Hawaiian Chicken Bowls
These Hawaiian chicken bowls are an easy and delicious slow cooker meal! This recipe is gluten-free, paleo, and can be made whole30 and AIP.
Hawaiian Chicken Bowls
Say hello to Hawaiian chicken bowls! This crazy easy is made with chicken, pineapple, veggies, and a simple sauce. Set it and forget it in the slow cooker, and serve it with cauliflower rice (or regular rice) and you’re in for a yummy and easy dinner.
This recipe is part of freezer week here on the blog as I prep for my postpartum period. I love how easy it is to throw all of these ingredients together, defrost, and then have an easy fresh dinner for when you don’t feel like prepping a fancy dinner!
What I love about these Hawaiian Chicken Bowls
They’re made with pineapple
Seriously, even the smell of pineapple is so delicious! This dish smelled so amazing in the slow cooker.
It’s made with a simple but flavorful sauce
A homemade sauce always elevates a meal, and this sauce is super easy!
How to make Hawaiian Chicken in the Slow Cooker
- Make the sauce: Add the broth, pineapple juice, coconut aminos, lime juice, ketchup, arrowroot starch, and seasonings to a bowl and whisk together until fully combined.
- Add ingredients to the slow cooker: Add the chicken to the bottom of the slow cooker, placing the pineapple red onion, broccoli and carrot on top. Pour the sauce over the mixture and lightly stir to coat.
- Cook and serve: Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or high for 3-4 hours. The chicken should read an internal temperature of 165F. Serve topped with green onion and with cauliflower rice on the side if desired.
How to adapt this recipe for the freezer
To adapt this recipe as a freezer meal, simply place all of the ingredients (reserving the cauliflower rice and green onion) in a large bag and freeze flat. Allow to fully defrost in the fridge for adding to the slow cooker and cooking as directed… that’s it!
As a food safety note…
- Never refreeze previously frozen food.
- Always wait until your food is totally defrosted before adding to the slow cooker.
Can you make this in the instant pot?
I tested this recipe in the instant pot, and honestly, I preferred it in the slow cooker. The veggies got a little too soft in the instant pot, so perhaps you could adapt it with just the chicken, sauce and pineapple and cook it on the poultry setting, and then serve the veggies on the side!
The Ingredients for This Recipe
Chicken broth, pineapple juice, lime juice, and coconut aminos
These are the main ingredients for the sauce. This also doubles as a cooking liquid to keep the chicken juicy.
Boneless skinless chicken breast
You can also use thighs if you prefer.
Broccoli, pineapple, shredded carrots, and red onion
This recipe is veggie-packed, and also includes pineapple! Using canned pineapple is an easy hack to get pineapple juice as well, but be careful of added sugars.
Cauliflower rice
An optional side to add later.
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Hawaiian Chicken Bowls
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 5 servings 1x
- Category: Main Dishes
- Method: Slow Cooker
Description
These Hawaiian chicken bowls are an easy and delicious slow cooker meal! This recipe is gluten-free, paleo, and can be made whole30 and AIP.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup chicken broth
- 1/4 cup pineapple juice
- 1/4 cup coconut aminos
- 2 tbsp compliant ketchup (optional, I used this)
- Juice of half a lime
- 2 tsp coconut sugar (omit for whole30)
- 2 tsp arrowroot starch
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper (omit for AIP)
- 1.5 lb chicken breast, cubed
- 1 cup pineapple chunks
- 1 red onion, chopped
- 1/2 cup broccoli florets
- 1/2 cup shredded carrots
- 2 tbsp green onion, to serve
- Cauliflower rice to serve (optional)
Instructions
- Add the broth, pineapple juice, coconut aminos, lime juice, ketchup, arrowroot starch and seasonings to a bowl and whisk together until fully combined.
- Add the chicken to the bottom on the slow cooker, placing the pineapple red onion, broccoli and carrot on top.
- Pour the sauce over the mixture and lightly stir to coat.
- Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or high for 3-4 hours. The chicken should read an internal temperature of 165F.
- Serve topped with green onion and with cauliflower rice on the side if desired.
Notes
All nutritional information are estimations and will vary. Estimations do not include optional ingredients.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 271
- Fat: 3.8g
- Carbohydrates: 26.7g
- Fiber: 1.5g
- Protein: 31.7g
The flavor in this was great, but the chicken was very chalky/mushy. I cooked it on high for 3.5 hours in the crock pot. Any suggestions on what to do differently?
Any tips on trying this if you don’t have a slow cooker? I have a cast iron and a crock pot, could I try cooking this in the oven?
Thanks for any tips!
You likely can cook it in the oven with cast iron skillet, but that would be a very different recipe that would require testing, so I’m not sure without testing it myself!
Im curious if I could use regular white rice and if it would be weird to cook the rice in coconut milk, have you ever tried coconut milk rice? Wondering what you’re suggestions may be if I don’t use cauliflower rice
You could use regular rice and follow a recipe for coconut rice! I haven’t tried it myself, so I couldn’t recommend certain instructions.
This turned out a bit too mushy for my liking, but I’m sure it would make a great stir fry. It was so easy in the slow cooker.
This was delicious!!!!! Thank you so much!
This food is so frickin’ baller I don’t even know where to begin.
Hi Michelle,
I made a stir fry version of this last night for dinner. As it was after work and time was limited, I couldn’t put it in the slow cooker but I will try that over the weekend. The stir fry version was however, absolutely fantastic and it was a complete success with my family.
I enjoy receiving your emails and I thank you for your time and effort in providing meal ideas.
Best wishes.
Yay!! Thank you so much, Mina!! So glad you liked it 🙂