This easy 4 ingredient dinner has that sweet and savory combo that can’t be beat. The Hawaiian Chicken bake combines chicken with sweet pineapple and tangy barbecue sauce for a quick to make and delicious to eat dinner idea!
So this is kind of bad… Okay, really bad. I have actually had this little gem of a recipe for over a year and am JUST NOW sharing it with you. So bad, right?!
The story goes like this, I have made a Hawaiian Chicken crockpot recipe for years! I absolutely love the tang of the barbecue sauce combined with the sweet juicy pineapple. Mmmmm, isn’t this just making you hungry? Just me, well then okay. I love my crock pot but sometimes you just want the flavors and textures only the oven can give. So I decided to give the recipe a little makeover and the Hawaiian Chicken Bake was born. {See ALL Easy Chicken Bake Recipes HERE!}
I made it and we ate it and I knew it had to go on the blog. So a few weeks later I bought the stuff again, then set it up, took photos, and cooked the whole sha-bang again.
Only, the thing was that at the time I had a newborn, and two other little ones, and we were putting the house on the market and getting ready to move, so I was rushed and stressed and probably highly sleep deprived, and I just didn’t love the way the pictures turned out. Excuses, excuses, I know!
And I know it is easy to land here on my blog from Pinterest, or maybe you even get my recipe e-mail or follow my site regularly (you don’t know how flattered I am!) and you just scroll through these posts with all the pictures. But behind the scenes, I work really, really hard for those pretty pictures! I have come a loooooong way from the pictures on my first posts and really only want to show you guys the absolutely most beautiful photos. Then I get to write, and it kind of feels like I am having a one way conversation with my best friend. I love sharing the recipes, more than most things in life, and the fact that you come read them and then make them for your family, is just beyond awesome to me.
So anyway, I didn’t like the pictures, so I planned to put the post up, but just kept pushing it farther and farther then last weekend I just went out, bought all the stuff again and spent my quite time while my husband took the kids recreating the photos for this post. Thankfully this time I really love how everything came out so now I am burning the midnight oil excited to put it all together to share with you!
But seriously, it is pretty right?! Now I am hungry AGAIN!!
Hawaiian Chicken Bake Recipe
There are 4 main ingredients in the Hawaiian Chicken Bake, and an extra one or two if you like to garnish like me. {Scroll to the bottom for a full printable recipe}
- Boneless skinless chicken
- Barbecue sauce
- Pineapple slices
- Provolone cheese
- Extras pictured: Rice for serving and cilantro for garnish
First, to make this with the best results, you will want to trim any fat off the chicken then lay it flat in a baking dish. If the chicken breasts are extra thick, you can butterfly them to help it cook more quickly.
Next spread the BBQ sauce on top of the chicken breast. I usually don’t measure but just eyeball it, and spread a thick layer of BBQ to cover each chicken breast.
Then comes the pineapple. If you want to use fresh, go for it! But I will be over here using canned and it still turns out extra delicious! Get a can of pineapple slices and drain them. Then use two pineapple slices per chicken breast and layer them over the barbecue sauce.
Last, lay on provolone cheese slices over the top. I usually use 2 slices per chicken breast when I buy the smaller/normal slices. When I get my provolone at Costco, theirs are extra large slices so I just use one like in the picture above. You can always use more or less to taste as well!
Preheat the oven to 375˚F and then place on the dish on the lower middle rack in the oven and loosely cover with foil. Bake for about 20 minutes then remove the foil and cook an additional 15-25 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink and the juices run clear. If they are thicker or your oven runs cool it might take a little longer.
Once it is cooked through you can take it out of the oven. This dish makes your whole house smell heavenly- BE WARNED! Neighbors.. friends… or anyone within smelling distance may casually invite themselves over for dinner! Serve it up with some rice or greens and you have a full healthy meal that the whole family will love!
- 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 6-12 Tbsp barbecue sauce
- 1 can pineapple slices, drained
- 6 -8 slices provolone cheese
- Lay the chicken breast flat in a baking dish.
