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Saturday dinner: Apricot lemon chicken

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I’m not sure why I am averse to using jelly or preserves in my cooking. I think it seems like a cheap way out of using fresh fruit, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s not much different than using honey or molasses. The sugars, when heated, create a sweet glaze.

Cooking Light has its following, and that’s nice. One of the things I don’t care for is the overuse of cooking spray instead of olive or canola oil. I suppose that’s how you cook light, right? Anyhow, cooking spray gunks up your pan so I decided to cook medium and substitute olive oil in its stead. And curry…yeah, I don’t do curry.

WHAT WORKED: The apricot preserves and lemon had a nice flavor balance. The Wife thought it was a touch too sweet, but I thought it was spot on. And, as for the aforementioned curry, I swapped in Chinese five-spice powder, which gave the same smokey flavor without the digestive havoc (I don’t know why, but my body rejects curry in all of its forms.).

WHAT DIDN’T: Cooking spray. Listen, it’s all well and good that you want to cut back on fat, but I’m not going to spray that stuff on my pan. It just doesn’t come off, even with a lot of scrubbing.

WILL IT MAKE ANOTHER APPEARANCE: Probably. I think this glaze would work really well with pork tenderloin.

Apricot-Lemon Chicken
From Cooking Light via MyRecipes.com 

  • 1 tsp. curry powder (I used Chinese five-spice powder)
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 6-oz. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • Cooking spray (thpppt)
  • 1/3 cup apricot preserves or spread
  • 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp. water
  • 2 tsp. grated lemon zest

Combine first 3 ingredients in a small bowl; rub mixture over chicken. Place a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Cook chicken 6 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from pan, and keep warm.

 

Add apricot spread, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons water to pan, stirring until smooth. Cook over medium heat 1 minute. Spoon sauce over chicken; sprinkle with lemon rind.

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