderloins. Massage olive oil into each tenderloin. Mix all dry seasonings and massage over chicken. Heat skillet with oil. Add chicken to skillet and brown quickly on both sides. Add pineapple and remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Let simmer, flipping chicken after 2.5 minutes. Simmer until sauce thickens and chicken is thoroughly cooked.
Loaded Wild Rice
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients
Box of wild rice (your choice)
3 TB sesame oil
1 tsp salt, to taste
1 tsp coarse black pepper
1 tsp garlic, minced
2 cups broccoli
1 large white onion, diced
1 cup carrots, diced
Preparation
Fully cook rice according to package directions. Heat oil in a separate frying pan, but be careful not to overheat sesame oil as it has a low burn point. Add all veggies and seasonings and cook until tender. Drain rice completely and add to the frying pan. Fold all ingredients together.