Hello there– Well, I saw an interesting recipe in a magazine for lamb with apricots and pistachios. I thought, “That might be good with chicken,” so I tore out the page and then promptly misplaced it! Ugh. After looking high and low, I gave up and collected a few variations online and then set out to make my own version. I liked the pretty color and it did taste lovely at dinner last night. So here is what we finally set on the table…
APRICOT PISTACHIO CHICKEN
2 boneless chicken breasts
salt & freshly ground pepper
2 tab. olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped fine
1 14 oz. can apricots (or fresh if you have them!)
1/4 cup salted, roasted pistachios
1/2 cup chicken broth*
1 tab. cornstarch
Cut the chicken breasts lengthwise to make four flat filets. Sprinkle with salt & pepper. Heat the oil in a large pan and brown the chicken on both sides, about 5 minutes total. Remove and chicken and cook the onion until it starts to brown. Open the apricots and save the juice. Take half the apricots and mince them finely. Cut the other half into happy little chunks.
When the onions are cooked, throw in the minced apricots, chicken broth and the apricot juice and set the chicken back into the pan. Simmer the chicken and sauce on low for about 15-20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
When the chicken is done cooking, remove it to a serving platter with rice or couscous and turn to heat up to high under the sauce in the pan. Shake the cornstarch and about a half cup of water together in a closed container and stir it slowly into the sauce until it thickens nicely. Then stir in the remaining apricot chunks and the pistachios and pour the sauce over the chicken and serve it up!
*I don’t usually have just a half cup chicken broth on hand, so I dropped 1/4 of a Knorr chicken bullion cube into 1/2 cup boiling water and it worked just fine.
The Thankful Heart 