Grilled Hawaiian Chicken Teriyaki

Teriyaki chicken is a classic meal, packed with salty and sweet goodness. This grilled Hawaiian chicken teriyaki gets a fruity twist, with the tropical goodness of pineapple. The best part is the pineapple grills up perfectly! This Hawaiian chicken has summer written all over it, and will transport you to the Islands without leaving your home!

Jump to:

• Why You'll Love This Recipe
• Recipe Overview
• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Tips and Tricks
• FAQ's About This Recipe
• Grilled Hawaiian Chicken Teriyaki
• 💬 Comments

Why You'll Love This Recipe

• This recipe is fuss free! All you need to do is toss all the ingredients into a mixing bowl, and let the chicken marinate. While the chicken is grilling, you can thicken up the marinade, and you're ready to serve!
• The sauce is packed with flavour! Chicken teriyaki is good on its own, but with the delicious addition of fresh pineapple juice and pineapple chunks, this chicken is a party! Pardon the cliche, but I mean it!
• It is versatile! If you don't have a barbecue, or want to go on an island vacation while it is still too cold to grill, you can make this chicken on a grill pan, cast iron skillet, or even in the oven!

Recipe Overview

• Flavour: This grilled Hawaiian chicken teriyaki is perfectly balanced. Soy sauce adds the right amount of saltiness, with the balance of brown sugar and pineapple. Think of your favourite chicken teriyaki, with a twist! The flavours are also very kid-friendly, as there is no extreme spice in the sauce.
• Ease: This is a relatively fuss-free meal. Toss all the ingredients into a mixing bowl to marinate the chicken and pineapple, and toss onto the grill! If you like the extra sauce, you can reduce the remaining marinade, otherwise, grilling is the hardest part of the dish.
• Time: When using pineapple in marinades, you actually do not want to marinate proteins for extended periods of time. There are enzymes in pineapple that will significantly alter the texture of meats (I mean turn the meat to literal much) if you let them sit in the pineapple juice for too long. Because of that, 15-20 minutes is all you need to marinate the chicken. On the grill, the chicken takes another 15-20 minutes.

Ingredients

• Boneless, skinless chicken breast: Boneless, skinless chicken breast sometimes gets a bad reputation for being dry, but I assure you when you season and cook it well, it's delicious. Chicken breast is generally the fastest cooking, and is mostly a safe bet when you are trying to get dinner on the table during the week. With that being said, if you find that chicken breast is dry for your liking, you can substitute bone-in, skin-on chicken breast for this recipe. The cooking time will increase slightly, but nothing too significant.
• Fresh pineapple: One of the best parts of this dish is the delicious, caramelized grilled pineapple that goes in the marinade, and onto the grill. I cut mine into spears, but you can do rings as well. You may use canned pineapple if you don't have fresh, but you may need to adjust the sugar in the marinade, as canned pineapple is generally sweeter.
• Pineapple juice: You have a few options in terms of which kind of pineapple juice you can use for this recipe. If you use a pre-cored pineapple from your produce section, it usually has some juice in the container - this works! Otherwise, you can use regular cartoned or canned pineapple juice.
• Ginger and garlic: Fresh ginger and garlic are best for this marinade. Garlic and ginger powder do not have the same bright punch of flavour that you want for this marinade.
• Brown sugar: Brown sugar adds a nice caramelized flavour to the sauce, which you won't get from regular white sugar. I used light brown sugar, but if you have dark brown sugar that will work.
• Soy sauce: I prefer to use reduced sodium, dark soy sauce. The saltiness of full sodium soy sauce is overpowering, and I generally prefer to control the amount of salt in a dish. If you have regular full sodium soy sauce, that's ok! Be sure to taste before you add the chicken, to make sure the salt levels are ok.

Instructions

1. Marinate the Chicken: In a mixing bowl, add the chicken, pineapple, and all the marinade ingredients. Combine well, and marinade for 15-20 minutes in the fridge.
2. Grill the Chicken: On a preheated grill, or grill pan/cast iron skillet, grill the chicken for 5-7 minutes per side. Grill the pineapple spears or rings at the same time, until charred and caramelized.
3. Reduce remaining marinade: While the chicken grills, reduce the leftover marinade in a sauce pan, until it has thickened slightly. I assure you - it is safe to consume marinades once they are boiled down - USDA approved!

Tips and Tricks

• Do not over marinate! I promise you, as tempting as it is to leave your meat in the marinade for a longer period of time, always remember that is not a good idea with pineapple. You will not like the texture of your chicken if you let it sit for too long.
• Indirect heat helps! Because there is a fair bit of sugar in the marinade, if you find that it is charring too fast, try using indirect heat on the barbecue to avoid a super charred mess. Grill marks are fantastic, but sugar goes from delicious to burnt real fast.
• Finish with a brush of sauce! A great finishing touch to the chicken is to give it a few brushes of the reduced sauce when it is almost done cooking.

FAQ's About This Recipe