Recipe: $5.85 | Per Serving: $1.46 | Yields: 4
I think this is my absolute favorite rice cooker recipe to date. Pineapple Chicken Fajitas. For the #ricecookerwin!
Basically, anyone with a rice cooker can make this amazingly easy recipe in about 1 hour. You could also use a slow cooker, but that's, well, slower. My Japanese rice cooker is basically the best kitchen appliance of all time. I miss having a slow cooker, and I do wish my rice cooker was bigger, but my kitchen is impossibly tiny, so space is at a premium. And my Japanese rice cooker is magical.
It's like pressure cooker. You don't need to wait 3-4 hours. You can usually dump everything in it and eat in 45-60 minutes. However, if you want to serve your fajitas with rice, that might pose a problem. But rice in fajitas is weird to me anyway. We also made homemade corn tortillas! I love whole wheat tortillas, but my sister swears by corn tortillas, so she brought us some masa harina. They were great. Although the first time I made them was a disaster, the subsequent times were successful. And I don't even have a tortilla press.
Sometimes the grocery store likes to have really great sales on colorful bell peppers, and I remember getting 4 for $1 in San Diego. Here we sometimes find them for 50 cents each, which is also kind of a steal. So when I saw bell peppers on sale, and then walked by half a pineapple for around 60 cents, this recipe practically invented itself. I can't wait to make it again! Wait! It's so easy, I can convince someone else to make it for me. Yes, that's my new plan.
Paleo option: skip the beans and the tortillas
Vegetarian option: skip the chicken
Pineapple Chicken Fajitas (Rice Cooker)
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken breasts or thighs
- 2 bell peppers any color, sliced
- 1 cup pineapple chunks I used fresh, but canned is fine
- ½ medium onion white, yellow, or red
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 Tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 cup water
- ¼ teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon oregano
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- ¼ teaspoon chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground coriander optional
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 jalapeño minced or use 1 teaspoon hot sauce, or 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 ½ cups cooked black beans 1 can - optional
- For serving: corn tortillas avocado, cilantro, feta
Instructions
- Slice bell peppers and onions and mince the garlic. Place in rice cooker. Top with chicken and chunks of pineapple.
- In a small bowl, mix together the tomato paste, water, and spices. Pour into rice cooker. Close lid and cook for about 40 minutes, restarting as necessary. (My cooker often turns off after 15 minutes when I'm making something other than rice. Just hit cancel, unplug it, wait 30 seconds - 2 minutes, and plug it back in and restart it.)
- Remove chicken and check for doneness. If done, shred and set aside.
- Cook the sauce and vegetables another 15-20 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced. If desired, add the beans in this step to give them extra flavor.
- Adjust seasonings as necessary and serve! I like corn tortillas, avocado, cilantro, and feta or cotija cheese.
Notes
Nutrition
This is such a good and easy recipe!!! I used a pressure cooker and selected the rice option
What a great idea! I never realized how similar a Japanese rice cooker is to a pressure cooker. Thanks, Chelsea.
Hi! Question... step 1 says to mince the garlic, but garlic isn't in the list of ingredients. How much garlic?
Hi Mary - thanks for catching that! 2 cloves of garlic!