Can this be any good? Chicken with Pineapple

So I have a whole chicken, a whole pineapple that is ripe and needs to be used and I just don't feel like eating sliced pineapple. I've found a number of recipes that call for roasting the chicken with the pineapple with the addition of some onions, mustard and even garlic. Some recipes call for additional brown sugar, which strikes me as way too sweet. What should I do that would be both slightly sweet and savory. Any herbs that could improve the flavor profile of chicken with Pineapple?
TIA,
Ines

[Jenise]

Got any hoisin sauce? I'm reminded of one of the best foie gras dishes I've ever had, seared and served with a piece of grilled pineapple on top and drizzled with a hoisinish brown sauce at Wolfgang's Chinois on Main. The sauce accents both the fruit and the meat and the dish, on the whole, stays savory. Great with riesling. If it's just you and Kirk tonight, you can rob the boobs off the bird and poach the dark meat for something like a Chinese chicken salad later in the week.

I would have a hard time with it, I think. I generally don't like warm pineapple.

Maybe roast chicken with daiquiris??

Cooked pineapple is far less sweet than fresh and imparts a lot of acidity to sauces, etc. It's not uncommon to find pineapple in some SE Asian curries, so how about roast chicken in a Thai red curry sauce in which you cook pineapple, chili peppers, tomatoes and basil? Something like this recipe except where pieces of a whole, roasted chicken are inserted into the curry at a late stage.

Mark Lipton

Cooked pineapple is far less sweet than fresh and imparts a lot of acidity to sauces, etc.

Really?

I would have thought that cooking it would concentrate the sugars. Isn't that a core principle of cooking?

Sweet and Sour Chicken?

Ines, you have to be the judge of what works for your taste.

Cooked pineapple is far less sweet than fresh and imparts a lot of acidity to sauces, etc.

Really?

I would have thought that cooking it would concentrate the sugars. Isn't that a core principle of cooking?

It is??? In this case, it may simply be a matter of the sugars leeching out of the pineapple as it cooks. Whatever the reason, if you taste a piece of cooked pineapple, I think that you'll find that it is less sweet than its fresh precursor.

Mark Lipton

Sweet and sour chicken is what I was going to suggest, as well.

Regarding why cooked pineapple tastes less sweet than raw, I think it's because the cooking process denatures (caramelizes) some of the sugar in the raw fruit.

-Paul W.

Regarding why cooked pineapple tastes less sweet than raw, I think it's because the cooking process denatures (caramelizes) some of the sugar in the raw fruit.

-Paul W.

Yes, but shouldn't that be sweeter?

When you caramelize onions or roast carrots or pretty much any vegetable that I know, they usually taste sweeter.

I've done similar things with apples and pears, slowly sauteeing them to make them sweeter.

So I ended up splitting the chicken, topped it with onion, garlic, chunks of the fresh pineapple, hoisin sauce, 8 sprigs of fresh thyme and a lot of seasoned pepper. Roasted it at 400 deg. for about 40 min, then let it rest while I degreased the pan, and then deglazed it with white wine and a little chicken stock. I removed the breast meat, sliced it and served it over cumin rice with a little sauteed asparagus. The verdict? The chicken was moist and delicious, as was the sauce. The pineapple was not as sweet as I thought it would be and I think the thyme added a nice dimension to the dish. Kirk and i gave it 7.5 out of 10 since both of us weren't really crazy about the pineapple part of the dish. It's my first time trying to put phictures into a post and I have no idea if these photos will upload in the right order--it's supposed to be uncooked, then cooked, then plated. We'll see!

uncooked chicken with pineapple.JPG

uncooked chicken with pineapple.JPG[/attachment]

plated chicken with pineapple.JPG

Cooked pineapple is far less sweet than fresh and imparts a lot of acidity to sauces, etc. It's not uncommon to find pineapple in some SE Asian curries, so how about roast chicken in a Thai red curry sauce in which you cook pineapple, chili peppers, tomatoes and basil? Something like this recipe except where pieces of a whole, roasted chicken are inserted into the curry at a late stage.

Mark Lipton

Gene grills thick pineapple spears all the time in the summer and they seem to get sweeter to me. I do give them a sprinkle of brown sugar and mint, but there have been times I've forgotten to do that, and they still are very sweet. Otherwise I can't recall cooking anything else with pineapple.

[Jenise]

Looks quite attractive, Ines, both when it went into the oven and when it was served. Have to admit to not being much of a meat/fruit mix fan myself, so I can't say I'm dying to repeat your experience.

Looks quite attractive, Ines, both when it went into the oven and when it was served. Have to admit to not being much of a meat/fruit mix fan myself, so I can't say I'm dying to repeat your experience.

Honestly, I think the asparagus/pineapple combo on the plate was a mistake. Another green vegetable would have been better. Maybe broccoli or even wilted spinach. Well anyway, I used up that darn pineapple.

[Jenise]

I know it's riffing off of a standard sweet and sour, but some sauteed green bell pepper would have worked well I think. It's something most people don't consider a vegetable in its own right let alone deserving of a course of its own, but I adore green bells and would/do use them this way.