Lynn's Island Chicken

I can't sleep..... So I am up at a very frightening hour writing this recipe out for you. This could be dangerous...hoping I don't leave a vital step or ingrediant out. I will proof read...but at 2am it's really useless. This recipe is really very easy...it seems like there are alot of steps but they are all simple. You can't ruin this recipe, I promise. And once you make it a couple times you won't even have to look at this recipe.

Lynn is my moms name, but this recipe has nothing to do with her. Just a co-winky-dink that one of our favorite meals bares the name of my mother. I actually found the recipe in a local church cookbook, and over the years (because I am a recipe REBEL) I have tweaked it. You can use boneless chicken if you like, my kids love dark meat so I always make it with thighs and legs. Also you can cut down on the number of chicken pieces and keep the sauce amount the same. One can never, EVER have too much sauce in my book!

Above are the main ingredients. The red thing on top of the pineapple can is a red pepper de-thawing. I bought a closet full of red peppers in season last year and froze them. It's awesome just to pull them out and use them, they are just as good as fresh. Below are the optional ingredients. If you want to use all, or just one or none...that is your prerogative.

10 pieces of chicken
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon Morton's Natures Season Salt (or salt and pepper...be boring)

(It's for mixing with the flour go ahead do that now if you want)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1- 10 oz. jar apricot preserves
1 cup of your favorite barbeque sauce
5 tablespoons soy sauce
1 cup chopped onion
1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
1 small can pineapple tid-bits ( you can use chunks too)

*optional*
1/4-1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes or more depending on how spicy you like your food
1- 6 oz. can sliced water chestnuts (drained)
2 cups mushrooms cleaned and quartered

1. preheat oven to 300 degrees

2. in a sauce pan add 1 tblsp olive oil, add the onions and saute until translucent

3. add preserves, barbeque sauce, and soy sauce to the pan

4. Let this cook on medium for 5 minutes, then add pineapple, juice and all, cook for another 5-10 minutes until it is looking thick and bubbly. **here is where and when you need to add the red pepper flakes if you like a little spice in your life! Turn off burner and set aside.

5. Now you want to get yourself a little assembly line going. Chicken, washed and patted dry, your flour and season salt, a pan with oil and butter, then last but not least a pan or dish big enough so the chicken pieces can have a little space to do the back stroke in the "island sauce"

6. In a frying pan melt 1Tbsp olive oil and 1Tbsp butter.

7. dredge the chicken pieces in the flour and brown them in the frying pan. (This is where my cooking sometimes goes awry. My pan gets too hot, I get too hurried and the flour starts to burn, and the whole house stinks! So be patient don't let your pan get too hot, or let yourself get an excess of flour on the chicken. I am sure, you all are way more dignified in the kitchen than me, so no worries) This is ideally how they should be browned, they don't need to be cooked, just browned and the flour will help your sauce stick to the chicken and thicken up the sauce as it bakes.

8. Now if you're a mushroom fan then toss the mushrooms in the pan when you are all done browning the chicken, let them get brown and then toss them around the chicken pieces. AND if you are also into water chestnuts you can give those a fling around the chicken as well, and the red pepper too.

9. Now take a spatula, because you don't want to leave one bit of the sauce behind, and spread the sauce over the chicken pieces. Then cover the whole sha-bang with tin foil and pop it in the oven for 45 minutes.
**If I were a crock-pot kinda gal I might put this in a crock-pot and see what happens. But I am not a crock-potty kinda gal...but if you are let me know how that works out for ya!

10. Then after 45 minutes take off the tin foil up the heat to 350 and bake for an additional 45 minutes to an hour.



Ooohh look at the sticky saucy goodness!

Serve it with rice, and a fresh vegi. We had green beans this night, but carrots, steamed broccoli, sugar snap peas are all good.

Hopefully in my insomnia I didn't miss a step or add a freaky ingredient...if something look highly unusual or amiss then I trust you will do what seems logical....
Hope you enjoy!