Tonight for dinner we decided to have chicken breast. Chicken always stumps me a little. It’s kind of boring and it seems like it has very limited possibilities. I’m always trying to make it interesting. I looked around the kitchen and tried to come up with some ideas. We had just picked up some fruit from the market. Apricots seemed like a good idea, maybe grilled. No can’t grill tonight it’s raining. I remembered that we had some mango juice left over from some popsicles we had made and the last of the scallions were still hanging around in the crisper drawer. I decided to chop up the apricots and make a quick sauce with mango juice, scallions, chicken broth, and a dash of red wine. White would probably be better but I had a bottle of red open in the fridge. I roasted the asparagus picked up from the market with olive oil, salt and pepper and made a simple salad with grape tomatoes, garden greens, and cucumber topped with parmesan, salt and pepper and dressed with pomegranate red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.
I dressed the chicken with olive oil and lemon pepper and let it rest at room temperature while I preheated oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and got a cast iron skillet hot on high heat on the stove top. I seared the chicken on both sides for two minutes each. I then turned off the heat and added 1 2/3 cup of chicken broth. I baked the chicken in the oven for about 15-20 minutes depending on how thick the chicken is. Mine were very thin fillets so I cooked them for 15 minutes. While the chicken was baking I chopped the scallions and apricots, removing the pits. Once the chicken was done baking I let it rest for about 5 minutes out of the pan. I squeezed a quarter slice of lime on each piece of chicken. It the same skillet on high heat I added to the remaining broth the diced apricots and scallions and cook for about 1 minute stirring constantly. I then add about two tablespoons of mango juice and a dash of red wine and cook for about another 2 or 3 minutes until the sauce thickened. I removed the sauce from the heat and served it over the chicken breast.
The asparagus just got a quick toss in some olive oil and salt and pepper before going into the oven. I put it in before I started the chicken to ensure a crispy texture.
I never use store bought dressing for salad. I think it’s easier and it taste better to just toss it with some oil and vinegar. I always use extra virgin olive oil but I like to try different kinds of vinegar. For this salad I used an acai pomegranate infused red wine vinegar. I cut up some cucumber and tomatoes and tossed it with fresh greens from the summer garden, parmesan, salt and pepper.
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