Instructions: Grilled chicken with a pineapple-laced barbecue sauce and a tropical Caesar salad combine in this easy-to-serve dinner.

Barbecues, pineapples, lush green foliage and majestic volcanoes are the vivid images I found in Hawaii, where I also met Harold Markt, executive chef on the Norwegian Star cruise ship. He showed me one of his favorite dinners capturing the essence of Hawaiian fare. Ive adapted his recipe and used prepared sauce and dressing to cut down on preparation times.

Because a barbecue sauce with sugar can burn and blacken food, the secret is to use the sauce as a glaze, painting the food during the last few minutes of cooking. I usually serve the remaining sauce on the side. You can also saute the chicken instead of grilling it. But you should use the same principle of adding sauce just in the last few minutes of cooking. Brown the chicken about 2 minutes per side, lower the heat to medium low, spoon a little sauce on top, cover and cook 5 minutes. A meat thermometer should read 170 degrees.

This sweet dish would go wonderfully with an off-dry Riesling.

Linda Gassenheimer, a food columnist for the Miami Herald, is the author of

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