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
- 2 Tablespoons (43g) honey
- 1/2 cup (120ml) soy sauce
- 1/4 cup (60ml) cider vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 4 skinless boneless chicken breasts
- 1 cup fresh or canned pineapple chunks
- optional: 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 is the best teriyaki I have tried. Normally, I will refuse teriyaki. I DO NOT like it. This was a different story. I did not add the pineapple, but made double the sauce and threw in a TON of broccoli and other yummies. So good, I am making it again tonight.
Good call on double the delicious teriyaki sauce! Thanks so much for repotting back Beth.
I made this last night, I don’t think I could ever go back to store bought teriyaki sauce again! I couldn’t believe how simple and delicious this was. I regret not making it sooner. Do you think I could safely double the sauce ingredients? how long do you think it would keep in the fridge?
Doubling the sauce works perfectly. I’ve done it for larger batches. I’d say cup to 6-7 days in the fridge is fine.
We made this recipe as a new tradition of choosing new recipes each week to get our family out of a food rut and I am so happy that I found this recipe!
I will be making this again for sure!
Love this recipe! This will most likely be my lunch tomorrow. Quick question though, can I use apple cider vinegar?
Yep, absolutely.
I love this recipe. even my picky husband ate every bite! I made a few small changes including onions and peppers and cut my chicken into bite size pieces before pouring the teriyaki sauce on top. I had to finish it on the stove to thicken up the sauce. I will definitely be making this again! it was so easy.
I made this for dinner tonight for the first time and it was wonderful! Super easy to make and it was delicious. I will be eating this and your chicken chili every night
This was great – thanks! Super easy and delicious. Made it exactly as written, slicing at the 25 minute mark. I was a little worried it would be dry as I have trouble baking chicken breast but it wasn’t at all. My six year old claimed it was the best thing he had ever eaten 🙂
I tell everyone you CAN’T go wrong with Sally’s recipes!! This dish came out delicious!! The teriyaki sauce is perfect, not too sweet. I made it with sticky rice and some roasted broccoli and green beans. I only wish I added more chicken (I only used 2 breasts) because we don’t have any leftovers!! LOL
Thank you again Sally!!
I made this for dinner and it was so good! I had lots of leftover sauce so I think next time I will serve it on top of rice. I think the sauce would be great with rice! Thanks for the yummy recipe!
Hey Sally! Can I substitute white vinegar for cider vinegar? Thanks 🙂
That works!
Made this for dinner tonight along side some steamed carrots and rice and it was a huge success! I usually don’t make savory foods, so my dad was a little skeptical when I told him I wanted to make dinner, but he absolutely loved it! He said it was the be teriyaki sauce he’s EVER had! Thanks for this delicious recipe!
Hey Sally! I am loving your meal recipes so much! I just made this tonight and cut up the chicken before hand and I think I made the sauce correctly. It smelled delicious while cooking and tasted great too. Anyway, I cooked it the entire 30 minutes and when I took it out, it ended up being really watery and not the thick sauce. Insert weeping face emoji here. The chicken still tastes good though! Do you have any idea what might have gone wrong? I am still working on my cooking skills, so I’m sure it’s my fault. Just trying to fix what I did wrong for next time! Thanks!
It will be thin from the juices of the chicken cooking– totally normal! Will thicken as it cools. And will be super thick if there are any leftovers.
Bless you Sally! You totally deserve a blogger award of some sort. Well many blogger awards and one of them would be for best at responding to reader’s comments! The chicken turned out perfectly and there are leftovers. Thank you thank thank you for everything!
Made this for supper tonight and it was absolutely delish! I’m always looking for healthy and simple weeknight fixes, and this was a perfect meal that satisfies without undoing a gym session! It came together very quickly without standing over the stove, which is the last thing most of us want to do after office, gym, life, etc!
I cut my chicken breast into pieces beforehand and served with steamed broccoli and microwavable organic brown rice from Costco (huge time-saver). Also used fresh pineapple. This is definitely going into my repertoire. Thanks, Sally!
Made this. And we LOVED it. Along with evety recipe of yours I have tried so far. Waiting for my “cheat day” Saturday to make your pumpkin Chocolate chip pancakes I don’t even care that it is still August. ☺️
Holy man this was delicious (and SO easy)! As a mom with a VERY active toddler, I am always on the lookout for easy and healthy recipes….this one will be added to our rotation! I had rice wine vinegar and used that instead of the cider vinegar (wasn’t sure if you were talking apple cider….so I used the rice wine vinegar having thought both smelled the same and had the same mellow flavor). Thanks again for another fabulous dish!!!
Hi Sally!! Made this delicious chicken last night… It was a HIT!! Keep ’em coming! Thanks!
This was so delicious I licked the plate! This will definitely become a regular in my house. Thanks Sally! 🙂
This was awesome and so easy!
I made this tonight and WOW, it was amazing, delicious and easy!
I had the “what am I going to make for supper?” blues then I stumbled across this. Problem solved!
Amazing!!!!!! It’s going in my rotation! So easy and I always have all this on hand! My 2.5 yr old gobbled up the chicken. Served with brocolli and basmati rice. Thanks again!
Made this last night and my husband and I really liked it, strangely though, the kids did not!?!? I thought they would go crazy for it but hey, 10 year olds…what can I say??
My only change was fresh ginger since I love it and always have it in my fridge. I think I will buy some low sodium soy sauce next time because I did find it a bit on the salty side but I think that’s just my soy sauce’s fault 😉 All in all, a great, easy and quick supper!
I made this last night for dinner and it was a huge success!! When my roommate came home she immediately commented on how good it all smelled! We both ended up having seconds, and a friend of ours came over and basically inhaled the rest! I loved how easy this recipe was – and how inexpensive it is! I already had most of the ingredients so it is definitely something I can easily and affordably make over and over!
Made this tonight and it was awesome. Rather than bake it, I made it as a stir fry (since I had a ton of veggies leftover from a party earlier in the week). I just mixed the sauce in a measuring cup and dumped it in during the last few minutes, making sure it boiled so the cornstarch thickened it up. So much better than a bottle of teriyaki. Thanks!!!!
I made this tonight and it was a hit. My sauce was a bit thinner than yours so next time I will try to boil it down a little more. And I added broccoli to the same pan when baking the chicken. thx!
Made it for dinner last night. Best teriyaki sauce I’ve ever done at home and by far beats anything out of a bottle, now to try it with shrimp!
Thanks for answering the age old question – “what’s for dinner?” This was delicious. I added a little chili sauce for some heat, but we really enjoyed this. My husband kept sneaking extra bites from the pan before I had a chance to put away the leftovers. We paired ours with brown rice and broccoli. Delish!
I made this for dinner tonight and it was absolutely delicious! So easy and loved the walk away time which gave me more time to play with my kids. 🙂 thanks for a great recipe!
Sounds great, but I have three questions, first of all I will be using canned pineapple, should I drain it first or add in the juice as well?
Also, should the chicken be baked covered or uncovered?
Last question Can crushed pineapple be substituted in this recipe?
Thank you so much, I will look forward to your reply
Hi Grace! Drain it – uncovered – crushed should work.
Just what I needed! An easy, quick, tasty chicken dish that even my kids will eat! Thanks so much!