Sweeten up a weeknight
An interesting thing happened on the way to delivering this recipe.
It’s a one-pan dish that fuses a few spices and brown sugar with ripe peaches and that old weeknight standby — boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
The first time I tested it, the skinned peach slices went directly on the chicken, with the rest sprinkled on top. It came out of the oven slightly crusted on top and the fruit was sweet.
I sprinkled the brown sugar and spices directly on the chicken in the second go-round, with unadorned peaches on top.
Even ripe and roasted, the fruit did not skew as sweet, and the spices were subdued almost to aromatics.
BAKED CHICKEN WITH PEACHES
Serves: 4 3 ripe peaches 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 1/2 to 2 lb/ 680-907 g total) Kosher salt Freshly ground black pepper 1/3 cup (80 mL) packed light brown sugar 1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) ground ginger 1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) ground mace or freshly grated nutmeg 1/2 lemon Basil leaves (optional) 1. Preheat the oven to 375 F (190 C). Have a large, shallow roasting pan at hand. Boil a kettle of water.
2. Meanwhile, use a sharp knife to cut a wide “X” at the bottom of each peach.
3. Pour boiling water into a deep heatproof bowl. Add the peaches and let them sit for about a minute; you should see the skins start to curl where you scored the fruit. Remove peaches, carefully peel and discard skins.
4. As soon as the fruit is cool enough to handle, cut it in half, discard the pit and then cut each peach into about 8 equal slices.
5. Place the chicken breast halves between 2 pieces of plastic wrap; pound to an even thickness of 1/2 inch (1.3 cm), then season with salt and pepper.
6. Arrange them in the pan in a single layer.
7. For a more fruit-forward flavour, sprinkle the chicken with the brown sugar, ginger and mace or nutmeg, then top each one with the sliced peaches. For a sweeter treatment, place the peaches directly on the chicken, then sprinkle the fruit with the brown sugar, ginger and mace or nutmeg.
8. Squeeze the lemon half’s juice evenly over each portion. Bake (middle rack) for 20 minutes, or until the centre of the chicken registers 155 F (68 C) on an instant-read thermometer and is browned on top; the sugar and spices will give the dish a more browned look. There should be a fair amount of pan juices.
9. Chop the basil, if using, and scatter it over the chicken. Serve warm with pan juices over couscous. Adapted from a recipe on the Georgia Peach Council website.