Chicken with Gingered Pear-and-Apple Sauce

We're getting back into the swing of things after the tornado and the usual-end-of-year craziness (choir concerts, final soccer game, and a sleepover with 102 girl scouts). It was Hannah's night to cook last night and even though we were both blurry eyed from the 1 a.m. lights out at the sleepover, she managed to whip up a little something for her A to Z's of Fruits and Vegetables.

Chicken with Gingered Pear-and-Apple Sauce comes from Weight Watchers New 365 Day Menu Cooking (though it was published in 1996, so at this point it's not exactly "new"! It was one of the first cookbooks we purchased to get out of the rut of our early cooking routine).

(photo and styling courtesy Hannah)

Ingredients:

• 1 pound skinless boneless cooked chicken breasts, sliced
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil (though we substituted olive oil, as we usually do)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped shallots
• 2 teaspoons grated pared fresh ginger root
• pinch of ground allspice
• pinch salt
• pinch freshly ground black pepper
• 2 large or 4 small pears, pared, cored and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 small red Delicious apple, cored and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/2 cup apple juice
• 2 fluid ounces (1/4 cup) of dry white wine
• 1/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• lemon slices to garnish

Warning! Cutting shallots...

can be dangerous to your health!

(can you see the tears?!?)

Seems Hannah has inherited my super-sensitivity to onions.


Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees F. Adjust over rack and divide oven in half.

2. Wrap chicken in foil; bake in center of oven from 8 minutes, until warmed.

3. Meanwhile, in medium nonstick skillet, heat oil; add shallots, ginger, allspice, salt and pepper. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, 3 minutes, until shallots are softened.

4. Add pears, apple, juice, wine and zest to shallot mixture; cook, stirring gently, 5 minutes, until fruits are softened.

5. Plate and serve.

Reviews:

Chef Hannah - 4 stars out of 5. I liked the chicken. It was cooked right. I didn't really like the chicken with the pears and stuff because I liked the chicken a lot and the pears had a little tang in it with lemon in it. That's why I didn't really like the pears. And I didn't really like the pears alone because that was just way, way too much tang.

Olivia - It was good, but I didn't even know what the stuff was so I was just eating randomly.

Jason - It was fair. I thought the apples and pears might have a little bit more of a taste. It was very subtle.

Tanya - I thought it was good. Not great, but good. The taste of the pears and apple was subtle, but good when mixed with chicken. Hannah served her meal with a boatload of steamed broccoli, which I love (even if it's not good for me).