Thai chicken and pineapple

‍The science of eating well: exotic, healthy, quick and delicious recipes.

I’ve only been to Thailand once, and I had some great meals there.  One of these I’m passing on today. It’s a chicken dish, but it can be made with firm tofu just as easily and it doesn’t matter that much whether you use salt-reduced vegetable stock or salt-reduced chicken stock.  Both the vegetarian and the chicken variations of the dish have passed the Alicia test.

The original recipe called for brown sugar. In fact, brown sugar is just a mixture of white sugar and molasses, which is a type of sugar-derived syrup. Molasses is responsible for its darker color and very slightly increases its nutritional value. Molasses has some limited nutritional elements, but you can get these more easily and with less calories and heart problems in other foods. By using a lo-cal sugar substitute such as a stevia or aspartame mixture you lose none of the taste.

Stevia has been touted as a “health” food which is good for lowering blood pressure, among other things, but there’s no good scientific evidence for any of the “benefits". However, it is unlikely to do you any harm. The same can’t be said for sugar. Aspartame or saccharine-based sweeteners are also pretty harmless in the small amounts used for the dishes I include. Alicia prefers the stevia-extract taste.

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Ingredients

• 1 tblsp olive oil
• 500 gms (1 lb) skinless chicken breast cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 red bell pepper seeded, cored and cut into thin slices
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 ½ cups canned or fresh pineapple chunks
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger
• 3/4 cup pineapple juice
• 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1/3 cup low sodium chicken broth
•  1/3 cup hoisin sauce
• 1 ½ tblsp lo-cal sweetener
• 2 teaspoons corn starch, or corn flour (depending on which continent you’re on)
• 2 teaspoons sesame seeds
• 1 medium sliced green onion

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‍Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Add the chicken and cook for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until chicken is cooked through.
2. Add the red bell pepper and pineapple to the pan and cook for 4-5 minutes or until tender. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for 30 seconds more.
3. Meanwhile whisk together the pineapple juice, soy sauce, broth, hoisin sauce and sugar substitute.
4. Add this sauce mixture and the onion to the pan and bring to a simmer.
5. While that’s happening, mix the corn starch with 1 tablespoon of cold water; stir until smooth.
6. Add the cornstarch mixture to the pan and stir to combine. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute or until sauce has just thickened.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve. Low calorie noodles are the perfect thing to serve with this dish.

‍Serves: 5

‍Energy: 1117 kJs (279 calories) per serve