Mandarin Chicken Bake

A couple months ago Brad surprised me with cooking dinner. Well I should clarify that the surprise wasn't the cooking part as he will do that from time to time but rather that he pulled out a cookbook to find a recipe! You see, Brad is more of those "a little of this, and a little of that" and doesn't like anything that requires too much effort, time, and more importantly dishes.

Anyway, Brad found a recipe for Pineapple Chicken Bake in my America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. And guess what, we didn't have pineapple in our pantry for whatever reason so he thought, why not mandarin oranges? Also, I have yet to buy curry powder since Brad isn't a big fan so we decided that chili powder would be an acceptable substitute and we chopped whole almonds in our food processor rather than going out to buy sliced ones. 30 minutes later, we had a deliciously spicy yet sweet chicken with the wonderful crunch of almonds. This has in fact becomes Brad's Signature Dish. Quick, easy, delicious, and not too many dishes. One last mention, we made this recipe again last night only to find that we didn't have soy sauce, so we used teriyaki and it still turned out great. Plus, we use one of our corningware dishes that fits right inside of our Toaster Oven which Brad loves...you know, less energy used therefore cheaper ;o)

Mandarin Chicken Bake
adapted from America's Test Kitchen's Pineapple Chicken Bake

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (6 to 8 ounces each), trimmed
• Salt and Pepper
• 2 cans (11 ounces each) Mandarin Chicken in juice
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 Tablespoon Cider Vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
• 2 teaspoons Chili Powder
• 1 teaspoon Tabasco
• 1 teaspoon Cornstarch
• 1 Tablespoon water
• 1/3 cup chopped almonds

 
Adjust an oven rack to the upper position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Lay the chicken in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish coasted lightly with vegetable oil spray.
Drain the mandarin oranges, reserving 1/2 cup of the juice (about the amount of one can). Whisk the mandarin juice, honey, vinegar, soy sauce, chili powder, and Tabasco together in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Simmer, whisking often, until the mixture has thickened, about 8 minutes.

Quickly dissolve the cornstarch in the water, then whisk into the honey mixture. Stir in the mandarin oranges.

Pour the mandarin sauce over the chicken, then sprinkle with the almonds.

 Bake until the chicken registers 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, 15 to 18 minutes.