- Spread 1-2 Tbsp of BBQ sauce on each chicken breast.
- Place 2 pineapple rings on each chicken breast.
- Layer 2 slices of cheese on top of the pineapple on each chicken breast.
- Place in an oven preheated to 375˚F for 20 minutes, lightly covered with foil. Then remove the foil and continue to bake for 15-25 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink and the juices run clear.
- Serve with rice, greens, or potatoes and ENJOY!
That’s funny — I just made a Hawaiian Barbecue Chicken recipe in the slow cooker last week. We love it! I can’t wait to try this version. 🙂
And the photos turned out GREAT this time around!
Thanks Blair! I have another recipe I photographed that same day and I haven’t posted it yet either. Too bad I wasn’t a little more on the ball that day. I hope you get to try the recipe and love it like we do! There is just something about that sweet and salty combo!!
can’t wait to try this..sounds good and EASY!!!which is my very favorite kind of recipe.
Can you do thus do this with chunks of pineapple? I chopped up my pineapple this morning 🙁
Chunks would work fine too! I think it will be every bit as good and more bite sized for eating!
Made this tonight and oh goodness it was delish!!! Hubby even loved it to. We plan on putting this in the recipe book to make again!! Perfect for summer party too, maybe with a luau theme.
I was just wondering what the nutrition facts were? Although I guess it differs depending on cheese brand and bbq sauce huh?
Hi Heather- I do not supply the nutrition facts for my recipes for many reasons, one as you mentioned, it can vary pretty greatly depending on what brands/products you use, and also, I am not a very exact cook. In many of my recipes I give a range on measurements so you can adjust based on your preferences. We don’t count calories or track any specific nutrition info in our family, but I know there are plenty of websites that allow you to easily calculate this based on what you use.
Can’t wait to try this as it looks yummy. However would like to know what other cheese to use beside this ? You t think I can use Cheddar ? Mozarella ?
I would try mozzarella, I think it would complement it better than cheddar. Let me know what you end up using!
I just made this for dinner tonight and it was really yummy! My husband liked it too; I will fix it often. Thanks for such a simple, delicious recipe!
Can’t wait to try this for dinner tonight, thanks for sharing! Do you think it could be adapted for the slow cooker? I wonder if mixing some of the pineapple juice into the sauce would be good…
Could pork be substituted for chicken?
I assume so, but I don’t often cook with pork so I don’t have any recommendations for you on how to adapt the cook time, sorry!
If i cook 6 breast what should cook time be?
I would cook them in either two dishes or one very large dish to make sure they aren’t packed in and/or overlapping. As long as they aren’t packed in then the cook time should be similar or maybe 10-15 minutes more. If the chicken is packed in and touching then it takes much, much longer to cook since it is so much denser.
I am going to try this tomorrow. A friend made this Saturday but she also put some kind of meat on it also, which was good. Have you ever heard of that?
I’m not sure! All I use is chicken, but Hawaiian Pizza also has ham/canadian bacon on it so you could try that!
I’m sorry you didn’t like it. It is something we always really enjoy! We love Hawaiian pizza though and so these are really similar flavors.
This was fantastic! We used Annie’s organic BBQ sauce and Boars Head lower sodium provolone to cut down on the sodium. Thanks so much!
So glad you enjoyed it!! I think it is such a fun flavor combo. We sure do love sweet and salty!
I wish I could leave a photo of how amazing this turned out! Huge hit here! The gentleman loved it!!
Recommend mayo over the chicken, then the barbeque sauce. I used Pepper Jack instead of provolone which has little taste. It was fantastic!
it doesnt turn out dry with just that much bbq sauce or do the pineapples make it somewhat juicy?? thanks!
I think that the cook time has the most to do with it remaining juicy. If you want the most accurate you can use a meat thermometer and take it out just when the temp reaches 165F or you can remove it and cut in to check for doneness.
WoW! I love all of the flavors in this! My pineapple loving son would think this was awesome!
Great easy dinner recipe.