Cider Cream Chicken

When I saw that the fabulous Caroline at Good Times Never Seem Sew Good was hosting a fall recipe party, I instantly knew what I wanted to make! It's one of our favorite dishes: cider cream chicken. MMMM. Who doesn't love cider in the fall?


Lemme tell you, the first time I encountered this recipe I was skeptical that it would be good--cider and cream and onions? What? But trust me, it's veeeeerrrry good. Just thinking about it makes me want to eat it up! Since I just made it on Tuesday night, I'll have to hold off for a while--so you all need to make it now so that I can live vicariously through you!


The best thing about this recipe (besides its deliciousness, of course!) is that you only need 6 dishes to make it: one dutch oven, one spoon, one knife, one cutting board, and two measuring cups. I don't know about you, but the less dishes to wash, the better!


If that isn't appealing enough to you, here's a picture:





Looks good, right?



So here's the recipe (serves 2):

PREP TIME: 10 minutes


COOK TIME: 40 minutes





INGREDIENTS:

• One large thawed chicken breast. Make sure you thaw it, or you'll go to cook the dish at 5:30 and then realize that you didn't thaw the chicken and you'll be very upset that you can't eat the delicious food that night!
• One medium onion
• 1 tbls minced garlic
• 3/4 cup of milk (or heavy cream or Half and Half if you want it a little creamier). We're on a diet so I made it lighter by using milk.
• 3/4 cup of apple juice or cider
• EVOO
• Pam cooking spray
• Tarragon (or Thyme will work, too. I've used it in a pinch).
• Salt
• Pepper

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

• Spray the dutch oven with Pam or other cooking spray and drizzle the a little olive oil in there, too. (I started using Pam as a low-cal sub for olive oil per HungryGirl's suggestion and it usually works so well! Olive oil has a ton of calories, ick. I still add a tiny bit of oil to this recipe, though, because once I did all Pam and the onions stuck a bit.) Place it on medium low heat.

• As the cooking spray heats up, halve your onion, then cut both halves into 6 pieces. When you've cut it all up, throw the onion in the dutch oven along with a little salt and pepper.

• While the onions cook, prepare your chicken. Cut off all that nasty fat and dispose of it, and then cut the chicken up into pieces, around 1.5 inches long, until you have 10-12 pieces.

• Return to the onions. By now they should be a little golden brown. Add the minced garlic and stir. Move the onions to one side of the ducth oven and give the free side another spray of the cooking oil. Turn the heat up just a tad over medium. Wait around 2 minutes for the oil to bubble.

• Transfer the chicken to the dutch oven. Cook for around 3 minutes each side, until golden brown.

• Pour in the juice/cider and let bubble for 2-3 minutes. Then turn off heat and add the milk/cream.

• Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and thyme, then pop it in the oven for 40 minutes.

I like to serve it with couscous and buttery brussel sprouts. The cider cream sauce and sweet onions taste delicious on the couscous!


Now hurry up and grab yourself a jug of apple cider--you can drink some of it and make my recipe! :)


Linking up to Caroline's recipe party--head over there to check out some more delish dishes :)