Chicken in a Cherry Sauce - Happy 3rd Birthday to my blog!

Dear readers,

Another year has gone by rather quickly and, last Sunday, it was the 3rd birthday of Chicken in a Cherry Sauce!

As one may have noticed, the frequency of my posting has slowed down again. I am really sorry for this! As always, life is very busy and I have also found it particularly difficult to find time to take photographs for my posts during these dark winter months, now that I am working full time! Hopefully, now that summer is on it's way (we hope) and the days are longer, I may be able to post more than once a month!

As I said last year, I really appreciate the support from my readers. Thank you very much for your patience and your kind comments, they all make me smile and mean a great deal to me.

I decided to make an actual Chicken in a Cherry Sauce recipe this year. I wanted to make the cherry sauce slightly different from the Chicken in a Cherry Sauce Empanadas which I made last year, so I followed an oriental theme using sesame seeds and soy sauce.

Chicken in a Cherry Sauce
For 2 servings

2 chicken breasts
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds
2 tablespoons of plain flour
Juice of half a lemon
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons toasted sesame seed oil
1 tin of cherries (ironically, my blog anniversary will always fall out of cherry season so I can never use fresh cherries!)
200ml orange juice
Half a jar of cherry jam
1 thumb of fresh ginger, chopped into thick slices

Mix the sesame seeds and flour together in a bowl and set aside. Mix the lemon juice, 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of the sesame seed oil in another bowl. Dip the chicken breasts in the soy sauce mixture, then into the sesame seeds and flour. Place the coated chicken breasts onto an oiled surface and drizzle with the rest of the sesame seed oil. Bake at 200°C for 30 minutes, or until they are golden brown.

In a small saucepan add the cherries, orange juice, cherry jam, chopped ginger and 1 tablespoon soy sauce. Bring to the boil then turn down to a low heat and allow the sauce to reduce for 20 minutes or so. Once the sauce has thickened, remove the ginger pieces and pour the sauce over the golden sesame chicken breasts and serve.

 

Notes:

Since this dish is quite sweet, I would recommend serving it with some refreshing, lightly cooked vegetables, such as pak choi.