Baked Chicken with Toasted Spices and Orange-Apricot Glaze
Kids love dipping chicken pieces in sauce. Adults love grilled meats, pork, fish and poultry. Having the combination together makes for exciting dishes.
All over the world, glazed poultry can be found. There is the maple glaze, whiskey glaze, honey mustard, honey soy, lime soy, orange glazed, etc... The list can be as long as a few pages of print.
This recipe takes the glaze further by using toasted spices, baking technique, and adding a curry mayonnaise drizzle.
Apricots are a completely under-utilized fruit. While the demand for fresh apricots is growing, this dish celebrates the integration of this ingredient with poultry, spices and orange.
Place ground spices in a large bowl; add cilantro, scallions, kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper; mix well. Cover each chicken breast with this mixture and refrigerate for one hour.
Place preserves, butter, orange juice and cayenne in reserved saucepan and cook over medium heat,
stirring, until preserves and butter have melted. Boil glaze for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
Bake Chicken at 400 degrees F for 4 minutes or broil for 2 minutes. Brush Chicken with half of the glaze; cook for 1 minute. Flip Chicken, brush with remaining glaze; Cook for 1 additional minute. Remove from heat.
Place the Chicken on top of the watercress leaves and top with 1 teaspoon of mayonnaise mixture;
Garnish platter or dinner plates with cilantro and watercress sprigs, as desired.