Aunt Anne's Christmas Chicken Surprise, or Apricot Chicken

Hear me out. I know… this photo may not exactly get your mouth watering. And the list of ingredients that make up what you see here doesn’t help its case, either. But, hear me out.

Last December, my Aunt Anne was preparing this dish for our Christmas Eve dinner. I watched as the casserole dish went from the fridge into the oven, and grimaced a little at the rust-colored goo covering the chicken, and at the little, dark solid bits sprinkled throughout.

Once I asked what was on the chicken, I wished I hadn’t. Four ingredients that I barely like on their own—Russian salad dressing, dry French onion soup mix, and apricot preserves—mixed unnaturally together… and now I was going to have to pretend to enjoy eating this, on Christmas Eve no less.

Oh boy, was I in for a surprise.

The unlikely suspects

This turned out to be one of the best-tasting chicken dishes I’ve ever had; I ended up literally scraping my plate clean with my fork, leaving no trace of this delicious sauce behind. It’s not the healthiest (at least two of the ingredients have high fructose corn syrup as one of the first-listed ingredients), and it may not be the most sophisticated, but oh boy- it tastes good.

The Recipe

Aunt Anne’s Christmas Chicken Surprise, or Apricot Chicken

(Apparently this is no family secret; I found several versions of this recipe online. I used one most similar to this.)

Apprehension Meter

The apprehension meter was fairly low for this recipe, simply because I knew the preparation was simple, I knew the ingredients were well-known and cheap, but still, there is just something in your instincts that tells you these ingredients should not taste good together.

I had to try it out for myself to see if I could actually prepare a tasty chicken dish, that didn’t come out dry, tough, and tasteless.

Here’s How It Really Went

I’ve resigned to the fact that I’ll never be able to make chicken as well as my Aunt Anne, but… I have to say, this was pretty darn tasty. Easily one of the best tasting chicken dishes I’ve ever made. Emphasis on the easy.

The instructions for this recipe were incredibly simple, and consisted of simply dumping bottled or jarred contents into a bowl, mixing, then pouring over chicken. Upon my aunt’s recommendation, I added about 1/3 of a can of whole cranberry sauce right before putting the chicken in the oven.

Still doesn't look very appetizing, does it?

It was a nice touch, and the cranberries helped to balance the slightly salty, barbeque-like taste the onion soup and Russian dressing produced. I baked the chicken at 350* for 45 minutes, uncovered.

After the fridge, and before the oven

The final product wasn’t as good as I remembered it on Christmas Eve, but that’s probably because I wasn’t eating it surrounded by family, on a cold winter night. But, for me, I still considered this an accomplishment.

It was easy, fairly quick, and it just tastes really good. I could even see it becoming a Christmas tradition someday when I have a family, but until then, I’ll happily pull this card out of my recipe box whenever I’m in the mood for a simple, comforting, and tasty dish.