The key to keeping lean chicken breast meat moist is to avoid overcooking. It also helps if you coat the chicken pieces in batter. Both techniques are employed in this recipe.
Cook’s notes
I’m not a fan of chicken breast meat especially when it is shredded after cooking. But, sometimes, I have to make do with what’s in the freezer.
The upside of chicken breast meat is that it cooks fast. Cook it for too long and it becomes dry and stringy. But, like most boneless cuts of meat, it is also quite versatile.
In this recipe, the lean chicken breast meat is prevented from drying out using two techniques. The first is coating the chicken pieces in batter and the second is a short frying time.
The batter forms a crust that protects the meat from the ultra hot cooking oil. In effect, the chicken cooks in the steam that builds inside the batter as it turns into a crust. As you can imagine, the steam helps tremendously in keeping the meat moist.
To flavor the chicken and to add color and texture to the dish, we have pineapple and sweet chili sauce. Fresh pineapple is recommended. Canned is too sweet and rather one-dimensional. Fresh pineapple, meanwhile, has a slight tang that gives the sweetness of the sauce a lovely contrast (see how to skin and cut pineapple without waste).
The sweet chili sauce is homemade. No starch is added to thicken it. If you use bottled sweet chili sauce from the grocery, note that most are thickened with starch. My problem with that is that the sauce turns lumpy as the dish cools on the dining table. So, if you have the time and inclination, I suggest you try making your own sweet chili sauce. What excess is left can be stored in the fridge.
15-minute sweet chili pineapple chicken
Ingredients
- 1 chicken breast deboned (or 2 chicken breast fillets)
- salt
- pepper
- cayenne powder
- ¾ cup rice flour mixed with ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup potato starch
- cooking oil for frying
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- ½ teaspoon grated ginger
- 1 bird’s eye chili finely chopped
- 1 ½ cups pineapple chunks (fresh please!)
- 1 large bell pepper cut into wedges
- 1 cup sweet chili sauce
Instructions
- Wipe the chicken breast fillets with paper towels. Cut into one-inch cubes. Place in a bowl. Add half a teaspoon of salt, a quarter teaspoon of pepper and a quarter teaspoon of cayenne powder. Mix well. Set aside.
- Make the batter. To the rice flour and water mixture, add half a teaspoon of salt, a quarter teaspoon of pepper and a quarter teaspoon of cayenne powder.
- Add the batter to the chicken. Mix well. Add the starch. Mix well again. There shouldn’t be any loose batter at the bottom of the bowl.
- In a wok or frying pan, heat enough cooking oil to reach a depth of at least two inches. Heat until fine wisps of smoke float on the surface.
- Drop the battered chicken into the hot oil, one piece at a time to make sure that they stay separate from each other. Cook for about two minutes or until golden brown. Depending on how large your wok or frying pan is, you may have to do this step in batches.
- Scoop out the chicken cubes and drain on a rack or a stack of paper towels.
- Pour off the oil from the wok or frying pan leaving only about a tablespoonful.
- Reheat the oil. Saute the garlic, ginger and chilies for about a minute. Throw in the bell peppers. Stir fry for half a minute. Add the pineapple chunks and cook for another half a minute.
- Add the cooked chicken to the pan. Pour in the sweet chili sauce. Toss to coat every piece of chicken, bell pepper and pineapple with the sauce.
- Serve the sweet chili pineapple chicken at once. We like it with rice.
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