Second Time Around: Apricot Chicken

It is really fun sometimes to make something again. I like figuring out what I can do better on the second time around, and analyzing what I liked and didn't like about a recipe. The second time making a dish is where you perfect it. And luckily, I can go back now and see what I thought before! Tonight I decided to make Apricot Chicken with Balsamic Vinegar. This dish was one of the first recipes I wrote about on The Dinner Blog! I really enjoyed it, but one thing in particular that struck me was that it needed to be cooked in a bigger pot, more appropriate for browning meat and braising. Now I have my dutch oven.


As I expected, the chicken (I used boneless skinless chicken thighs instead of tenderloins, its cheaper and more flavorful) browned much more evenly than it had before. Wider shallow shape allowed for all of the chicken to be braised completely covered in sauce, and that in turn, thickened the sauce more as well. I also used about a 1/4 cup more of balsamic vinegar, remembering that I'd felt the sauce could have been more tart last time. It all worked beautifully and the dish produced this evening was much deeper in flavor. The sauce was so rich and the chicken was tender. I served it again over multigrain pilaf that I get at TJ's, but this would also be good over any sort of rice, couscous, or pasta. My only wish is that I'd had some crusty bread to mop up the extra sauce. Next time...