new recipe

Apricot Chicken with Baked Sweet Potato and Ginger-Garlic Fresh Green Beans

So... My last blog was about being sick. And I am still sick. Actually, I feel worse than I did on Friday. But I hope I do look better... though I doubt it. Anyway, on Thursday I made this Apricot Chicken. I found the recipe on Taste of Home (.com) and I tweaked it a bit, and will probably tweak it more the next time.

But I liked it. As a meal it was very pretty. But since I was starting to get sick... I couldn't finish the chicken.

Apricot Chicken (original recipe)

Bone in Chicken Breasts with Skin

Glaze (Per piece of Chicken):

• 1tbsp of Apricot Preserves
• 1 tbsp French or Russian Dressing (I used Western Dressing)
• pinch of Ginger

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• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix glaze together. I let it sit in the fridge and combine while I prepped my chicken. I cleaned and patted them dry. Salt and Pepper both sides. I pulled the skin from the meat to create a pocket. I then spooned in some of the glaze. Then I brushed the breasts liberally on both sides. I placed them on a foil lined (next time I will also "Pam" the foil!) sheet, breast down. I baked breast-side down for 25 minutes on 350 degrees. Then I flipped them and re-glazed the top with the last bit of apricot glaze. I baked them breast-side up for 35 more minutes. (my oven sucks in this apartment. I am 50 degrees too cold. So... general cooking time for chicken breasts with the bone is 50-55 minutes at 350.)
• My alterations:
  Besides the Western Dressing, I would make some other changes. For one... there wasn't enough flavor. I think I would use Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts. I would poke holes and let them sit in the glaze before I baked them. I also think I would add a bit of Soy Sauce and more ginger, maybe some garlic. Maybe turn the whole thing into a stir fry? I liked the ease of this dish, so I will experiment some more and see what I come up with.
• I baked the smallish Sweet Potatoes with the Chicken. Next time, I will pop them into the microwave for about 3-4 minutes on high before I put them into the oven. (which is what I usually do. But in my defense, they were small and I thought they would cook in an hour.) Either way, they were fabulous with butter and a little brown sugar.

Green Beans

• I used about 2 pounds fresh Green beans. It was too many beans. And I underestimated the effort to clean them and the time to cook them. So... frozen or more time.
• Anyway, all I did was stir-fry them in minced garlic, ginger, and a 2:1 ratio of butter to olive oil.
• Done. I did this with snap peas a few weeks ago and they were delicious. These were too. I am trying to eat more fresh or frozen veggies that are not corn or broccoli. Trying to expand my horizons. And Weston's too.