Chutney Chicken-- Guest Post by Riley Adams/Elizabeth Craig

by Riley Adams/Elizabeth Craig

Hi everyone!  It’s great to be back at Mystery Lovers' Kitchen to visit and say hi.  Actually, I’m here pretty frequently, lurking for recipes!  There are always some wonderful recipes here. 

I’ve got something a little different today, but it’s just so easy and so easy to modify, that I wanted to share it with you today. 

I’ve got a character in my Southern Quilting Mysteries who is not really the best of cooks.  Beatrice, my protagonist, is widowed with an adult daughter and lived by herself for years.  She’d decided that cooking for one wasn’t much fun, and fell out of the habit.  Luckily for Beatrice, she moved to Dappled Hills to be near her daughter—and happens to live next door to an amazing cook named Meadow.  Meadow is very fond of sharing goodies from her kitchen—the best kind of neighbor there is!

Today, though, I’ve got a recipe that even Beatrice would find a cinch to make.   The recipe uses chutney—an ingredient I love to use.  And, actually, it’s an ingredient I love to say.  Chutney! It sounds very exotic. :)

First of all, I’ll share the recipe for the one that I did, the one that’s pictured above.  (And y’all know I’ve never been in the running to win any awards for epicurean photography—I promise it tastes better than it looks!)

Chutney Chicken

1 chicken fryer (or a comparable number of chicken breasts)
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup regular mustard
2/3 cup apple-cranberry chutney (or peach chutney, or whatever-suits-your-fancy chutney)
½ cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sprinkle the chicken with salt and place in a shallow casserole dish.

Mix all the other ingredients and cover the chicken with them.

Bake at 350, uncovered, for an hour and fifteen minutes.

Ideas for Modifying the recipe:

Sometimes local grocery stores don’t have the best selection, so here’s an easy go-around.  You can use a small can (8 oz.) of crushed pineapple and a regular jar of chutney (no special variety, just run-of-the mill.)  You get the same fruity taste, but without having to get a premium jar of chutney.

Hope you’ll enjoy it! And Happy New Year to everyone (even though we’re getting close to the end of the month! Where does the time fly?) 

Elizabeth’s latest book is Quilt or Innocence and her next book, Knot What it Seams releases February 5. Elizabeth writes the Memphis Barbeque series for Penguin/Berkley (as Riley Adams), the Southern Quilting mysteries for Penguin/NAL, and the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink and independently.  Twitter: @elizabethscraig