Apricot / Nectarine Chicken and White Wine Couscous
Apricot / Nectarine Chicken and White Wine Couscous
The perfect way to start your summer cooking journey, with fresh fruit and herbs. This dish is perfectly light and abundantly flavorful. As soon as the few last weeks in April you can begin to find Apricots and Nectarines in grocery stores. I came up with this dish after spotting beautiful golden Nectarines in the produce aisle. I grabbed some Apricots for color contrast, remembering I had some tri-color couscous at home, all I needed to pick up was chicken and I had an easy delicious meal ready to go. Couscous takes just minutes to make and baking the chicken in the oven allowed me to play with my son rather than tend to then chicken on the stove. The entire meal took me less than 15 minutes to throw together and was done in under an hour. I served it alongside a crisp salad and enjoyed it on the porch with my husband and the remaining Chardonnay. I hope you guys try out this recipe and enjoy this dinner as much as we did. Take a quick pick and tag me, I'd love to see your versions!
White Wine Couscous
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs such as; thyme, parsley, rosemary, oregano
1/4 cup minced shallots
2 cloves minced garlic
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup white wine ( I happened to use Chardonnay but any white wine you have on hand would do just fine)
1/2 water or vegetable broth
2 cups tri-color pearl couscous
Directions
Heat butter and olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add fresh herbs, shallots and garlic; cook 4 minutes stirring occasionally. Add lemon juice, salt, pepper, wine, and water or vegetable broth; bring to a boil. Add couscous. Cover saucepan, turn off heat, let sit for 8-10 minutes. Uncover and fluff with a fork.
Apricot / Nectarine Chicken
Ingredients
8 chicken thighs bone-in, skinless
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs such as; thyme, parsley, rosemary, oregano
4 cloves minced garlic
1/2 chopped onion
1/2 Apricot; mashed
1 Nectarine; mashed
2 Apricots/3 Nectarines halved for roasting
Instructions
Combine all the ingredients in a large Ziploc bag and shake until well combined. Add the chicken and coat each piece evenly with the seasoning. Set aside, allowing the flavors to absorb into the meat.
Preheat oven to 375F with the baking rack in the middle.
Remove chicken from marinade. Add the chicken to a baking pan along with halved Apricots and Nectarines and bake, uncovered, in preheated oven for 45 to 55 minutes or until the chicken thighs are is cooked right through to the bone.
