This is a great meal full of natural juice from the pineapple and luxury from the coconut rice. The meatballs I could happily have on repeat.

A note on the ground chicken: if you, like me, cannot for the life of you find ground poultry in the store (seriously. I looked in multiple stores for a couple weeks and nada), you can whiz a packet of boneless skinless chicken in your food processor (or Ninja). It works just fine, but if you use breasts – it lacks a bit of fat.

gluten-free

Pineapple Fried Rice with Meatballs

Meatballs:

1 lb ground chicken (or boneless skinless chicken chunks)

1/2 onion, minced (or whizzed with the chicken chunks)

1/2 c cilantro, chopped (or whizzed with the chicken chunks)

1 jalapeño, minced (or whizzed with the chicken chunks)

3 cloves garlic, minced (or whizzed with the chicken chunks)

2 Tbsp hot sauce

1 Tbsp soy sauce or coconut aminos

2 tsp date molasses

2 tsp – 1 Tbsp spice blend (I used a hot chicken mix and it was great)

1/2 tsp baking soda

Generous pinch salt & pepper

Form into roughly ping pong sized balls and cook with your preferred method – I pan fried mine over medium; I also love to bake in a 400F oven for 15 – 20 mins.

Sides:

1 can pineapple cubes in juice, drained

1 red bell pepper, chopped

Sauté the pineapple and pepper in a little oil over medium-high heat until the pepper is soft and the pineapple is browned in bits.

Last week’s coconut rice

Topper:

1/3 c cilantro, chopped

2 scallions, chopped

To serve, combine the rice with the pineapple/pepper mix, top with cilantro & scallions and plunk a couple meatballs alongside.

Serves 4