Ready in under an hour, pineapple teriyaki chicken is a quick dinner recipe for busy nights. The homemade teriyaki sauce adds tons of fresh, bold flavor—you control the ingredients, sodium, and spice. Serve with rice, quinoa, or roasted vegetables for a wholesome meal.
If you’ve ever made my honey garlic shrimp, you know that dinners can be quick, healthy, and flavorful. Today’s baked pineapple teriyaki chicken is bursting with flavor and makes delicious leftovers. I encourage you to add this easy meal to your weeknight recipe rotation!
Why You’ll Love This Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken Recipe
- Simple to prepare
- Completely from scratch
- Healthy and wholesome
- Ready in under an hour
- Makes great leftovers
- Customizable to your taste preferences
- Packed with protein
Favorite Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
This is my very favorite homemade teriyaki sauce made with real, wholesome ingredients. It is similar to the sauce in this honey teriyaki chicken (we use more honey in that recipe). It’s incredibly versatile and delicious on cooked salmon or stir-fry veggies, too.
We’ll use brown sugar and honey to sweeten the sauce. Not much of either, just enough to balance the soy sauce and bring a sweet profile to the sauce as a whole. For flavor, use soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, garlic, ginger, and a little pepper for spice. It’s the perfect balance of sweet and salty, and you know exactly what’s in it.
If you enjoy trying homemade sauces, try the garlic pan sauce from this creamy garlic chicken and vegetables dish. (Unbelievable!)
Overview: How to Make Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken
- Make the sauce. Cook the sauce ingredients together on the stovetop.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken. Arrange the chicken and pineapple slices in a baking dish. I add a little pineapple into the mix because I love sweet and savory together. Feel free to leave it out, though. Pour all of the teriyaki sauce on top. Make sure every inch is coated in the sauce.
- Bake. Bake until the chicken is completely cooked through—about 30-32 minutes. During this time, prepare any sides you want to serve alongside.
- Serve. Sprinkle a little green onion and a dash of sesame seeds on top!
Baker’s Tip: I use boneless, skinless chicken breasts. You can use bone-in chicken thighs, drumsticks, wings or any cut of chicken you like best.
More Favorite Dinner Recipes
- Baked Chicken Meatballs
- Maple Sesame Salmon
- Honey Garlic Shrimp
- Citrus Chicken Quinoa Salad
- Cilantro Lime Chicken
- Lemon Thyme Chicken
Baked Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: serves 4
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Cooking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Simply pour this homemade teriyaki sauce over chicken and bake!
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 Tablespoon room temperature water
- 1/4 cup (50g) brown sugar
- 2Â Tablespoons (43g) honey
- 1/2 cup (120ml) soy sauce
- 1/4 cup (60ml)Â cider vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 4Â skinless boneless chicken breasts
- 1 cup fresh or canned pineapple chunks
- optional:Â chopped green onion and sesame seeds for garnish
Instructions
- Whisk cornstarch and water together in a small bowl. It will be a milky liquid. This is for thickening the sauce. Combine the cornstarch mixture, brown sugar, honey, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger, and black pepper together in a small saucepan over low heat. Allow to simmer while whisking occasionally. Bring to a boil and allow to boil for 1 minute. Turn off the heat and set aside for at least 10 minutes, allowing it to cool and thicken.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400°F (204°C).
- Arrange chicken and pineapple slices in a bake pan (any size works—I used a 10-inch casserole dish. Use a 9-inch square pan, an 11×7-inch pan, an 8-inch square pan, etc). Pour sauce on top, then turn the chicken over to make sure every inch is coated in the sauce. Use a basting/pastry brush if needed.
- Bake uncovered for 30–32 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked through. This is optional: at the 25-minute mark, remove from the oven and carefully slice the chicken into chunks, then return to the oven. The smaller the chicken pieces, the more teriyaki they’ll soak up. You can also cut up the chicken when it is raw prior to cooking.
- Sprinkle green onion and sesame seeds on top and serve the chicken and pineapple with sauce from the pan poured on top. Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: The teriyaki sauce, prepared in step 1, can be made 1 day in advance and stored in the refrigerator. You can even prepare the dish through step 3, cover the pan with aluminum foil or plastic wrap, and keep in the refrigerator for up to 1 day. Then bake as directed.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Saucepan | Casserole Dish (any similar size will work) | Pastry Brush
- For a more rounded out meal, serve with broccoli, brown rice, quinoa, baked sweet potatoes, or anything to soak up the teriyaki sauce.
- Using SparkRecipes calculator: including all the extra teriyaki sauce you’ll pour over the chicken when serving, this dish comes out to about 260 calories, 34 grams of protein, and 2g fat per serving. This is based on using four 6-ounce chicken breasts.
This was really easy and tasty! I added a chopped red bell pepper into the baking dish and used partially thawed, frozen pineapple chunks. We all loved it and my seven year old even asked to add it to his favorites list – high praise!!
Whenever I make chicken in oven it gets very dry . I m tempted to make this recipe but scared if it get dry and waste my effort .Please help .
