Our neighbors to the north don't seem to be feeling the full effects of today's Vernal Equinox, but down here, it was a beautiful first day of spring. The air was heavy and humid, not too hot, not too cold. The whole area felt like a seed about to germinate. I have some small pink flowers already in full bloom, mounds of phlox and dianthus all around my crape myrtles. A few vivid azaleas are starting to open, but all the bushes are covered in tightly furled buds that are waiting for one sunny day in the next week to explode. And the first fat tulip bud is swelling, ready to open any day now. I love spring, I have to say. It's exciting and dramatic and perfectly, wildly colorful.
Yesterday I put up a picture of my dinner, and I promised on Facebook that I'd give the recipe today. When I started cooking, I was feeling down in the dumps, uninspired, and not in the mood for creating. By the time I was finished, I was proud of myself for persevering and excited about a new addition to my repertoire. I had just started pulling things out of the fridge and the pantry, hoping that something would click once I stood over the stove. It sure did. Too bad I only had the one picture, and nothing of the process. It was simple enough to recreate, I bet you can do it without pictures.
The one mistake I made was salting the chicken breasts a little too heavily before I started cooking. I'd seen something on Pinterest that said to do it like a dry brine and set them aside for half an hour. I didn't read far enough into that particular recipe to see whether I was supposed to rinse off all of that salt. I bet I was. Or I wasn't supposed to have such a heavy hand. Either way, neither the man nor I had a single bite left on our plates, so it was a minor mistake overall. With that caveat in mind, here is what I did for Orange-Almond Chicken:
(Lightly) sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and set aside for a few minutes. In a small pan, over medium low heat, toast sliced almonds until lightly browned, shaking the pan often to keep them from sticking or burning on one side. Pour into a bowl and set aside to cool. Using a large glob of butter and a small amount of olive oil to keep the butter from burning, over medium heat, saute chicken breasts until browned on both sides. Make sure there is plenty of visible butter in the pan for the sauce to come. Add a splash (maybe a tablespoon or two for 2 servings) of either cooking sherry or sherry vinegar (I had the vinegar, so that is what I used) to the pan, standing back a bit because it will sizzle and splatter. Then pour in enough chicken stock to go halfway up the sides of the chicken breasts, and cover. Reduce heat to simmer, and let it braise for about 10 minutes, or until the sauce begins to reduce visibly. Stir in a little ground ginger, coriander, and tumeric. Add the zest of an entire orange, stir, and cover for another minute or two while you juice the orange. Remove the cover, and pour in the juice. Stir, and let the sauce reduce until thickened to the consistency of a glaze. Remove the chicken breasts, turn off the heat, and add a tablespoon (or more if desired) of amaretto and stir. Pour the sauce over the chicken, and top with the toasted almonds.
I served this with a salad of power greens, tomatoes, cucumber, and dried cranberries, and cauliflower that had been broken into small bites and sauteed in butter, and lightly flavored with a Meyer lemon olive oil. The combination of flavors worked really well, and I wondered why I had been telling myself I was uninspired. This was an incredible improvisation. I'm totally going to try this again.
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