Apricot chicken is a popular recipe that uses apricots as the main ingredient in the glaze. There are different ways to prepare it, with various cooking methods and glaze ingredients. The most common form of apricots used is apricot preserves, but fresh or sun-dried apricots can also be used. The cooking process used affects the appearance, texture, and flavor of the dish.
Apricot chicken is a chicken recipe that uses apricots as the main ingredient in the glaze applied to the chicken during the cooking process. The glaze is generally only applied during cooking, although some cooks pre-marinate the chicken in an apricot-flavored marinade. Some recipes call for a whole chicken, while others specify only certain parts, usually the breast. Similarly, some cooks leave the skin on during the cooking process, while others remove it.
The reason apricot chicken is so popular is that chicken, like many other meats, can be cooked successfully with both sweet and tangy flavors. There are many apricot chicken recipes, most of which employ a pungent ingredient as opposed to apricots. The most common is vinegar, sometimes by itself and sometimes in salad dressing. Another ingredient found in many different recipes is dry onion soup mix.
Recipes for apricot chicken call for apricots in different forms. The most commonly used is apricot preserves, which includes small pieces of the fruit. However, many recipes for apricot chicken call for fresh, pitted, peeled and diced apricots or sun-dried apricots.
There are many ways to prepare apricot chicken. Some recipes call for elaborate glazes which are themselves cooked before being slathered on the chicken, while others call for the glaze to be made by placing the chicken pieces in a bowl, adding the glaze ingredients, and then tossing the whole mixture until mixed. A “down-and-dirty” approach is simply to spread apricot preserves on the chicken, sprinkle it with minced garlic, salt and pepper, and cook it.
Baking, roasting, and sautéing are the three favorite cooking methods for apricot chicken. Many recipes include a period of roasting or frying the chicken for a short time before adding the glaze, and some start cooking the chicken on the stove and finishing it in the oven. Some recipes depend on a long, slow cooking process and specifically call for the use of a crockpot.
When cooking chicken, the cooking process employed has a significant impact on the appearance, texture and, to some extent, even the flavor of the meal. Roasting, for example, is a dry-heat process that usually uses higher heat, especially early in the process, and generally suspends the meat above a drip pan rather than letting the meat sit in the juices. The skin and a thin outer portion of the roasted chicken meat are firmer and drier, and the flavor of the glaze doesn’t penetrate as deeply into the meat when roasted. Cooking recipes call for lower temperatures and often let the meat rest in a sauce, usually inside a covered cooking vessel. Chicken cooked this way will have very moist meat that falls off the bone more easily, but the glaze generally deteriorates into a gravy.
Sautéing chicken over the stove feels more like cooking than roasting, because the meat stays in constant contact with the sauce. Frying, on the other hand, is not a good way to prepare apricot chicken because the chicken needs to be in contact with hot oil. Any apricot glaze that is applied to the chicken will wash off in the frying process and create an oil mess.
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