This recipe was created by my spouse to serve on Valentine’s Day. The fruity sauce and basmati rice combine deliciously.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 50 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
- 1 papaya, peeled, seeded and sliced
- 1 pinch ground cinnamon, or to taste
- ⅓ cup melted margarine
- 1 cup crushed buttery round crackers (such as Ritz®)
- 1 tablespoon margarine
- 1 cup basmati rice
- 1 ½ cups water
- 1 tablespoon margarine
- 1 cup orange juice
- 1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple in its own juice
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper
- 1 pinch salt and ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Lay a chicken breast flat onto your work surface. Use the tip of a sharp boning or paring knife to cut a pocket in the chicken breast through a 2 inch slit in the side. Repeat with the remaining chicken breasts. Place the slices into the pocket of each chicken breasts, then sprinkle papaya slices with cinnamon to taste. Dip the chicken breast halves one at a time into the melted margarine, then the cracker crumbs.
- Heat 1 tablespoons of margarine in a skillet over medium-high heat. Arrange the chicken breasts in the skillet and cook until golden brown on each side, about 10 minutes. Place browned chicken breasts on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes, then flip each chicken breast. Continue baking until the chicken breasts are no longer pink in the center and the juices run clear, about 20 minutes more. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 165 degrees F (74 degrees C).
- Bring the rice and water to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the rice is tender, and the liquid has been absorbed, 20 to 25 minutes.
- Meanwhile, melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of margarine in the same skillet used to brown the chicken over medium-high heat, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in the orange juice, pineapple, brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, nutmeg, cayenne, salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until reduced, about 30 minutes. Reduce the heat once more to low and continue simmering until the sauce is thickened. Serve the chicken breasts over the rice with the pineapple sauce spooned on top.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 872 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 96 g |
| Cholesterol | 65 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 32 g |
| Saturated Fat | 8 g |
| Sodium | 814 mg |
| Sugars | 23 g |
| Fat | 40 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Fantastic!
I made some changes, but the chicken was very bland. Papaya is not a strong enough flavor to do all the work here. If I made it again, I would definitely add salt and probably other spices.
This was suprisingly delicious. I went a lil heavy on cinn. and cayenne because I like a lil extra heat. That cinn. was strong… oops. Everything was perfectly timed and couldn’t be happier. Thanks for the recipe.
I made the sauce to pour over drums and rice (because I didn’t have breast on hand, and we are Gluten Free). The sauce was excellent. I didn’t have nutmeg, so I added ginger instead of cinnamon and nutmeg. Still excellent, gave it a very tropical Pacific Islands flavor. I think it would even bee good with yellow curry. Great idea.
What a super yummy dish! I used butter instead of margarine, crushed red pepper flakes instead of cayenne and regular rice instead of basmati. Other than these minor changes I followed the recipe. It was very easy (I did use toothpicks to pin the chicken breasts shut). It was a longer process than a normal dinner but worth it. Full of wonderful flavors, I’m looking forward to leftovers!
I picked some papaya from my new home’s garden, and had no idea what to do with it. Wonderful recipe, but the sauce was especially AMAZING! Can’t wait to make it again.
Wonderful melding of sweet & savory. We really liked it.
Absolutely delish! We all loved it! I was out of nutmeg so I used allspice which gave it a nice “apple pie” flavour. The only complaint is the chicken is really difficult to cook after breading. I think next time I’ll brown the chicken first and then immediately bread to see if that works better.
This is right out of any classic Cuban cookbook. The mixture of sweet and spicy is wonderful. If you like this recipe, I urge you to look into Cuban cooking. Its not firey hot like the rest of Carribean cooking and the flavors are fantastic.