Apple Cider Chicken

It is the first full day of fall as I start this, I always get excited when this time of year comes around. Food seems to be more in touch with the earth, Carrots, Apples, Beets, Brussels Sprouts, Parsnips, the fruits and vegetables all seem warm and inviting. Since the weather took such a turn this week as fall came around I started to think of an inviting fall dinner meal. Before I went to bed last night I started a marinate for some chicken, it was:

3 TBS cup Apple Cider Vinegar

1/2 Cup Olive Oil

some salt and pepper

1/2 Granny Smith Apple cut up (I ate the other half)

2 tsp Honey

some water, maybe 1/2 cup or so

I put two small Chicken Breasts in a covered dish to Marinate overnight. I know this sounds odd, but I spent quite a lot of time thinking about the marinate for this dish; is the cider vinegar too much? will this be too sour when I get home? On the way home from work the next day I picked up the rest of the ingredients, Parsnips, Carrots, Fresh Thyme and Apple Cider. As soon as I got home I pored off the marinate that I had the chicken in and pored about 1 cup of sweet apple cider on it while I started the rest of the meal. The Apple Cider sweetened it up a little and rounded out the flavors well.

I started to get the rest of the ingredients ready I diced one Parsnip, one large Carrot and one Granny Smith Apple; in a saute pan I heated up a little Olive Oil then put the parsnip and carrot in for about 5 minutes stirring often. When they were soft I added the diced up apple and cooked for a couple of minutes more. To add the Thyme to that I simply held the end of the branches one at a time and pulled my fingers down them pull the leaves off and into the pan. Once everything in the pan was tender I put it all aside under a foil tent while I cooked the chicken breasts. To do that I put a little olive oil into the same saute pan on medium-high heat for about three minutes on each side. While that was cooking I put 3 oz of Bourbon into a cup of Apple Cider. Bourbon and Apple Cider are so good together, I considered stopping there and making that my dinner, but I didn't; when the Chicken was done I put it on the same plate as the sauteed vegetables and used the mixture to deglaze the pan.

Deglazing a pan is simply the process of poring some liquid into the pan and using it to remove any of the brown bits of things that may be stuck to it while heating it up. This adds a depth of flavor to your meal that you can't get otherwise. To the deglazing liquid I added my sauteed Apples and Vegetables and cooked it all over high heat until the sauce was reduced by half. That is it, once the pan sauce is ready serve the Chicken then top it with vegetables and pan sauce. I garnished it with a couple more twigs of Thyme.

The ingredients for this are:

1 large Parsnip peeled and diced

1 Large carrot Peeled and diced

1 Granny Smith Apple diced

the leaves from about 5 Thyme branches

2 Chicken Breasts

1 cup Apple Cider mixed with 3 oz Bourbon.