No tandem recipe this week because I had to use up a shit-ton of ground beef that was in my fridge.  Here’s a hint…our upcoming tandem recipe does not take ground beef.  Luckily I had an entry/recipe waiting in the wings and it’s right up Robyn’s alley!

Drain the juice from the pineapple chunks into a medium size saucepan.  Set the pineapple chunks aside (you’ll need them later).  I didn’t think to pull out the ingredients to take a picture of them like Robyn does.  That would require me to pay attention to what I’m doing and you guys already know who the flake is in this gruesome twosome.

Add the ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, cornstarch, garlic powder, mustard powder, worcestershire sauce and ginger to the pineapple juice.  I know it seems like a lot of different ingredients, but it’s all stuff you probably already have in your cupboard so I don’t want to hear it, Shirley.

Whisk it and forget about it until after you fry the chicken.  Start heating up your Peanut Oil in another pan or deep fryer.  Make sure you use Peanut oil for this part.  Vegetable oil is just a headache waiting to happen.  And for chrissakes, be careful! Hot oil is HOT.  

Take your pieces of chicken and dredge them in cornstarch.  Don’t even think about using flour.  It’s cornstarch and cornstarch only here.

In case you didn’t notice – the two most IMPORTANT parts of this recipe are PEANUT OIL and CORNSTARCH.  I need shit spelled out for me sometimes so I figured you might appreciate it too.

After the cornstarch the chicken gets dunked into the beaten egg.

I have no idea what temperature my peanut oil was.  I always wing it on the first piece (it’s kind of like that first pancake you make) and adjust it from there.  It doesn’t take long for the coating to get golden brown and I don’t worry about cooking the chicken the whole way through because I’ll be baking it.

Rick managed to snap a picture when I was first starting out.  You can see the plate of cut-up chicken and the bowls of cornstarch and egg.  You can also see where I dunked the hell out of that chicken in the eggs and made a mess when I dropped it in the oil.  Give the egg a second to drip back into the bowl before you go flinging it into the hot oil.

It doesn’t take long to fill a casserole dish up if you keep at it.  This is usually when I throw an iPod in so I can focus on doing it without a million distractions.

Put the drained pineapple and pepper slices all over the top.  Cook your sauce over medium-high heat until it thickens.

Pour the sauce over everything and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  Serve over rice.

Edited for clarity:  We love this dish and it’s been in our family meal rotation for a while now.

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