Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Chicken Breasts With(out) Grapes


Chicken Breasts with Grapes - made March 10, 2010

We’d gotten some good news about my uncle today so I’m finally feeling up to updating my blog once again so I’m now caught up with this entry.

This is another recipe back from my undergrad days where I probably cooked once in a blue moon and wasn’t good at it so I needed the simplest recipes possible. This is one of them. I have it written out on a recipe card so I have no idea where the original recipe came from. You’ll notice that although the title is Chicken Breasts with Grapes, there are actually no grapes in the picture. For one thing, it’s not grape season so they probably wouldn’t taste good even if I had included them. For another, I generally don’t like fruit mixed up in savory dishes so I wouldn’t have added them anyway. A simple way to describe this dish is chicken breasts in an orange-flavored cream sauce. I don’t eat marmalade “straight” but like it well enough added to the cream. The beauty of this recipe is its ease of preparation. Pound the chicken breasts with a meat mallet to tenderize them, sprinkle with the salt and nutmeg, brown, cook, make the sauce, serve. The nutmeg and tarragon complement each other well with the cream and marmalade. I didn't cook down the sauce as much as it was still a lot liquidy when I took it off the heat because I didn't want to reduce it too much and be left with little sauce. Next time I would brown the chicken breasts a little more. I might've had a bit too much light butter to fry them in as they just bubbled but didn't really brown before I added the wine, tarragon and marmalade.

3 whole chicken breasts (6 halves, about 3 lbs) (I used 2 whole chicken breasts for 1 sauce recipe)
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 tablespoon orange marmalade
¼ teaspoon crumbled tarragon
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 cup seedless grapes
¼ cup whipping cream

1. Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and nutmeg. Brown lightly in heated butter in a large frying pan.
2. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes; add grapes, cover again and continue cooking about 10 minutes longer, until chicken is cooked through.
3. Using a slotted spoon, remove chicken and grapes to a warm serving dish; keep warm. Add cream to liquid in pan. Bring to a boil, stirring, and cook until reduced and slightly thickened. Salt to taste. Pour sauce over chicken.

Serves 4-6

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