Clean Hawaiian Chicken

So, this is really a combination of recipes I've seen lately--but I wanted to make mine clean, and still tasty.   It might seem like a daunting work load with the homemade fire roasted tomato sauce, but once you make your own tomato sauce youll stop buying nonsense from a can or jar--which is my goal for all of you.  I have to give the shout out to the following blogs:  In July Christina posted this: http://www.thecommunityplate.com/2013/07/aloha-chicken-rice.html.  This is my omage to her and Megan Jane's Aloha Chicken.  Seriously, follow her blog--her recipes are amazing!! Plus, her pictures are so much better than mine.  In my journey to make this clean I also borrowed from Kate: http://happyhealthykc2.blogspot.com/2013/04/barbecue-pulled-chicken.html  Follow her as well. Great clean recipes as well as an inspiration, mentally and physically--and my BFF.

            Essentially, I've taken the best of both worlds and combined them here for you today.  Look at their versions, then look at mine.  We've done things differently, but all the same taste in the end.  That's my goal here--for you to understand CLEAN can be good.  Also..ANYONE CAN MAKE THIS.  I DON'T CARE IF YOU'VE NEVER COOKED IN YOUR LIFE,  There is no skill involved in most of my recipes( when do you think I'll be able to spell the word recipe?  Autocorrect changes it for me every time, don't be impressed) . 

Clean Hawaiian Chicken

Prep (including fire roasted sauce): 65 minutes

Cook Time: 6-7 hours

Serves: 8

Let's start with the recipe for the Clean Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce: 

Ingredients for Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce:

1. 4 Red Ripe Tomatoes (Jersey if possible)
2. Vegetable oil for coating tomatoes
3. 1 tbsp Tomato Paste
4. Salt, Pepper
5. 2 Handfuls of fresh Oregano (you can use jarred if necessary, all the same--kind of)
6. 2 Tbsp Parsley Flakes
7. 2 Cloves garlic, peeled

Directions:  Usually while the tomatoes are cooking I go about my buisness in the house,  cleaning and cooking other things.  That hour spent cooking the tomatoes is really an hour you can use to do whatever.

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Line a baking sheet with tinfoil, or use a baking dish with a lip.
3. Take the four tomatoes and cut a deep crosswise mark in the top.  THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!  If you don't cut the top with the mark, the tomatoes might explode in your oven.  No cut= tomato go boom
   
4. Place the four crosswise cut tomatoes in the baking dish and rub with vegetable oil, salt, and pepper.  Why vegetable oil?  Remember we talked about smoke points of oils?  If you put EVOO in the oven at 400 degrees your fire alarm will be going off within a half hour.
   
5. Place the tomatoes into the oven for about 45-60 minutes, checking about every 30 for the char you'd like.
6. Remove tomatoes from oven and place directly into the blender with a pinch of salt, pepper, parsley flakes, fresh oregano, and tbsp tomato paste. 
   
7. Puree for 1-2 minutes, until creamy.
   
   
   
   This is my do ahead part of the recipe.  I do this the night before, let it cool, and place it in the container to refrigerate overnight.  This also freezes really well so you can keep it on hand for other recipes you may see with fire roasted tomato sauce.

 Now..on to the pea resistance... The clean Hawaiian Chicken you are all anxiously awaiting.

       

Clean Hawaiian Chicken 

For the chicken bbq recipe we are for the most part going to follow Kate's above--with some minor changes.  You will need the following:

 Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons dry mustard
• 2 tbsp chile powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 5 large chicken breasts, trimmed of excessive fat (leave some, your not making beef jerky here)
• Homemade Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce 
• 2 Cans Pineapple Chunks--VERY IMPORTANT--- make sure the pineapple chunks are canned in water, not syrup.  You should be able to read and understand the ingredients in clean cooking.
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Directions:

 

1. Mix the first 8 ingredients in a bowl with a whisk. 

2. Chop onion and garlic, throw into your bbq sauce mixture.

3. Place 5 large chicken breast on the bottom of your slow cooker and season with salt and pepper.  Cut semi-deep cuts in the chicken to help the sauce to penetrate inside while cooking, which will also make the chicken less likely to dry out.  Remember, we aren't making beef jerky here.

4. Whisk bbq sauce into fire roasted tomato sauce.

5.  Pour one can of pineapple chunks directly on top of the chicken with pineapple water.  For the second can, drain the water and pour JUST the chunks in the chicken.

6. Pour your bbq sauce and fire roasted tomato sauce over top of the pineapple and chicken mixture.

7.  Cover the Slow cooker with the lid,  set to low, allow to cook for 6 hours.

8. After 6 hours remove chickens with tongs and shred.  I don't like my chicken very finely shredded, so mine are bigger chunks. 

9.   After the chicken is shredded stir back into the remaining sauce in the slow cooker to allow the chicken chunks to absorb some of the juice in the cooker--about 30 minutes.

10.  Serve over brown rice.

This recipe, as the Community Plate blogged previously--will rock your world.  This is my twist on the Aloha Chicken-- Clean Hawaiian Chicken (served over brown rice) It also freezes really well, which we all know I love.