Apricot-Mustard Chicken

Lots of food blogging recently. Part of it is I'm in one of my interested-in-the-kitchen moods. Part of it is that I'm a cook who doesn't really follow recipes. I just sort of "do" in the kitchen. This doesn't work for baking, but for producing savory foods, it works great. But, by blogging what I've made, it creates a record, so that when someone asks for a particular dish, I can actually remember what I created.

This recipe is adapted from Saint Louis Days/Saint Louis Nights. I switched some of the ingredients and revised it for the crock pot (slow cooker), but I'll include their original directions at the end for oven cooking. I made it one weeknight this week, and with the four large chicken breasts, it fed us all for two meals, with a chicken-sandwich lunch for me as well.

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 chicken breasts
half of an onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped finely
1/2 cup apricot preserves
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup nonfat yogurt
1 tablespoon cornstarch

In a skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add chicken breasts and onion and garlic. Brown chicken (you are not cooking through, you just want to add color). After the chicken si browned on both sides, transfer that and the vegetables into the crock pot. In a separate bowl, mix the salt, apricot preserves, Dijon mustard and yogurt. You will want to taste it, and adjust the mix according to your taste preferences. Poor the sauce over the chicken. Cook on low heat for about six hours. About 45 minutes before serving, mix the cornstarch with a bit of the warm sauce and then return to the crockpot.

Oven directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Take 1/2 cup white flour and 1 teaspoon salt and place in a large ziploc bag. Add chicken pieces a few at a time and shake until chicken is coated with flour mixture. Put 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons melted butter in the bottom of a 13x9 pan. Place chicken on top in a single layer, bone side down and bake for 25 minutes. Remove chicken from oven and spread with the apricot mixture and then bake for 30 more minutes until done. You may add toasted slivered almonds if desired (not for my kids or nut-averse husband).

And finally, I thought I'd share one of my favorite food-themed blogs--the Haphazard Gourmet Girls. Warning, their blog is a lot of fun but can be slightly saucy (in all meanings of the word). It also can be heavy on food politics and policy (which I find interesting). So, don't blame me if you're completely horrified by their posts about the FDA's snail-paced abject failure to address the melamine taint problem.