Sunday Afternoon Concoction

Most of the time my "menu" is pretty basic, which allows me to not feel bound to use a specific recipe. I like that and it works for us. So, today I knew we would be having chicken breasts (pretty boring, right), but I needed to decide how to fix them. The pineapple in the refrigerator was my inspiration, and the end result was actually quite good. What showed up on the plate wasn't quite what Michelle and Wayne were expecting when I said we'd have "chicken and rice with a pineapple-y, barbecue-y sauce" but they liked it. There's something to be said for being unpredictable!

Here are some of the recipes that provided ideas:

Snappy Barbecue Sauce
Grilled Pineapple
Saucy Pork Chops

Pineapple Chicken

1-2  tablespoons butter
3-6 slices fresh pineapple
3-6 boneless chicken breasts
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2/3 cup catsup
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1 dash Tabasco sauce
salt and pepper to taste
cooked rice

Melt the butter in a frying pan and saute the pineapple slices for a couple of minutes on each side. Remove and keep warm. Brown the chicken in the same frying pan and salt and pepper to taste. Add the onion, celery and garlic and cook until softened. Combine the remaining ingredients and pour over the chicken. Cook until the chicken is no longer pink. Serve the chicken over rice and topped with a pineapple slice and the sauce.

Well, this has been sitting as a draft for a couple of months, and now I can't find the picture that I wanted to add! So, you get it without a picture. Updated: Still no picture of the chicken version, but we made this with pork and it was delicious as well. We also used canned pineapple slices and substituted the pineapple juice for the water in the sauce.