Cooking with Rod

By Rod Cohenour

This month I want to feature another of my sweet wife's wonderful recipes. Although she got the original recipe when her butcher's wife shared the four ingredient delight (chicken, soup mix, Apricot preserves and Russian dressing), she found our family's taste preferences required a few changes. Thus, the addition of onions, pineapple, and (most appreciated) the drained, sliced water chestnuts made the recipe her own.

Bon appetit~!

• 1 Cut up chicken (Or equivalent weight chicken breasts or thighs or mixture
• 2 bottles Russian Dressing (Kraft or Wishbone (one to cook with chicken and one to augment sauce to serve)
• 1 pkg. Lipton Beefy Onion seasoning Soup mix
• 2 small jars Apricot preserves or jam (save one for sauce)
• 1 four (4) oz. can water chestnuts, sliced, drained
• 1 or 2 onions, sliced
• 1 can (15 oz) pineapple chunks, drained. Preserve liquid to prepare sauce

Optional:

• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup water
• Dash ground black pepper
• Steamed white rice (prepare while chicken bakes and keep warm and fluffy)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Arrange chicken pieces in Pyrex baking dish. Top with onion slices, water chestnuts and pineapple.

2. In a large bowl mix together one bottle of the Russian Dressing, Lipton Onion Soup mix and Apricot preserves. Blend by stirring.

3. Pour over chicken pieces in baking dish, making sure to cover well.

4. Bake at 325 ° for 35 minutes. Remove dish to flip chicken pieces. Bake another 15 minutes.

5. Remove chicken, water chestnuts and pineapple to serving dish. Using a spatula, scrape remaining sauce into a saucepan. Add second bottle of Russian Dressing and second jar of Apricot preserves, whisk while heating. If desired, you can thicken the sauce by whisking in a slurry of 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup flour seasoned with a dash of ground black pepper. Stir continuously while bringing to a soft boil. When at desired thickness, pour into serving bowl or gravy dish.

6. Serve over drained rice. Excellent paired with broccoli

Delicious! Can add sliced almonds