Foody Friday - Apple-Orange Baked Chicken

A while ago I was able to download The Everything Potluck Cookbook onto my Kindle for free. I have found so many good recipes in this cookbook that I would say the current price ($9-$13) on Amazon is definitely worth it.

Apple-Orange Baked Chicken sounded rather odd but turned out to be some of the best chicken ever to come out of my kitchen. 

Apple-Orange Baked Chicken

3-4 chicken breasts

1 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

1 t. paprika

1 orange, sliced

1/2 onion, sliced

1/4 c. butter, melted

1 c. applesauce

1/3 c. orange marmalade

1/2 c. orange juice

1 T. olive oil

Preheat oven to 375. Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and paprika. Line roasting pan with orange and onion slices and top with chicken. Drizzle chicken with melted butter and set aside. 

In bowl, combine remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour over chicken. 

Cover pan with foil and bake for 30 minutes, basting once with orange mixture. Uncover and bake for 30-40 minutes longer, basting frequently until chicken is thoroughly cooked. 

Don't serve the onions and oranges that are under the chicken; they are there to provide lots of flavor and cushion the chicken from the oven's heat. 

Although the recipe calls for continual basting, I forgot to do it. It turned out fabulous nonetheless. This was by far the moistest chicken I've ever eaten. I thought the combination of onion and oranges were odd but the flavor was subtle and just a bit sweet. The only problem with this recipe is that my boys refused to eat the applesauce on top. They thought it was just too weird. I didn't let them see the oranges and onions in the bottom of the pan, that would have resulted in mutiny! But what they don't know won't hurt them!