Pineapple Pepper Chicken Spinach Salad

Don't you just love it when an idea pops into your noggin and it works out great!!!  I had one of those moments today and I'd love to share it with all of you ~

I was trying to decide what to have for supper.  And I wanted to use the new food processor I got for Christmas.  We also were in need of groceries in a big way, (other than a few things the hubs picked up on the way home from work one night this week).  So, there were few ingredients available from which to choose to chop up.  But we did have peppers.  My husband suggested spinach salad.  We usually eat it with peepers, cheese, cucumber, and whatever else we have on hand, like, mandarin oranges.  That used to be one of my favorite meals, but lately it just doesn't hit the spot with me. 

We also had some chicken in the freezer, and a few cans of fruit left in the pantry.  One of which was pineapple tidbits.   A few years ago, I had made a crockpot recipe to go over rice that had chicken and pineapple in it, but I had already made a different type of chicken stir fry earlier this week.  Then the idea of simply cooking the chicken in some olive oil, with the pineapple and peepers hit me.  And I thought it might be good on top of the spinach.  It sounded absolutely delicious and I could almost taste it for the rest of the day before I prepared it. 

Finally, it was supper time and I was able to prepare this wonderful concoction.  Now, I know there are some other Pineapple Pepper Chicken recipes out there, but all of the ones I've seen have a lot more ingredients and, thus, more work.  This was SUPER simple!  Also, I've not seen any that have been served on salad, but there may be, unbeknownst to be. 

Then the exciting time came where I could taste this lovely dish.  I might add it smelled great, too.  It was just as wonderful as it sounded and then some.  VERY, VERY YUMMY!  It is my new favorite.  I can't wait for leftovers.  I can't wait to make it again.  Also, I can eat spinach again.  And the best part was it was good even without dressing.  There was enough juice in it, that it acted as a nice sweet little dressing in and of itself.  Which makes it extra healthy.  I did try one of my favorite dressings on it though; and that was, of course, yummy too.  I'd also tried a bit of it on rice (leftovers I was feeding the children.  Though the three-year old loves spinach, too).  That was good, as well.

Okay.  Enough talking about it, right?  You want to know exactly how I prepared this wonderful dish.  Here it is ~

Ingredients:

~about 8 chicken tenderloin strips, thawed
~one large can pineapple tidbits, mostly drained and set aside. 
~one orange, red, and yellow pepper, sliced
~olive oil
~pepper
~flour

~Heat olive oil (enough to cover the bottom) in large skillet. 
(a friend of mine recently told me the secret to knowing when your oil is hot and this has
been super helpful.  If you don't know this trick - read up:  heat oil.  It is ready when you flick a bit of water off your fingers into the pan of oil and it sizzles.  If it doesn't - it's not ready.  If it jumps up at you - it's too hot)

~ Add chicken to pan.  Sprinkle with pepper.  I cooked chicken just a bit on each side before I added the rest of the ingredients.

~Add peppers and pineapple.  Cook till done. 

~ (optional)  I then took a little bit of my pineapple juice and added just a bit of flour to it, making sure there were no lumps.  Honestly, I think I started with just enough juice in the bottom of my bowl left from dumping the juice back into the glass that I'd set it aside in after originally pouring too much.  Then added a bit of flour, a bit more juice, and a bit more flour, etc.  Then I added it to the pan at the end while it was cooking.  My thought was it would help thicken it a bit.  I didn't leave it on real long, so whether this step is even worth it, I'm not sure.  I'm not good with the science of cooking.  One could also add more juice to the cooking, but I felt I had enough.  Just play with it and do what you like. 

~Eat and Enjoy!!  Yum Yum!!  Super Easy!!!

*Again, when doing things like this, I don't usually measure.  Sorry, to those of you who like exact measurements.  I used to be that way, too.  Now, I'm a sprinkle here add a pinch of this kind of cook.  And the exact ounces on my pineapple can, I already threw in my recycling and it's too cold to go the garage to get it :). 


LOVE IT!!