One Skillet Balsamic Chicken and Pears

I love cooking with fruit. Maybe it's the sweet tooth I can't EVER seem to shake. But combining a little sweet with the savory is a personal favorite. My friends (ahem....Wendy and Leah!) joke that they always know exactly what I will order off a menu even before I open my mouth.  Let's just say they wouldn't be the least bit surprised (while chatting over the phone during the daily, dinner prep hour) to hear I'm making this recipe.

Another bonus here? It's a ONE SKILLET meal. Which means 3/4 of my kitchen isn't stacked around the sink when I'm done. It's adapted from a Good Housekeeping cookbook I reach for all the time. And stay tuned because I'm sure you'll see me refer to some of the other numerous winners I've pulled from it's pages.

I've used various combinations of apples, pears, dried cherries, dried cranberries, and raisins to make this. They are all good so feel free to use your favorite taste combo.

 

One Skillet Balsamic Chicken and Pears

Author: Erin (adapted from Good Housekeeping)

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 30 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 t. vegetable oil


• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts


• 2 Bosc pears, cored and cut into thin wedges


• 1 c. chicken broth


• 3 T balsamic vinegar


• 2 t. cornstarch


• 1 1/2 t. sugar


• 1/4 c. dried cherries

Instructions

1. Heat 1 t. vegetable oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook through, turning once, until golden brown in color. Remove to a plate and tent with foil to keep warm.


2. Heat remaining 1 t. of oil in same skillet, add pears, and cook till softened and golden brown.


3. In a liquid measuring cup, measure out 1 c. of chicken broth. Add vinegar, cornstarch, and sugar and mix well with a fork.


4. Add broth mixture and dried fruit to pears in skillet. Heat to boiling while stirring constantly, then boil 1 minute till thickened.


5. Return chicken to skillet, coat in sauce, and heat through. Serve.

Notes

I will often use a thin sliced chicken breast for this recipe if I happen to find them. It just makes the cooking that much faster. If your chicken breasts are on the thick side, I would recommend pounding them a little thinner to reduce cooking time.

3.2.1226

Pull-Apart Apple Bread

If there was a way to make Thanksgiving anymore unhealthy, leave it to me to find it. :)

My husband and I used to have a tradition on Thanksgiving morning of getting up and heading to our local Dominick's grocery store to buy freshly made pecan cinnamon rolls from their bakery. Jason would bring them home and we would sit down with our coffee and cinnamon rolls to watch the Macy's parade.

Unfortunately Dominick's stopped making those pecan cinnamon rolls and we couldn't find a suitable alternative. So for the past few years I've tried out a bunch of different breakfast pastry recipes to make at home instead. Sure there are lots of normal cinnamon roll recipes out there but that's boring. So when I ran across this Pull-Apart Apple Bread on Pinterest I decided to give it a try. I want to of course give credit where credit is due on this one. The picture on Pinterest was linked back to another food blog called "Cooking with Chopin, Living with Elmo". Cute name. :)

I followed the recipe exactly and it came out very tasty and very pretty! Everyone in my family liked it, even my picky 2 yr old. Its definitely full of apples, you get some in every bite. If you're looking for more of a cinnamon roll taste I would alternate pieces of the rolled up biscuits by putting apple in some and leaving others plain. The frosting as written calls for almond extract. I had no problem with that because I LOVE almond extract. You could easily substitute vanilla or 1-2 tsps of cinnamon instead for a different flavor.

~Wendy

Pull-Apart Apple Bread

Recipe Type: Breakfast

Author: Cooking with Chopin, Living with Elmo

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 1 hour 5 mins

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• Bread


• 16 Rhodes™ Dinner Rolls, thawed (or use your own dough recipe)


• 3 medium size Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped


• 1/3 cup brown sugar


• 1/2 cup chopped pecans


• 1 teaspoon cinnamon


• Zest and juice from half a lemon (about 2 teaspoons of juice)


• Icing


• 1 cup powdered sugar


• 3-4 teaspoons water


• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla


• 1/2 teaspoon almond flavoring

Instructions

1. Cut thawed rolls in half.


2. Combine apples, sugar, nuts, cinnamon, and lemon juice and zest.


3. Flatten each roll half into a 2-3-inch circle. Place 1 teaspoon apple mixture in center of each dough circle. Pinch edges together to seal, forming a ball.


4. Place filled balls in a sprayed 9x5-inch loaf pan.


5. Spoon remaining apple mixture evenly over the top. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise until double.


6. Remove wrap and bake at 350°F 40-45 minutes. Cover with foil last 10 minutes of baking to prevent over browning.


7. Cool for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and place on wire rack to cool.


8. Combine icing ingredients and drizzle over loaf.

3.1.09

 

Apple Cake

This past fall I had an abundance of apples to cook with. My mother-in-law has an apple tree that was on overload for some reason. She would go and pick the apples and then bring me a GIANT bucket to cook with. I think I tried every single apple recipe on the planet! I made applesauce, apple butter, apple pie, apple tarts, and this amazing apple cake- all in a 4 week time period. Looking back it seems like I was on a mission to make apples as unhealthy as possible. Even though this cake won't make it on any "diet" menus- it was my absolute favorite from the apple cooking bonanza.

This recipe came from the Taste of Home website. You can link to it here. My Mom had given me a magazine subscription from Taste of Home a while back and I loved it. I always find their recipes to be "normal", in a good way. Simple, down to earth, my-kids-will-actually-eat-this recipes. I would make this cake for any party, a birthday, or just because you have a ton of apples! Its very dense and very rich with a layer of cheesecake ribboned throughout and a brown sugar/praline frosting. Mmmmm.... I might need to go make this again.

~Wendy

Apple Cake

Author: Wendy

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 60 mins

Total time: 1 hour 15 mins

Serves: 12

Ingredients

• Cake


• 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened


• 2 cups sugar, divided


• 4 eggs


• 1 c. canola oil


• 2 c. all-purpose flour


• 2 tsp baking powder


• 2 tsp ground cinnamon


• 1 tsp salt


• 1/4 tsp baking soda


• 2 c. chopped peeled tart apples


• 1 c. shredded carrots


• 1/2 c. chopped pecans (or walnuts)


• Praline Icing


• 1/2 c. packed brown sugar


• 1/4 c. butter, cubed


• 2 Tbsp 2% milk


• 1/2 c. confectioners' sugar


• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract


• 1/4 c. chopped pecans, toasted

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and 1/4 cup sugar until smooth. Beat in 1 egg; set aside.


2. In a large bowl, beat oil with remaining sugar and eggs until well blended. Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda; gradually beat into oil mixture until blended. Stir in the apples, carrots and pecans.


3. Transfer half of the apple batter to a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan; layer with cream cheese mixture and remaining apple batter.


4. Bake at 350° for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.


5. In a large saucepan, bring the brown sugar, butter and milk to a boil. Cook and stir for 1 minute. Remove from the heat; whisk in confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth. Drizzle over cake. Sprinkle with pecans.

Notes

If you don't have a bundt pan you can make this in an angel-food cake pan. Just be sure the sides are tight and won't leak. The first time I made this I used an angel-food cake pan and lined it with greased foil to be sure it wouldn't seep through the sides.

3.1.09