Spicy Apple Chicken with Gorgonzola Orzo

This is my "go-to" dinner, when I want to be impressive, but I just don't have "impressive" time. It is seriously the easiest thing to throw together, so easy, that tonight, for the first time, I actually paid attention to, and measured the ingredients. Normally, I just throw the ingredients in the pan. It's 15 minutes prep, and 45 minutes to bake, but it's a complete meal, not to mention low in fat. And, if I do say so myself, it's just SO yummy!

You will need:

3-4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (whatever comes in the package)

1 Onion

1 Apple

1/2 cup Apple Butter (from yesterday's recipe, or store bought)

1/2 cup Spicy Brown Mustard

1 cup Orzo (or other small pasta, like Israeli Couscous)

3-4 oz. Crumbled Gorgonzola (whatever comes prepackaged)

8x8 baking pan

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Slice your apple and your onion (slice your onion like it's an apple) and drop in your baking pan. Cover with your chicken breasts (clean and trim them if you have time, but if you don't care, just plop 'em on)(see picture).

In a separate bowl, mix your apple butter and mustard together. Slather the apple & mustard sauce over the whole thing, making sure to completely cover the chicken (this will keep the chicken moist). Put the baking pan in the oven for 35-45 minutes, or until the chicken reaches 165 on a kitchen thermometer.

About 15 minutes before the chicken is done, boil your pasta according to package instructions (usually around 10 minutes). Drain, and throw back into the pot. While the pasta is still hot, stir in the gorgonzola crumbles. The heat from the pasta should melt the cheese into a sauce.

Serve the chicken over the gorgonzola orzo with some of the apples and onions from the bottom of the pan, and plenty of the apple & mustard sauce. Done. Leftovers refrigerate and reheat very well, and I even think it tastes better on the second day. Seriously easy.

Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Butter

This is the one "From Scratch" recipe I'll be posting this week. But, I realized it does kinda fit in with the spirit of the week, since I didn't invent this recipe. In fact, it's copyrighted, so I can't even copy it here. Which is making tonight's blog post super easy, since all I can do is give you a link to it!

I love this apple butter. We gave it as favors at our wedding. In fact, this jar is one we canned for our wedding, six years ago. I should mention that the original of this recipe is no longer available on the internet, so the link is to a slightly less spicy version. To make it the way we made it six years ago, up the cinnamon to 1 tsp., and the cloves and ginger to 1/2 tsp.

I also feel I should mention that apple butter contains no butter, unlike fruit curds, which contain TONS of butter. So, if you're looking for a delicious, not too sugary, non-fat fruit spread, I say go with a fruit butter.