Easy Sweet and Sour Catalina Chicken

Yesterday was busy-busy. Get the SUV washed, go to Sam's, fill up that SUV with the cheap gas at Sam's, come home and unload all that bulk stuff from Sam's.  Put it all away. Take a shower, get dressed, go to doctor's appointment, go by Walmart on the way home to pick up stuff for the blog post recipe and the other items that I couldn't get at Sam's.  Wait for that crazy thunderstorm to clear a little while shopping and enjoy the power flickering and the rain pounding the roof of Walmart.  Drive home and put all that Walmart stuff away and then prepare the recipe for the blog post for Thursday.  Ahhhh...it's in the oven and I can finally sit down and check my email.  Oh, looky there!  Jen posted a recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken!  What are the odds that we would pick the same type of recipe to post this week?  No worries, though, because they are slightly different.  It's all good.  No, really it is yummy good.

Ingredients:

1 cup Apricot-Pineapple Preserves

1 small (8-oz.) bottle of Catalina dressing

1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar

1 pkg. dry onion soup mix

3 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Heat a large oven-proof skillet or dutch oven to medium-high heat on the stove top.

2.  While pan is heating, place jam, Catalina dressing, vinegar, and 1/2 of the onion soup packet in a bowl and stir to combine.  Set sauce aside.

3.  Sprinkle remaining onion soup mix onto chicken pieces and pat on all sides with clean hands. (I cut my chicken breasts into smaller chunks)

4.  Drizzle olive oil into hot pan to coat bottom of pan.  Place chicken pieces in and cook without moving them for 2 minutes.  Turn chicken to other side and cook for 2 more minutes.

5.  Pour sauce over chicken and spread evenly over the pieces.  Place pan in oven, uncovered, and cook until chicken measures 165 degrees on a meat thermometer.  I let these cook for about 30 minutes, then checked the temperature and cooked them for a few more minutes.

6.  Remove from oven and let cool at least 10 minutes.  Serve chicken and sauce over hot white rice.

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