Grilled Pineapple Cilantro Chicken Recipe -- Gluten Free, Allergy Friendly, and Delicious

I love mango season. (What does this have to do with a pineapple chicken recipe, you ask? Read on.)

 Mangoes are one of my favorite fruits, along with sweet crunchy grapes, blueberries, and juicy and sweet peaches (summer is one of my favorite times culinarily, if you can imagine) and I wait for the prices to go down for them at the peak of the season. When I was at the supermarket and saw perfect mangoes at a really low price, I knew immediately that I wanted to make mango salsa to serve with chicken breast.

I scoured the internet to get inspiration for how to make the perfect chicken breast to pair with a mango salsa, and this recipe for cilantro lime chicken appealed to me the most. Only I didn't have some of the required ingredients. I didn't have limes, didn't have cilantro, didn't have orange juice. I didn't have oranges to juice my own, and my neighbor didn't have either. She did have some cilantro I could use. I was trying to figure out what to do and then remembered that a friend who is allergic to oranges uses pineapple juice instead of orange juice in recipes. I did have pineapple "juice"- I canned a bunch of pineapples in syrup and decided to use them. Then I replaced the limes with lemon, and voila.

The chicken came out so delectable that I ended up making it for dinner 3 weeks in a row.

While it is absolutely terrific with mango salsa, it is also wonderful and delicious on its own merit.

I do want to mention that following the instructions for this is very important because if you don't let the chicken drip after marinating it, you won't get the results you want.

I used this same marinade on chicken wings and on baked chicken breast, and while it was great all of the ways, grilling the breast wins, hands down.

To keep this gluten free, use gluten free soy sauce or coconut aminos to keep it both gluten and soy free.

Grilled Pineapple Cilantro Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:
3/4 cup pineapple syrup or juice (approximately the liquid from one large can of pineapples)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons gluten free soy sauce
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Sugar to taste (optional, but it helps with the caramelizing of the chicken breast. If using unsweetened pineapple juice or light syrup, consider adding a tablespoon or so of sugar to the marinade)  
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1 lb chicken breasts, filleted

Pineapple from the can (optional but the grilled marinated pineapple is amazing- can use both chunks and rings but rings would be easier to grill)

Instructions:

1. Mix all the marinade ingredients together until uniform. 

2. Thinly fillet your chicken breast if they weren't already. This helps make sure that the inside of the chicken is fully cooked by the time the outside is finished grilling.

3. Marinate the chicken breast and pineapple in the marinade for at least an hour, ideally more, in the fridge. Make sure that the marinade is covering all parts of the chicken. (Sometimes if you aren't careful the chicken breast can stick together so there would be parts not touching the marinade.)

4. Drip the chicken breast dry. No, a colander isn't enough for this large amount of chicken- the stuff on the top will still be wet. If you don't drip this, the liquid will pool up under it on the grill pan and cause it to not cook properly- you want it grilled not poached in liquid. It will also carmelize all over too quickly and make it harder to tell when it is fully cooked. And lastly, you won't have the pretty grill marks. I hung the chicken breast over the edges of a deep bowl to let the liquid drip off. Patting it off with a napkin takes off too much of the marinade.

5. Grill on a lightly oiled grill pan on a medium heat without moving it until fully cooked on one side, then flip over and do the same. If you aren't sure if its fully cooked inside, cut one open at the thickest part of the chicken to check. This is more likely to happen if your chicken breast cutlets are too thick. If this happens but the outside is already cooked, put them in the oven for another 5-10 minutes or until the inside is fully cooked (but make sure not to do so for too long so it doesn't dry out).

6. Grill the pineapple as well. 

7. Put the marinade in the pan after everything was already taken out, and cook it fully so that you can serve it with the chicken, if desired.

8. Serve chicken breast with pineapple and ideally mango salsa, but it is definitely delectable on its own.

Enjoy!

Alternate options:

• Marinate chicken wings in this liquid before roasting them until browned. Quite delicious too.
  
  
• Bake chicken thighs for 10-20 minutes at 350 or until it has fully changed color, but strain first and lightly oil the pan so that it isn't cooking in liquid (but no need to drip dry). This is my second favorite way to make this chicken, after grilled. Big hit with the kids, it stayed very moist inside. It just is missing some of the color and specialness of it grilled. 

What is your favorite part of the chicken? What is your favorite cooking method for it? Does this look like a recipe you'd try? Do you think you'd make a mango salsa to serve with it?