Easy Shrimp Stir-Fry with Pineapple, Pepper & Bacon is ready in 40 minutes!
Shrimp Stir-Fry with Pineapple, Pepper & Bacon
This easy stir-fry has a great flavor combination of smoky and sweet with just a touch of heat. Even if you’ve never been a fan of pineapple paired with savory, this stir-fry will change your mind. There’s also sweet chili sauce and a splash of wine which gets boosted with fresh ginger and a touch of crushed red pepper. The best news is that you can have this healthy stir-fry on the table in only 40 minutes!
Wine & Tamari Substitutions
This recipe from EatingWell calls for Shaoxing rice wine (not rice wine vinegar.) Because I usually cook half of a recipe for the two of us, I wasn’t keen on buying a bottle of Shaoxing for just 1 tablespoon. EatingWell also suggested dry sherry as an option, but I didn’t have any on hand. That sent me searching for other substitutions. I found a site which suggested white wine or even gin. I was pretty skeptical about using gin (although I love me a refreshing gin & tonic!) Ultimately I substituted a splash of dry Marsala which worked perfectly. Feel free to use any of these options.
I also used low sodium soy sauce vs. tamari because I had it on hand. Perhaps this makes me a bit of a kitchen hack, but I am big on using on-hand ingredients if they can yield a fairly similar result.
Sauce Note – I actually made the full 4 serving version of the sauce even though I only used half of the stir-fry ingredients. That’s because extra sauce always helps when reheating a dish after photographing it. Of course, all that extra flavor was pretty delicious. That said, I plan to make extra sauce when I make this dish again in the future.
Hubby Eats His Words
A funny little aside about my hubby’s previous comment about EatingWell magazine, which was, “nothing good ever came out of a magazine called EatingWell.” He was implying that a recipe can’t be healthy and taste good. Imagine his surprise, after thoroughly enjoying his stir-fry, when I mentioned it came from the good folks at EatingWell! Touche!
Shrimp Stir-Fry with Pineapple, Pepper & Bacon
Ingredients
Sauce
- 2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce
- 2 tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine or white wine, dry Marsala or dry sherry
- 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium tamari or soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
Stir-Fry
- 2 ounces thick-cut bacon cut into ½-inch pieces
- 1 large bell pepper (red or green) chopped
- 12 ounces peeled and deveined raw shrimp 21-25 count
- 1 bunch scallions cut into 1-inch pieces (I used less, so adjust to your taste)
- 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1½ cups chopped fresh pineapple 1-inch pieces
Instructions
- Combine chili sauce, rice wine (or white wine, Marsala or sherry), tamari (or soy sauce), water and cornstarch in a small bowl. Set next to the stove.
- Cook bacon in a large flat-bottom wok or large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring, until crisp, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a plate. Add bell pepper to the drippings in the pan and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
- Add shrimp, scallions, ginger and crushed red pepper; cook, stirring, until the shrimp are cooked through, about 2 minutes.
- Stir the reserved sauce and add to the pan along with pineapple and the bacon. Cook, stirring, until the sauce thickens slightly, about 1 minute more.
Made this last night for wife and sister-in-law. Was light and excellent. The Smokey/sweet/spicy combination makes you crave seconds. My tweets were using a red and green pepper offering more color and top with toasted sesame seeds when serving. Great meal. Can see why Mike had to eat his words!!
Love the tweaks you made with red and green peppers plus toasted sesame seeds. I will give them a try when I make this recipe again.
Wow, Cathy! This is/was delicious! You know how much Gary likes sauces! He licked his dish clean tonight. Thank goodness I had steamed some fresh broccoli so he could get every delicious drop of the sauce. If you have everything chopped, stirred, etc. as Cathy suggests, it literally takes minutes to put on the table. Gary has already requested it again sometime VERY soon!
So glad it was such a hit with Gary. He and I are kindred spirits on the sauce front! Fast and delicious – what more can you ask for in a recipe?
Looks like a very good and easy recipe! Maybe I’ll try it for Matt.