Pineapple Chicken Rice Bake (Print Version)

Tropical baked dish with chicken, pineapple, and fluffy rice, perfect for easy family dinners.

# Components:

→ Meats

01 - 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 1.3 lbs)

→ Rice & Grains

02 - 1 cup long-grain white rice, rinsed

→ Vegetables & Fruit

03 - 1 cup pineapple chunks, fresh or canned and drained
04 - 1 red bell pepper, diced
05 - 1 small onion, finely chopped
06 - 2 cloves garlic, minced

→ Liquids

07 - 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
08 - 2 tablespoons soy sauce, gluten-free if needed
09 - 1 tablespoon olive oil

→ Spices & Seasonings

10 - 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
11 - 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
12 - 1/2 teaspoon salt
13 - 1/4 teaspoon chili flakes, optional

→ Garnish

14 - 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
15 - Lime wedges for serving

# Directions:

01 - Preheat oven to 375°F.
02 - In a large oven-safe skillet or baking dish, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and bell pepper; sauté for 3 to 4 minutes until softened. Add minced garlic and cook for 1 minute more.
03 - Stir in rice, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, and chili flakes if using. Sauté for 1 minute to coat the grains.
04 - Add pineapple chunks and evenly spread the mixture across the pan.
05 - Pour in chicken broth and soy sauce; stir thoroughly to combine all ingredients.
06 - Nestle chicken thighs on top of the rice mixture. Sprinkle with additional salt and pepper to taste.
07 - Cover tightly with aluminum foil or an oven-safe lid and bake for 30 minutes.
08 - Remove the cover and bake for an additional 15 minutes, or until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°F and rice is tender.
09 - Allow the dish to rest for 5 minutes. Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve with lime wedges.

# Expert Advice:

01 -
  • Everything cooks in one pan, which means your Friday night cleanup is basically nonexistent.
  • The chicken stays impossibly tender while soaking up all that sweet and savory magic, and somehow nobody expects how good it actually is.
  • You can throw this together in under twenty minutes of actual work, then just let your oven do the heavy lifting.
02 -
  • Use an oven-safe skillet or baking dish with a lid or foil; learning this the hard way means scrubbing burned rice off your regular cookware and swearing never again.
  • Don't skip the rinsing step for rice—it genuinely changes whether you get fluffy grains or a starchy paste, and nobody wants the latter.
  • Drain your canned pineapple really thoroughly or your rice absorbs too much liquid and turns mushy; I learned this by making mushy rice and never speaking of it again.
03 -
  • Let your cooked dish rest for those five minutes even though you're hungry; it lets the rice finish absorbing liquid and makes plating infinitely easier than serving it steaming hot and watery.
  • Taste as you go and adjust salt at the end rather than trying to guess—soy sauce is salty already, so you might not need as much extra as you think.
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