This is Ashley posting here - I haven't been very active on this blog over the last couple years . . . mostly because grad school budgets are hardly conducive to gourmet cooking . . . unless you consider scrambled eggs gourmet.
But now I'm back in the world of paychecks and trying to re-discover the joys of cooking (and eating) well. This weekend I felt like something different and holiday-ish so I experimented and, half to my surprise, it ended up being DELICIOUS!
Ingredients:
Marinade:
1/2 cup cranberry juice (I used the 100% juice kind that's sweetened with other fruit juices - I actually think a real unsweetened cranberrry juice would be even better.)
2 tbs dijon mustard
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup fresh cranberries
Other Ingredients
4 chicken breasts
flour
nutmeg
olive oil
white wine
cranberry juice (in addition to marinade)
black pepper
candied walnuts
Combine all ingredients and marinate the chicken overnight. Save fresh cranberries from the marinade.
On a plate (or in a freezer bag) combine 1/2 cup of flour and another 2 tsp of nutmeg. Lightly coat marinated chicken breasts with flour mixture. Slowly pan fry the chicken breasts in 2 Tbs olive oil. Don't worry if there is some burning/sticking of the flour coating.
When chicken is cooked remove from pan (I don't know how long exactly this will take - it will depend on the size of the chicken breasts).
De-glaze the pan using 1/2 cup white wine and 1/4 cup cranberry juice. Add cranberries from the marinade and simmer for 5 minutes. As the cranberries cook crush them with a fork into the sauce.
Return chicken to the cranberry/wine mixture. Allow chicken to simmer as the sauce thickens. Add a mixture of flour and nutmeg 1 Tbs at a time to thicken sauce into a gravy. Remove from pan. Serve chicken breasts topped with sauce and candied walnuts.
I don't have a camera at the moment, or I'd share pictures, but it is an attractive dish with the red of the berries (and candied walnuts are always pretty).
I didn't try this because I was just cooking for myself, but a festive serving suggestion would be to serve the chicken over a bed of white rice topped with cooked spinach. I think it would taste good with the sauce and you'd have all your Christmas colours :D
Who are we? Working women who also happen to like to cook . . . some recipes are favorites shared by family members, some are experiments we stumble across that turn out pretty good! You should be able to find a little of everything here: from elaborate to extremely easy, from healthy to indulgent - enjoy!
