Chicken with blueberry mustard sauce a colorful dish with a fresh, bright flavor
Jessica Webster | AnnArbor.com
The students are back. I know this happens every year, but somehow the quiet weeks of August lulled me into a false sense of complacency. There were tables available at my favorite restaurants, the lines at the coffee shops were short, and you could get in and out of downtown by car in minutes flat.
But now it's September, and we're a bustling college town again, complete with traffic snarls, longer waits, and many, many SUVs manned by cell-phone wielding college students, driving the wrong way down one-way streets.
Maybe it’s my impending 40th birthday, but this is the first year when I feel like I identify more with the parents dropping the freshman off than I do with the fresh-faced young students facing their first year without parental supervision. Instead of remembering how liberating it feels to be totally self-reliant with the world as your oyster, I find myself wanting to lecture these kids on safe driving habits.
After a stressful bike commute home among the throngs of new students last week, I found myself faced with the dilemma of having very little food in the house but absolutely no desire to head back out on the roads to shop for dinner fixings.
We’ve been eating well out of our garden for a few weeks now, but everyone was getting a little bit tired of my variations on squash with tomatoes, so I took a peek in the fridge to see what I could cobble together for dinner. It was looking pretty bleak, but I did find some frozen chicken breasts and a pint of blueberries. A quick microwave defrost and a hunt for recipes online and I was good to go.
This recipe originally called for you to marinate the breasts for several hours and then cook them on the grill. I skipped that step, and instead sauteed them on the stove top. That way I could keep an eye on the blueberry sauce and the chicken without having to run back and forth between the kitchen and the back deck.
To saute the chicken breasts, I like to butterfly the breast, salt and pepper each side, and saute it in a teaspoon or so of olive oil over medium heat, but everyone has their own favorite way to cook chicken.
I love this recipe because it’s easy, colorful and a little bit different. I wasn’t sure whether the blueberries and honey would make it too sweet, but I had nothing to fear. The mustard and the onions steer the dish in more savory direction, bringing out the tartness of the berries. You’re left with a very fresh, bright flavor.
Chicken with blueberry mustard sauce, adapted from a recipe on Cooks.com
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, grilled or sauteed to your liking
- 2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
- 1 cup finely chopped onion
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 4 to 6 tablespoons white wine
- 2 cups blueberries
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1. Saute finely chopped onion in two tablespoons vegetable oil until translucent. Stir in Dijon mustard, white wine, blueberries, lemon juice, honey and cinnamon. Simmer over low heat until blueberries have softened and become tender, about ten to fifteen minutes.
2. Slice cooked chicken diagonally and arrange on serving plate drizzled with blueberry mustard sauce.
Serves 4.
Jessica Webster leads the Food section for AnnArbor.com. You can reach her at JessicaWebster@AnnArbor.com.
Comments
Sherry Knight
Fri, Sep 9, 2011 : 11:36 a.m.
So, Jessica, how did you saute the chicken in the pix? It looks great... Do want to try this.
Jessica Webster
Thu, Sep 15, 2011 : 7:08 p.m.
I butterflied and salted & peppered it, then cooked it in about a tsp each of olive oil and butter.