Chicken with a fruit burst
Get out to an orchard this summer to find some fresh apricots they’re delicious fresh and equally as good with baked chicken.
Unless you’re blessed with your own trees, finding the perfect apricot can feel like an impossible quest.
If you’re reliant on supermarkets for fruit, you may as well give up now, as the apricots found in most of them are mouthpuckeringly unripe or just tasteless.
Experts in these matters say this is because the apricots destined for supermarkets are bred for looks and shelf-life rather than taste – they are apri-bots, rather than the real deal.
However, if you can get to an orchard, especially one where you can pick your own, you’re more likely to find apricots you might remember from summers long past.
If picking your own fruit seems like an impossible dream, the internet is here to help. The family-run Hobbs Orchard in Roxburgh, central Otago, will courier its gorgeous apricots anywhere in the country. Check out hobbsorchard.co.nz for more information.
If you do find the perfect apricot, the best way to eat it is straight up. When you get sick of eating them that way (or need to perk up less-than-perfect ones), these recipes are the next best bet.
Baked chicken with apricots, shallots and thyme
Serves 4-6 Preparation time:
10 minutes Cooking time:
35-40 minutes
One of my first flatmates arrived with a neat folder of recipes that her parents had prepared for her, including one for apricot chicken that involved tinned apricots, cream cheese, and a sachet of stock. By the end of that year even the words ‘‘apricot chicken’’ were enough to make the rest of us break out in hives.
Mercifully, this dish bears no resemblance to that 1990s horror. If you like to get things done in advance, the dish can be assembled and left in the fridge to marinate for up to 24 hours.
❚ 6 shallots, peeled and halved
❚ 6 cloves garlic, peeled
❚ 6 apricots, washed and halved
❚ 6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, excess fat removed
❚ 1⁄2 cup white wine
❚ 1⁄4 cup extra virgin olive oil ❚ 2 tablespoons honey
❚ 2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds
❚ Zest and juice of 1 lemon
❚ 4 sprigs fresh thyme
❚ Salt and pepper
❚ 1⁄4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley, to serve
Heat the oven to 210 degrees Celsius.
Put the shallots, garlic, apricots and chicken thighs in a roasting dish large enough to take them all in a single layer.
Put the wine, olive oil, honey, cumin seeds, lemon juice and zest, and thyme in a bowl and whisk together to combine.
Pour this mixture over the ingredients in the roasting dish, turning them to coat. Make sure the chicken is facing skin-side up and tuck the thyme underneath it so it doesn’t burn.
Season everything generously with salt and pepper, then bake for 35 minutes, until the chicken is cooked.
Remove from the oven and let it rest for five minutes, covered, before transferring to plates or a serving platter.
Scatter over the finely chopped parsley and serve with crusty bread to mop up the sauce. Any leftovers can be stored, covered, in the fridge for up to three days.
Poached apricots with orange and star anise
Serves 3-4 Preparation time:
5 minutes Cooking time:
10-20 minutes
A gentle bath in orange and star anise-scented syrup does wonders for ‘‘supermarket’’ apricots.
These can be eaten warm or at room temperature, but I like them fridge-cold when the flesh is almost jellied. Any leftover syrup can be added to a cocktail.
❚ 500g apricots (about 6, depending on size)
❚ 1 orange
❚ 4 tablespoons caster sugar
❚ 4 whole star anise
Wash the apricots and cut them in half, removing the stones.
Zest the orange, then squeeze the juice into a cup. Add water to make it up to 1⁄2 a cup, then pour into a medium pan that is big enough to take all the apricot halves in one layer. Add the sugar, orange zest and star anise.
Set the pan over medium heat and stir to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a simmer, then add the apricot halves, turning them so they are coated in the syrup. Cover the pan and cook over a low heat for about 15 minutes, until the apricots are soft when pierced with a knife.
This will depend on the apricots – check them after 10 minutes. Don’t let them boil furiously or you’ll end up with apricot mush.
Remove the pan from the heat and spoon the apricots into a dish. Pour over the syrup and let cool. Cover and store in the fridge.
❚ More of Lucy’s recipes at thekitchenmaid.com. To see what she’s cooking daily, find her on Instagram or Facebook.