Hi Binny, we can’t speak to other chicken recipes, but we find this recipe to be plenty juicy (especially with the sauce) when followed as written. Let us know if you give it a try!
Excellent! Turned out perfect. Added extra pineapple.
Really like this recipe. Easy and quick to do. Would add more pineapple. Just enough left over for one more person.
My husband and teenage sons absolutely loved this and requested it go into our regular”rotation”. Thanks for a great recipe!
I think this is the first savory recipe of Sally’s that I made! I made the sauce the night before to save time. Turned out great!
Would you cook everything, including the veggies and be able to throw in the freezer? Or put it all in a bag raw (including veg) and freeze it?
I’ve baked, cooled & frozen this meal before but haven’t froze it when the meat and veggies are raw. I suppose you could do either!
Loved this recipe! So delicious!
Hi Sally. Can hardly wait to try this recipe. If I don’t have cornstarch can flour be used
Cornstarch is key, but you can try flour if you’re in a pinch.
I made the Hawaiian chicken tonight and it was so easy and delicious. The teriyaki sauces is so good. I added some of the pineapple juice to it. I will definitely have this often.
* I had extra sauce that I didn’t put on the chicken. Can this be kept in the fridge for awhile?
I’m so happy you enjoyed this recipe, Karen! The extra sauce should keep in your refrigerator covered for up to 5 days.
We made this with chicken thighs instead (just for a lack of breasts), and my entire family LOVED it. Absolutely delicious! Will definitely be making again
tried this recipe . it came out perfect . thank you Sally .
So easy and so delicious!!! I added carrots, peppers and snow peas, cooked it all together and served with brown rice and asian cole slaw. Everyone loved it. Thank you, Sally.
A brilliant recipe! Cheap, easy & so tasty. A new family favourite. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
This is one of our favorites, but I throw it in the slow cooker just like Sally’s teriyaki chicken, mmmmmmmmm!
Absolutely lovely recipe, Sally. My whole family loved it. Thank you SO much for sharing your great ideas with us – we’re your biggest New Zealand fans!
Hi Sally! Can this be made in a slow cooker? Any adjustments I’d have to make? I know this is pretty similar to your honey teriyaki chicken recipe, but I tried that one already.
Definitely! Add everything to the slow cooker, including the sauce, and cook on low for about 5 hours.
Thank you so much for this recipe, I made it last night and instantaneously became a stapler in my house. I’ll substitute soy sauce with tamari next time to make it gluten free, and used chicken drumsticks which are a personal preference. This sauce is out of this world!!! Thank you!
Receipe was excellent, thank you! I made a few substitutions such as using Braggs Amino Acids in lieu of Soy Sauce, and I used Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar for the cider vinegar ingredient. And your right, this tereyaki sauce is Awesome! Thanks again
Made this tonight for my husband and he kept saying “ I knew it was a Sally recipe, it is so delicious and wonderful.
Thank you Sally. We talk about you like you are a treasured family member.
Thank you!
Would this work well with chicken legs also?
Definitely!
Sally, a friend of mine just had a baby and I’m wanting to do this as a freezer meal for her. What do you suggest would be the best way to do so?
How sweet of you! Two options:
1) Prepare through step 3 then freeze. Have her thaw/bake or just bake frozen at 350 until chicken is safe to eat and heated through.
2) Prepare the entire meal, allow to cool, then freeze. Have her thaw then bake until warmed through.
Made this for dinner this evening. It was very good, easy peasy to put together and tasty. Served up with Jasmine rice and broccoli. Always looking for yummy chicken dishes to make so thanks Sally!
Loved this recipe! Wish I had doubled the sauce from the start!
Great idea for next time!
This is my second time making this recipe and I just love how simple and delicious it is. For those looking to reduce the refined sugar they consume, I tried this tonight with coconut sugar instead of the brown sugar and it was just as good! I love that you don’t feel like your teeth are covered in sugary grit like you do with those bottled dressings. Thanks for another winner Sally!
Hi, Sally!  Made this dish for dinner tonight.  First of all, let me say how much I DO NOT like cooking……. I found this recipe to be extraordinarily easy!  Just followed your excellent instructions and wala!  PERFECTION!  My parents loved it.  Very flavorful.  My family can’t wait until I make it again 🙂  Thanks for all your wonderfully tasty recipes, I absolutely love all your muffins and this morning my mom made your donuts, ooolala. Â
This sauce is awesome. It makes a great freezer meal — freezing the sauce separately from the chicken. Thaw and cook. Yum! I added pineapple tidbits to the sauce before I froze it.
Sally, I made this recipe a few weeks back and it is the first savory that I tried from your blog. You really scored a touchdown with this one. The chicken and the pineapple absorb all of the flavor from the teriyaki sauce beautifully. I had to sop up all the remaining sauce because I didn’t want any of it to go to waste. Definitely a recipe to do again and again!!!!
Thank you!! I added red pepper flakes to make it like a” sweet n spicy” teriyaki, delicious!!!! Thanks again 😉