Hawaiian Pineapple Pepper Crockpot Chicken and Coconut Basmati Rice

So this is the kind of dinner that comes out of cleaning out my freezer space. I had leftover frozen pineapple from Easter-week, a lost lone bag of roasted red peppers and some frozen chicken. I thawed all out over night and put them in the crockpot the next morning with a few other staples to flavor and when 4-5 o'clock rolled around- dinner was ready and it was easy to feel like a queen being served dinner with no effort. Which after days of needing to cook and bake from scratch and keep up with all the food allergies, it is always a treat to have the crockpot do most of the work :) And it gets me ready after cleaning the fridge and freezer out to do a big trip of grocery shopping the next day.

I love when something is thrown together out of leftover ingredients and it turns out so great you start thinking how you would actually need to buy the actual ingredients to make it again next time. This recipe is also somehting you can find done a multitude of ways depending on your preferences. I just used what I had and made it work. Now if only I could get my kids more excited about it... they are picky about just about everything. They did give it a try though and the sweetness and rice made it worth it :) Hope you give it a try or at the least go into your freezer space and find what kind of ingredients you need to use up and clean out. Happy cooking, xoxo

Hawaiian Pineapple Pepper Crockpot Chicken Recipe

{gluten, dairy, egg, soy, nut and seed-free} 

2 lbs of thawed or raw chicken 

(use what you got or what your preference is...if I was to choose I would do a mix of white and dark meat to keep the best flavor and moisture from the chicken)

1 10 ounce bag of roasted or grilled red peppers (I thawed beforehand)

1 medium red onion thinly sliced and chopped

4 garlic cloves minced or finely grated

2 inches of fresh ginger finely grated

2 ts of sea salt (more or less)

1/2- 1 ts. of black pepper

2 cups of fresh or frozen pineapple, thawed to have at least 1/2 cup of juices

drizzle of olive or avocado oil

1/4 cup of maple syrup

1/4 cup of coconut aminos (or sub a soy-sauce or aminos-sauce)

1/4 cup of coconut palm sugar 

1/4 cup of tapioca flour

In your crock pot dump and mix all of the above ingredients and cook at the medium or low 6-8 hour time. I put the chicken in first and sprinkled in the spices and onion and stired to move all around and then added in the pineapple and peppers and made sure the suaces also got evenly mixed around too. I sprinkeld the tapioca flour last over the wet liquids and used a spoon to kinda mix in and make sure it was evenly dissolved in. Then I covered and set the heat and let it cook all day. When it was in there 6 hours it was done and the chicken could probably be easily shred up if you wanted to make tacos or fajitas out of the meat, but the chicken can be scooped out too in whole pieces and placed over the rice. 

Coconut Basmati Rice Recipe

2 TB of coconut oil

2 cups of basmati rice

3 cups of water

1 cup of coconut milk beverage

1 ts. of sea salt

In a medium saucepan, warm up some coconut oil and cook the rice in the oil for a few minutes while it gets toasted. Then add in the water and coconut milk and salt. Cook on medium to high heat until it is bubbling and then I turn the heat to low until the water is cooked in and then I turn off the heat completely and cover with a top and let it sit for 10-20 minutes for it to further the cooking process with no heat. Then I open up and fluff up and it is ready to serve. 

I topped this dish with fresh chopped cilantro, but green onions might also work. Like I said, whatever you got is what to go with ;) Some fresh lime or sea salt might be a nice finishing touch too if it needs it. 

Hope you get inspired to clean up the fridge and freezer and make something fabulous. Happy cooking and much love, xoxo