Pomegranate Reduction Chicken Breasts and CousCous

Pomegranate Reduction Chicken Breasts & CousCous

I was watching the Food Network this past weekend in the middle of the day, which rarely happens. One of the shows had a Pomegranate molasses game hens with Israeli CousCous dish – this is my modification to the recipes. I don’t see me taking the time to ever cook a game hen, but who knows.

Ingredients for the Chicken dish:

· 4 bone-in, skin on Chicken Breast

· Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or whatever kind you like)

· Kosher salt

· 1 bottle (16 ounces, give or take) Pomegranate juice

· 1 cup sugar

· 1 frozen garlic clove, or one minced fresh garlic clove

· Sliced scallion greens for garnish

(FULL DISCLOSURE: I only made two chicken breasts, but you can easily do four – there was enough of the couscous to accommodate four chicken breasts.

The original recipe I found called for Pomegranate syrup to be used as the glaze. I looked in three different grocery stores (NOT including the “sh*tty kitty,” because I can’t even find the most BASIC stuff in there, but that’s another rant for another day), so I decided to make my own reduction. I bought a bottle of pomegranate juice. I tasted the juice before beginning, and it was sweet, I thought. But after the reduction process, it lost that sweetness. I found other recipes online that called for sugar when making a syrup out of the juice, and in retrospect I wish I had added the sugar, so I’m including that step in this recipe. BUT, if you’re looking to save the calories, I’m sure you can use Splenda, or like me, just go without. It was still quite tasty.)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Start your reduction – it took about 50 minutes. Pour the bottle (16 oz at least) into a small sauce pan. Add the sweetener if you want. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce to simmer for about 50 minutes – stir occasionally, and just keep an eye on it. When it's about done, remove from heat and stir in one cube of frozen garlic. IF YOU HAVE NOT TRIED READY-PREPARED FROZEN GARLIC, YOU ARE MISSING OUT! I found these at Trader Joe's ($1.99) and ALWAYS keep them in my freezer. I love fresh garlic - these are wonderful little fresh garlic that has been frozen - and there's no other ingredients besides garlic. No more using the garlic press and having yet one more thing to clean up - or getting garlic all over my hands. Get yo'self some.

As the reduction is happening, you can start prepping the Couscous by doing all the chopping. Or pouring yourself a glass of wine and reading a magazine. It's really up to you. This blog started as a wine blog, so we need to throw that in there.

Coat a large skillet with olive oil. Generously salt and pepper the skin side of the chicken breast, and cook, skin side down, covered, for 7 minutes to get the skin nice and brown. Turn the chicken and season the underside of the chicken, then cook for three minutes.

Remove the chicken from the pan. Place the chicken in a baking dish, skin side up, and generously coat the chicken with your reduction. It will literally "stick" to the chicken.

Cook the chicken for 25 minutes, pulling out 1/2 way through the baking time and generously slathering the meat with the pomegranate reduction.

During this chicken cooking time, you can get the Couscous ready! The original recipe doesn't call for Kale in it, but I decided with the "sweet" taste going on it it, the Kale might balance it a bit. And I love Kale. And it's a Kale time of the year. And this is probably the only way I'm going to get my husband to eat Kale. Also, the recipe didn't comment on what kind of Couscous to use - the smaller grain, or the bigger "pearl" type. I chose the pearl type, and it was absolutely delicious and I highly recommend you do as well. The cooking directions for the Couscous itself is different than what is on the container, but this works. TRUST me ... ;-)

Ingredients:

· Kosher salt (any salt will work - I use sea salt)

· 2 cups Israeli couscous

· 2 cups Kale, cut into strips

· 1 clove of frozen garlic

· Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

· 1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted

· 1 cup chicken stock

· 1 seeded pomegranate

· 1/2 cup dried apricots, cut into small pieces

· 4 scallions, white and green parts, thinly cut

Directions:

Generously salt a 4 qt pot of water. Once the water starts to boil, add two cups of the couscous, cooking for five minutes. Add the two cups of Kale (if you like your Kale a little more stronger tasting and less cooked, don't add the Kale until the very end). Cook an additional two minutes. Drain the couscous.

Meanwhile, in that same, wonderful pan that you prepped the chicken, warm back up to medium high heat. Add one cube of the garlic, the red pepper flakes, and stir around. Add 1/2 cup of the almonds to toast them. Once the almounds are toasted, add the cooked couscous and the chicken stock, cooking until the chicken stock is reduced by half. Then, add the rest of the ingredients and stir generously. Then taste it to make sure it is as delicious as it looks. And it is!

NOT TO BE FORGOTTEN was the wonderful bottle of Veritas Viognior that was a wonderful edition to this absolutely yummy dinner (http://veritaswines.com/about.htm) - there's a good chance we have the last of the Viognior in our fridge ... you can't even get it at the winery right now.

Bon Appetite!