Home » Weeknight Saucy Pineapple BBQ Chicken Bowls

Weeknight Saucy Pineapple BBQ Chicken Bowls

I am back from Philadelphia and the Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo (upcoming podcast on the conference!). Learned some things, experienced a new city. Definitely missed my family! The curse of motherhood: can’t wait to get away from them and the second you do, you miss them like whoa. Tell me dads experience something similar!

I didn’t do a great job of stocking the fridge full of leftovers and various options for Mark to serve up while I was away. Left to his own devices, the default is always pizza. And pizza did they eat…

My first night home, I was sure to whip up something full of nutrition. Heading into Halloween and then right around the corner Thanksgiving and Christmas…I’m determined to keep our meals plentiful in all the good-for-you stuff. The trick is now finding meals that appeal to us all.

I’m a huge fan of all-in-one or one pot meals – they’re not only easier to make, but the clean-up is less and I, for one, have that as priority #1 after a long day. I’m also strongly considering an Instant Pot…should I do it? I almost don’t want to wait to ask Santa because by then, I’ve lost a lot of “slow cooker season”. That’s a thing even though it really isn’t.

This particular recipe was an all-around winner. Dump some stuff in the crock pot (or Instant Pot) and off you go. I did use less BBQ sauce to cut down on sugar and swapped in a microwavable ready rice-quinoa blend. The rest was just assemble-and-go.

While Mark and I devoured the ingredients in combination with one another, the kids treated it as a smorgasbord. And you know what? Fine by me. They started with the pineapple and chicken, moved to the avocado, tried to dodge the lettuce but gave in, accepting the lettuce along with the rice and quinoa at the bottom. It worked. It all worked…so good!

Weeknight Saucy Pineapple BBQ Chicken Bowls
Author: 
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6 servings
 
Ingredients
  • 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 1½ cups BBQ sauce, divided
  • juice from 2 limes, divided
  • 2 cups fresh pineapple chunks, divided
  • 1 jalapeño, seeds removed and minced, divided
  • 2 (8.8 oz) pkgs microwavable quinoa-rice blends
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
  • ¾ cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped and divided
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 5 cups shredded romaine lettuce
  • 1 avocado, sliced
  • 6 tsp fried garlic for serving
Instructions
  1. In the bowl of your slow cooker, combine the chicken, 1 cup BBQ sauce, juice of 1 lime, 1 cup pineapple chunks, and ½ the jalapeño. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours or on HIGH for 3-4 hours. Once the chicken is done cooking, shred with two forks and stir in ¼ cup cilantro and remaining ½ cup BBQ sauce.
  2. Meanwhile, in a bowl, toss together the remaining 1 cup of pineapple chunks, remaining jalapeño, tomatoes, remaining cilantro, juice of 1 lime, and salt.
  3. Divide the rice/quinoa among bowls and top with the lettuce, pineapple salsa, the chicken, and avocado. Sprinkle with fried garlic. Drizzle the chicken with the remaining BBQ sauce left in the bowl.
Notes
Recipe slightly adapted from Half Baked Harvest
Nutrition Information
Serving size: ⅙ recipe (2/3 cup rice/quinoa, 5 oz chicken, and ⅙ avocado and salsa) Calories: 467 Fat: 9.5 Carbohydrates: 63.7 Sugar: 30 Sodium: 950 Fiber: 7.2 Protein: 35.8 Cholesterol: 73
Be well,

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2 Comments

  1. Erin
    November 1, 2019 / 6:02 pm

    I LOVE my IP. I wasn’t sure and hemmed and hawed before buying, but I use it 2-3 a week. #1 bonus is that if you forget to thaw something (hello, it me) you can throw it in the IP and it’s still done in a reasonable amount of time.

  2. Pingback: Weeknight Saucy Pineapple BBQ Chicken Bowls

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