Ever since making the Raspberry Chipotle BBQ Chicken Thighs, I’ve kind of fallen in love with baked chicken thighs. They’re super easy, the flavor possibilities are endless, they’re juicy and tender, and they’re usually fairly inexpensive.
So this week, I whipped up a quick pineapple teriyaki sauce to paint the thighs with and they turned out really delicious. I experimented with baking some with skin and some without. They both turned out very juicy and delicious! The pineapple sauce held the moisture in the skinless thighs nicely. The thighs with the skin on were definitely prettier, but not any more moist.
I baked the thighs at 375 degrees until the sauce on top turned a nice golden brown. It ended up taking close to an hour so next time I think I’ll increase the temperature to 400 degrees. With a small increase in temperature like that I don’t think you’ll be in danger of not having the inside cooked before the outside browns, and it should make the whole process a bit faster. Since I cooked at 375, I’m still going to write the recipe that way. I just wanted to present the option.
Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken Thighs
Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken Thighs
Servings 7 -8Ingredients
- 1 clove garlic ($0.08)
- 2 inches fresh ginger ($0.25)
- 1 Tbsp vegetable oil ($0.08)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce ($0.24)
- 1 18 oz. jar pineapple jam ($2.78)
- 1/2 Tbsp rice vinegar ($0.02)
- 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch ($0.03)
- 4 lbs. bone-in chicken thighs ($6.46)
Instructions
- Peel the ginger (use a vegetable peeler) and grate it into a medium sauce pot with a small cheese grater. Mince the garlic and add it to the pot along with 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil. Saute the garlic and ginger over medium heat, just until soft (about one minute).
- Add the soy sauce, pineapple jam, and rice vinegar. Bring the mixture up to a simmer over medium heat. Dissolve the cornstarch in just enough water to make a slurry and pour it into the bubbling sauce. Allow to simmer for about five more minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Prepare a baking sheet with foil and nonstick spray. Place the chicken thighs on the baking sheet. Reserve about 1/3 of the pineapple teriyaki sauce in a bowl for spooning over the chicken after cooking (you don’t want to contaminate this with raw chicken). Using about half of the rest of the sauce, brush a thick layer over the chicken.
- Place the pineapple teriyaki coated chicken in the preheated oven and bake for about 20 minutes. Take the chicken out and brush with more sauce (not the sauce reserved for after baking). Brush as much on as possible. Place back in the oven and bake until the sauce turns golden brown and bubbly (about 30 minutes more).
- Take the chicken out of the oven and allow to rest for about 5 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a serving dish and spoon some of the reserved (uncontaminated) sauce over top.
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Step By Step Photos
First, peel the ginger and then grate it using a small cheese grater. Mince the garlic. Place both in a medium sauce pot with 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil. Saute just until soft (about one minute).
The one time I wanted pineapple jam, they actually didn’t have it at the store. But they *did* have this apricot pineapple jam. I used it and it was still delicious! I ended up using the entire 18 oz. jar.
Add the jam, soy sauce, and rice vinegar to the pot with the garlic and ginger. Stir to dissolve the jam and allow it to come up to a simmer over medium heat.
While the sauce is coming up to a simmer, dissolve the cornstarch in just enough water to make a slurry (a tablespoon or so of water).
Pour the cornstarch slurry into the bubbling sauce. Stir it in and allow it to simmer for about five more minutes.
Place the chicken on a baking sheet covered with foil and non-stick spray. I experimented with skin on and skin off. They both turned out delicious and moist, although the skin on was prettier! The number of servings you’ll get from this depends on how many chicken thighs you get per 4 pounds. One of my packages had four, while the other had 3… I didn’t look before I purchased.
Pour off about 1/3 of the sauce for use after cooking the chicken – you don’t want it to get contaminated with raw chicken. Using about half of the rest of the sauce, coat the chicken. The sauce may be kind of thin because it’s hot, so don’t worry if you can’t get it on too thick. You’ll be putting more on half way through baking.
Bake the chicken in a preheated 375 degree oven. After about 20 minutes, pull the chicken out and coat with more sauce (the “contaminated” sauce, not the reserved sauce). This is what my chicken looked like after the second coating. Place it back in the oven and bake until the sauce turns a nice golden brown (about 30 more minutes).
And this is what the chicken looked like after about 50-55 minutes of total baking time.
You can serve it as is (this picture) or spoon some of the reserved (uncontaminated) sauce over top (the top photo in the post). I liked having that extra bit of sauce spooned over top!
I don’t have rice vinegar, is there another substitution?
You can try apple cider vinegar, but that will still be a bit more acidic and stronger in flavor than the rice vinegar, so you may find that you’ll need to adjust the sugar and other flavors to compensate.
I finally found pineapple preserves for about $3 a jar at my local Fry’s grocery store here in southern Arizona. I about two teaspoons of sambal oelek (red pepper paste) to add a little heat and counteract the sweetness of the preserves.
Very disappointing. This looked like a fun recipe, kind of retro but the chicken was overly sweet and sugar was really the only thing I could taste. It overwhelmed the taste of the chicken. Will NOT make this again.
I couldn’t find the jam either and was considering using pineapple topping, like for ice cream.
I did see on the web that WalMart carries it, and sure enough there it was.
This is really good- everyone in the house loved it!
I, too, couldn’t find pineapple jam. But as I was looking for it, it hit me. Crushed pineapple with sugar! Not only does it cut down on the cost, you can control how sweet (or not) you want the sauce. Another winner, Beth!
I used orange marmalade instead of pineapple jam, as I couldn’t find any in the stores… It was AMAZING. Those little pieces of orange zest add so much to this!
This became a fast family favorite. So easy to make (I double batched for freezer meals). I have a diabetic to cook for so I substituted the pineapple for sugar-free apricot jam. I added jasmine rice and green beans for future meals ~YUM :) Thank you!
Hi Beth :) if we don’t have fresh ginger but have ginger powder, what do you suggest?
I’ll give that one a try. Thank-You Beth :)
I’ve made this a bunch of times and like it. It makes more sauce than I need because I don’t like the uncooked sauce on top, so I can scale that part of the recipe back. I’d be curious to see what an updated version of this might be like!
(Sorry, didn’t mean to post this here as a reply!)
Anon – I think I have just the basic Kikoman (sp?) soy sauce… there are “dark” varieties, but I use the regular grocery store garden variety :) It might just be the way the pictures look, although I do remember my meatballs looking nice and red/orange.
Made this recipe tonight (which btw was delicious!) but I’m wondering what type of Soya Sauce you use? My sauce was quite a bit darker than yours, and the same thing with your Teriyaki Meatball recipe. I found the sauce was almost black when yours had a nice orange/yellow glaze look! I tried a reduced salt SS tonight, but still really dark?! I would like to get the brighter colours like yours for presentation purposes…cause regardless they where amazing! 1st time posting so I should mention while I’m here, that I LOVE your recipes. Your assortment of baked oatmeals have been on rotation for a few months :)
Rachel – I haven’t tried freezing this type of sauce before. You might have some seepage (where moisture leaks out and the texture breaks down a bit). It’s probably best to make it fresh.
I have made this recipe a few times before and it’s super delicious!
I was wondering if it’s possible to make extra sauce and keep it in the freezer for later. Would it still taste the same?
Made this tonight and my husband loved it! I did tweak a couple of things. I couldn’t find pineapple jam so I used fresh pineapple, but that made it little too tart so I added a teeny bit of brown sugar and sriracha hot sauce to offset that. I also used skinless chicken breasts but baked them at 350 so they wouldn’t dry out. Turned out perfect and I am by no means a great cook. Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
Hi! I just wanted to let you know that I tried this recipe and it was absolutely wonderful! Love the combo of pineapple and teriyaki. I used it with coconut milk rice and it was fantastic!