Chicken with orange-chipotle reduction

Posted on October 4th, 2007 by Jeff

The sauce for this chicken when reduced creates a concentrated sweet flavor with a definate smoked jalapeno kick.

First gather up all your ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 scallion finely chopped
1.5 cups of orange juice (about 6 oranges squeezed)
1tb white wine vinegar (if you don’t have this regular white vinegar will be fine)
1 Chipotle chopped fine and about 1 tb of the adobo sauce (For the remaining pack them in ziploc bags with some of the sauce and stash in the freezer)
3 tb honey
1 tb dijon mustard
1/3 cup Simple syrup (if you don’t have any laying around combine 1 part water to 2 part sugar and dissolve over high heat)
Salt and pepper
Crushed red pepper
Flour
High smoke point oil (I am using light olive oil)

For the bowl layout the following should be used:

Sauce
Shallot
Chipotle

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

To create the sauce combine a pinch of salt, pinch of pepper, orange juice, pinch of crushed red pepper, dijon mustard, honey, simple syrup, adobo sauce, and vinegar. Stir to combine.

After the sauce has been made it is time to dredge the chicken. Basically we want to dry off the chicken with paper towels, season the chicken with a dash of salt and pepper, and then roll it around in flour. So on one plate put some flour down and have an empty plate next to it.

We are ready so lay everything out on the counter.

The first thing we want to do is get a pan to hot and put in a couple tb of oil. After the oil is hot go ahead and add the chicken in and let it brown for a couple of minutes. Flip and brown the other side.

Once the chicken is brown go ahead and remove it from the pan and set it on a plate to rest.

Next we want to add the shallot and cook very quickly for 30 seconds. Add the chopped chipotle and cook for 30 seconds. Finally add in the container of sauce. Reduce the heat to medium and stir to remove any stuck pieces from the bottom of the pan. You want to reduce this down to about 1 cup.

About halfway through.

Down to a cup.

Add the chicken back to the pan and roll around in the sauce to coat the chicken. Place the chicken uncovered in the oven and cook till done (about 15-20 minutes).