Sweet and Sour Chicken with a kick

I was searching my fridge and freezer for ideas on what to make for dinner last night because I wanted to get rid of some stuff before going grocery shopping again.  I had the idea to make my own version of sweet and sour chicken with pineapples!  I'm really glad I did because this was one of my favorite dishes so far!  


First I marinated 4 chicken breasts in some mojo (goya makes a great one) for about 30 minutes.  I wish I had done it before but it still softened and seasoned the breasts.  I then dropped all four breasts in a deep frying pan and let them cook about 5 minutes on each side.  Even though I knew I was going to chop them for this dish I still cooked them before doing so.  This way it's a lot easier and less likely to spread bacteria all over yourself!  I took them out of the pan and let them sit on a plate while I chopped all my vegetables including a green pepper, half of a red pepper, onions, half a fresh pineapple about 2 cloves of garlic, and scallions.  



With some of the marinade still in the pan I dropped my onions and garlic and let them swim around a little bit.  Once I thought it was appropriate I put in my peppers.  After about 2 minutes I found myself having to make a very important decision!  I had white wine ready to go on my hot full of veggies pan but I wanted to try something different.  What has more of a kick than wine?  Definitely tequila!!!  Yeah baby!  I poured in about 1/2 a cup of it.  Just enough to lift all the flavors off the pan.  I let it simmer for about 2 minutes and then put in my pineapple and two key ingredients:  Ketchup and honey!  About 4 tbls of each!  The sweet, sour, and hot combination was awesome!!!   After about another 2 minutes I put in my chicken.  I figured I'd let the pineapple juice in the pan a little bit.  You can use pineapple from the can too.  I'm sure it'll be more nicely chopped than mine.  Once I had all my ingredients in the pan I started seasoning them with a lot of chili powder, paprika, crushed red pepper, plenty of hot sauce, and kosher salt.  I wanted it to kick and if this dish played soccer it would win the world cup by itself!  I then added about 1 cup of water and let it simmer while I prepared some rice.  

Mirella really liked this one and I think I'll definitely prepare it again. I liked serving it in a bowl.  I tried to get fancy with the rice tower but you can just put the rice in there and then just lay the chicken on top.  Try this tonight or sometime this week!  It's always worth it to look in your fridge for ideas and use what you have.  Making the same thing all the time is not fun!  I guarantee you'll love making this one!