Chicken and Pear found in tranquility in this sweet and savory dish…
Had it not been for the Royal Foodie Joust contest at the leftover queen forum, I wouldn’t have dared to put chicken and pears together. And that’s the one thing I love about this contest, it challenges me and wakes up the daring Me to cook with ingredient combination that I’ve never thought of. This is the first time I am participating in this contest and so I am really excited about the whole thing. The winners of each month gets to pick the ingredients for the next month contest, so the ingredients for this month picked by the winners are Ginger, Fennel and Pears. Pretty interesting ingredients I must say.
Fennel and Ginger are two ingredients which I use in my everyday cooking. Most of the Indian dishes I cook, Kerala dishes to be precise call for these ingredients most of the time. Hence, I can effortlessly list many recipes with these two ingredients. But when I saw pear as the third ingredient to be used, I knew it’s going to be little tough, but certainly not impossible. I’ve never made a savory dish with pear, it has always remained as a fruit or a dessert ingredient for me. And so I immediately felt this is the only chance for me to make something different with pear.
I made Pear Chicken, along with other ingredients ginger and fennel powder. I pan seared the chicken seasoned with fennel powder and made a sauce with pears and then allowed to cook the chicken in the sauce. As soon as I took a bite of this chicken with the pears, my eyes opened wide with astonishment, it tasted really delicious. My husband and I loved the sweet and the savory taste the chicken had.
Ingredients:
- Boneless Chicken breast fillets- 6
- Fennel powder- 2 tbsp
- Ground black pepper- 2tsp
- Salt- to taste
- All purpose flour- 1/2 cup
- Butter- 1 tbsp
- Olive oil- 2 tbsp
For Sauce:
- Onion, finely chopped-1
- Ginger chopped- 1tbsp
- Low sodium Chicken stock- 1cup
- Pears canned in light syrup, rinsed or fresh pears-2
Instruction:
- Season the chicken generously with fennel powder, ground black pepper and salt.
- Spread the all purpose flour on a plate. Dip the chicken in the flour and coat all over the chicken with the flour. Shake off the excess flour.
- In a wide deep skillet, add butter and oil, place the chicken and brown on both sides until it is no longer pink inside, in medium heat.
- Keep aside the browned chicken.
- In the same skillet, add more oil if needed and add onion, saute until translucent.
- Add chopped ginger and cook till ginger is tender.
- Add the chicken stock, when it starts to boil, add the pears and cook until the sauce thickens, don’t over cook the pears.
- Place the browned chicken in the sauce, cover with the pan lid and again cook for 2 more minutes and turn off the heat.
- Plate the chicken topped with pears and pour the sauce over it.
- Serve the chicken with couscous and baby carrots or steamed veggies of your choice.
Tips:
- Leftover Chicken tasted even more better with the sauce completely infused in it, so this can be made 1 day ahead.
- Boneless Chicken breast fillets- 6
- Fennel powder- 2 tbsp
- Ground black pepper- 2tsp
- Salt- to taste
- All purpose flour- ½ cup
- Butter- 1 tbsp
- Olive oil- 2 tbsp
- Onion, finely chopped-1
- Ginger chopped- 1tbsp
- Low sodium Chicken stock- 1cup
- Pears canned in light syrup, rinsed or fresh pears-2
- Season the chicken generously with fennel powder, ground black pepper and salt.
- Spread the all purpose flour on a plate. Dip the chicken in the flour and coat all over the chicken with the flour. Shake off the excess flour.
- In a wide deep skillet, add butter and oil, place the chicken and brown on both sides until it is no longer pink inside, in medium heat.
- Keep aside the browned chicken.
- In the same skillet, add more oil if needed and add onion, saute until translucent.
- Add chopped ginger and cook till ginger is tender.
- Add the chicken stock, when it starts to boil, add the pears and cook until the sauce thickens, don't over cook the pears.
- Place the browned chicken in the sauce, cover with the pan lid and again cook for 2 more minutes and turn off the heat.
- Plate the chicken topped with pears and pour the sauce over it.
- Serve the chicken with couscous and baby carrots or steamed veggies of your choice.
