This is an elegant way to make a whole lot of chicken that tastes really, really good. It’s kind of sweet and sour; sweet from the apricot preserves and the plums and sour from the bit of vinegar that I add. But what makes this dish are the sage leaves. They give a distinctive taste to the dish and make it a beautiful, festive platter that you can really be proud of.
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 50 min |
| Prep: | 10 min |
| Cook: | 40 min |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 roasting chickens, cut into pieces
- 1 (12-ounce) jar apricot preserves
- 15 medium dried plums, pitted
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 3 pinches salt
- 20 grinds black pepper
- 10 cloves garlic, peeled
- 20 to 30 sage leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Trim any extra fat from the chicken pieces and transfer them to a large roasting pan or broiler pan. If you don’t have a roasting pan that’s large enough, use 2 identical 13 by 9-inch baking pans.
- Toss all of the ingredients together with the chicken until the chicken is evenly coated with the sauce. Arrange the chicken pieces skin-side up in the pan, spaced evenly apart.
- If you’re looking to prepare in advance, you can do everything up to this point and cover the roasting dishes and refrigerate until you’re ready to roast the chicken.
- Roast, uncovered, until the tops of the chicken pieces are browned and the chicken is cooked through, and the juices run clear, about 35 to 40 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 412 calorie |
| Total Fat | 13 grams |
| Saturated Fat | 2 grams |
| Cholesterol | 115 milligrams |
| Sodium | 238 milligrams |
| Carbohydrates | 37 grams |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 grams |
| Protein | 36 grams |
| Sugar | 29 grams |
Reviews
I am so disappointed. All the reviews were so good. However, a bit of it may be user error. I cut the chicken into pieces as directed, I put tinfoil on the pan as I had read in other reviews. But the chicken was overcooked – user error I’m sure. But most of the sauce burned right away. I read to use sugar free preserves in one review. I’m wondering if the sauce had too much sugar and that is what burned? The chicken didn’t have much flavor, but I think that was because there was very little sauce to cover the chicken. But, I’m not giving up. I will try cooking the chicken whole instead of cut up and try sugar free preserves. Hopefully the next try will be good!
I will likely serve this with rice. But when entertaining what additional (and elegant) side would you recommend? Would love some suggestions!
This recipe is so easy and delicious. The chicken is cooked perfectly and is moist and flavorful. I used chicken thighs. The key for me is the sage. I make sure that the plums are covered in sauce or tucked underneath the chicken, so that they do not burn. Thanks Dave for a wonderful recipe. I miss your show.
This is a tasty easy recipe. I appreciated the comments about lining a pan with tinfoil because I ended up with some burned on garlic and prunes and a couple of smaller chicken parts that were adhered by the skin to the bottom on the pan. I think I may have needed more sauce. I only used one 4 lb. roaster chicken, instead of 2 as called for, and halved the amount of sauce. It had a huge breast about 1 lb per each half. This seems to be the standard size now. I have tried to get smaller breasts at the butcher but haven’t see any. I have come to the conclusion that I should cut them in half so that I have four pieces of breast. I didn’t do that for this recipe. While I end up with some burning on the bottom of the pan, the chicken was perfectly cooked and moist. I will use the full recipe for the sauce next time with a single chicken. I added a little more white vinegar because I like the more contrast to the sweetness. I used the Trader Joe’s Preserves as another reviewer did.
This recipe remains our favorite chicken recipe for the last 9 years since the episode aired in 2005! We love it. We use lots of the prunes and lots of garlic. The house smell terrific also/bonus. It’s a refreshing change from most chicken recipes. We always make sure to use the sugar free “simply apricot” jam .
This dish was seriously delicious, next time I would add more dried plums and more sage leaves, but the flavors were tangy and sweet and the chicken turned out nice and juicy.
Nothing wrong with it, but after eating the top of the chicken, it was just chicken..no depth of flavor…It was fine, but I won’t make again. It did look pretty presented though
Very easy. The garlic was not done. Tasty.
Perfect work/school night dinner. Extremely easy to make and clean up. Unique taste that will blow you away!
I made this using 6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts since it’s healthier, and I had never cut down a whole chicken before. I cooked them for 50 minutes as another reviewer suggested. This was without a doubt the best chicken I have ever made. Perfectly moist and very flavorful. Whatever pan you use though, make sure it is 100% lined with foil before it goes in the oven. At 50 minutes the sauce blackened to the pan and it would have been ruined. I’m sure you could have used up to 8 breasts with the amount of sauce there was, but I only needed 6.