Recipe - Apricot Stuffed Chicken Breast (Guest Post)

I call this a guest post mainly because it wasn't made by me; however, I'll be the one doing the write-up. Duc wanted to be romantic one night and put dinner together for us once I got to his place after work. I openly admit that I was a bit dubious as he's still just learning to cook and the last surprise meal we had was salad. However, he pleasantly surprised me with a delightful and complex-ish meal using the power of our slow cooker we bought together! The recipe is from "Best Ever Recipes for Your Slow Cooker" by Catherine Atkinson which I had left at Duc's place for quite some time. Our meal was completed with a red tablecloth, candle, and flowers. Impressive, dear!

Step 1: Ingredients (yields 4 servings)

• salt, to taste
• black pepper, to taste
• 1/4 tsp tarragon, dried
• 1/4 cup apricots, dried
• 1/4 cup almonds, chopped
• 1/3 cup couscous
• 2/3 cup orange juice, with pulp
• 2/3 cup chicken stock, boiling and divided
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tbsps orange marmalade
• 4 chicken breasts, skinless and boneless
  
  Note: Pictured is some hard cider. It did not go into the dish but into the cook's mouth, hah.
  
  

Step 2: Prepping the ingredients
Pour orange juice over dried apricots and leave in a bowl to soak. Cut deep pockets into each chicken breast (don't cut through) and using a meat pounder, gently beat until the breasts are thinner. Boil chicken stock and then, in a separate bowl, combine couscous with just 1/4 cup of the chicken stock. Let stand until soaked. Drain apricots (but reserve the juice!) and mix with couscous, almonds, tarragon, salt, pepper, and egg yolk.


Step 3: Stuffing
Divide the stuffing into four portions and pack into each chicken breast pocket, securing with toothpicks or twine. Place into your slow cooker. In the pot with the boiling chicken stock, add in the orange marmalade until dissolved. Add reserved orange juice. Pour marmalade sauce over chicken breasts and cook on high for 3-5 hours or until chicken is cooked through. Duc said it took him 4 hours but he could have taken it out earlier as it cooking too long led to some dryness.


Step 4: Finishing
To accentuate your meal, the book suggests that you drain the sauce after cooking into a wide pan and reduce to half with a rapid boil before serving back on top of the chicken.


Photography by Duc Duong.