Pineapple Roasted Chicken

Marinated in the freshly blended pineapple herb juice overnight, this pineapple roasted chicken is so juicy and tender with a perfect balance of umami, sweet and savory.

When you serve this dish at your holiday parties, your guests are going to be so surprised to see a roasted chicken sitting on a pineapple!

This Thanksgiving or Christmas, are you ready to surprise and delight your guests with your amazing cooking skill? Here’s the easy but amazing roasted chicken recipe you are look for:

EQUIPMENT you will need:

• blender
• ziploc bag
• oven
• baking tray

INGREDIENTS List:  

• 1 whole chicken (3 to 4 lb; giblets and neck removed )
• 1 large pineapple
• ¼ onion (medium size)
• 1 head of garlic (peeled)
• 3 fresh whole cilantro sprigs (roughly chopped; can be substituted with fresh parsley)
• 2 jalapeños (can be substituted with 1 serrano pepper)
• ½ carrot – about 60g (optional; peeled and cut into chunks)
• ¾ cup water (about 180g)
• 2 tsp salt (about 12g)
• 2 tbsp soy sauce (about 32g)
• 1 tbsp sake (Japanese wine) (about 15g; can be substituted with cooking wine or white grape wine)
• 1 pack Chinese roast chicken seasoning mix (*See Note1)
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil (or melted butter)
• 2 tsp honey
• 2 tsp soy sauce

Step-by-step INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Using a sharp chef’s knife, cut off the crown of a pineapple. Place the pineapple upright in a soup bowl (the depth is about 2 inches deep). Holding the pineapple in place with one hand, use the knife to carefully make 4 cuts from top to bottom.(Do not cut through the whole pineapple, stop cutting when the knife is touching the edge of the soup bowl). The 4 cuts should be above, below, and on both sides of the core.

2. Slice across the bottom end of the 4 cuts to remove the 8 strips from the core. Be careful to not cut into the core. Cover the pineapple core and the base with plastic food wrap, keep it in the fridge.

3. Peel and cut the rest of the pineapple strips into bite-size chunks.

4. Add pineapple chunks, onion, garlics, cilantro, jalapeños, carrot (optional), and water to a blender. Blend on high speed for 1 minute or until smooth.

5. Set a strainer over a large bowl, pour the juice through the strainer to remove pulp.

6. Add salt, soy sauce, sake, and Chinese roast chicken seasoning mix to the juice, stir until well combined.

7. Put a whole chicken into a large ziploc bag, carefully pour the mixture into the bag. Squeeze the air out of the ziploc bag, zip it up, place it in a large bowl, then keep it in the fridge overnight (for about 10 hours).

8. Preheat oven to 375°F / 190°C (turn on convection bake if your oven has that function. If not, you can just use regular bake mode ). Line a baking tray with foil, place the pineapple core straight up into baking tray.

9. Get the chicken out from the bag, pat the chicken dry with kitchen towels. Insert the pineapple core into the chicken through the lower opening, so that the chicken is sitting firmly on the pineapple base.

10. Convection Bake or bake at 375°F / 190°C for 20 minutes until the surface of the chicken is completely dry.

11. Remove the chicken from the oven, brush 2 tbsps of vegetable oil or melted butter all over the chicken.

12. Wrap the ends of chicken wings and chicken legs with foil so that they won’t get burnt. If any part of the chicken has already turned golden brown, you can loosely cover this part with foil paper to prevent over coloring.

13. Convection Bake or bake at 375°F / 190°C for 40 minutes.

14. Add honey and soy sauce to a small bowl, stir to mix well. Remove the chicken from the oven, brush the honey soy sauce mixture all over the chicken.

15. Convection Bake or bake at 375°F / 190°C for 20 to 30 minutes until the roasted chicken turns evenly golden brown.

16. Remove from the oven, check the temperature (*see note 2) of the chicken to make sure that it’s cooked through. Leave the roasted chicken to rest for about 15 minutes before serving.

NOTES

Note 1:  Chinese roast chicken seasoning mix

You can easily find the Chinese roast chicken seasoning mix  I used in Walmart and Amazon. The ingredients in this seasoning mix are cane sugar, salt, powdered soy sauce, anise powder, orange peel powder, cornstarch, onion powder, garlic powder, 5-star powder, parsley flakes, and black pepper. That’s all. It doesn’t even contain MSG. 

It’s an easy trick to use this kind of seasoning mix as a simple marinade. So that you don’t need to collect all these ingredients for this one dish. You can use any brand of roast chicken seasoning mix.

If you can’t find it, you can use 2 tbsps of Chinese five spice powder, 1 tbsp of cane sugar, and 1 tsp of salt to substitute the Chinese roast chicken seasoning mix in this recipe. 

Note 2: Roasted chicken internal temp

If you have a food thermometer, you can simply insert it into the thickest part of the chicken (check both chicken thigh and chicken breast) to check its temperature. According to USDA, the internal temperature of the chicken should reach 165°F  (73.9 °C) for food safety. 

If you don’t have a food thermometer, you can pierce the thickest part of the chicken with a fork, the chicken is done when the juices is clear instead of pink.

But keep it in mind that pink chicken can still be safe to eat if reaches the right temperature. We only use this observation method when we don’t have a food thermometer to be on the safe side.

Note 3: Pineapple marinade

Have you ever heard that “when you eat a pineapple, it eats you back.”

Pineapples contain an enzyme called bromelain, which can break down proteins. That’s why your tongue feels sore from eating a fresh pineapple.

Since bromelain can break down proteins, pineapple juice can be used as a perfect meat tenderizer.

Soaking the whole chicken in seasoned pineapple juice overnight can make the chicken meat become more tender and flavorful.

Remember to strain out the pineapple pulp from the marinade, otherwise the pulp will get burned before the chicken skin turns golden brown.

My other chicken recipes you will also like: