Baked Chicken and Fruit

As I mentioned another day, I own many cookbooks and I don't get to read them often enough to remember what I want to try... 

This particular recipe was the dinner I made when we had our first post-baby dinner party. Our neighbors had a baby one week older than ours so we shared this casserole one night. It comes from The Big Book of Casseroles by Maryana Vollstedt. 

Baked Chicken and Fruit (pictured before it goes into the oven): 

1 chicken, cut into serving pieces (3 to 3.5 pounds)

[I have always used about a pound of chicken breasts, cut into small chunks]

salt and pepper to taste

paprika [I don't have any today]

1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil [I use olive]

1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds

1/4 cup golden raisins [I use golden and regular, we like raisins]

1 cup pineapple chunks [I use one can]

4 peach halves [I use one can sliced peaches]

8 dried prunes [I skip]

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

2 cups orange juice

1. Preheat oven to 350. Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper and paprika.

2. In Dutch Oven, over medium high heat, warm one tablespoon oil. Brown chicken until golden, five minutes on each side. Add more oil if needed. Add remaining ingredients. 

3. Cover and bake until chicken is no longer pink in the middle, about 50 minutes. Baste with sauce while cooking. Remove

 lid and cook 10 minutes longer. [I don't imagine the covering and uncovering is necessa

ry with my little pieces.] 

I made brown rice to accompany. My husband had three plates. I had three small scoops, which more or less equaled one big serving. My daughter ate one serving. I divided the leftovers into three containers: two containers each with one serving for an adult lunch and one big container with enough for all of us to have for dinner. If I had to figure it out, I would guess the whole batch cost less than $10 to make and more or less covered three meals for the family.