Preparation: 15 mins | Cooking time: 40 mins

We used to eat a really similar dish to this when I was a kid. While apples are often associated with pork, in this dish they add a delicious tangy sweetness to the chicken.

I added some cider on a hunch that it might enhance the flavor further and, my goodness, does it just! Absolutely delicious, and one of our family’s favorite baked chicken recipes. Nice and quick and easy. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 25g/1oz butter
• 350g/12oz boneless chicken breasts (skinned and cut into strips)
• 100g/4oz French beans (sliced roughly)
• 1 stick celery (thinly sliced)
• 25g/10z walnuts (roughly chopped)
• 2 tomatoes (sliced – skinned and seeded too if you can be bothered!)
• 1/2 green pepper (thinly sliced)
• 1/2 red pepper (thinly sliced)
• 2 dessert apples (peeled, cored and sliced)
• 600ml/1 pint medium dry cider (too sweet will ruin things I think)
• Salt and black pepper
• 1 tablespoon corn flour, dissolved in a splash of the cider
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh mint

Instructions

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C, Gas Mark 4.

First off, melt the butter in a flameproof casserole. When it starts foaming (but before it burns) add the chicken strips and fry. Stir them for about 3 minutes but be careful not to color them too much.

Then add the beans, celery, walnuts, tomatoes, peppers and apples. Mix it all together really well, without breaking up the vegetables, and then pour in cider. Add a bit of salt and pepper for seasoning.

Bring it all to the boil then cover and bake in a pre-heated oven for around 35 minutes.

Remove the lid, stir in the corn flour. Lift the casserole pot out of the oven and bring the bake carefully to boil on top of stove, stirring all the time. This will thicken the sauce up nicely!

Remove from the heat. Garnish the top with the chopped mint and serve with roasted potatoes and buttered zucchini (or courgette) and/or carrots.

As baked chicken recipes go, I think this one’s a winner. Let me know what you think.