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Apricot chicken is a dish that was often considered to be a staple of American cooking, especially so in the nineteen seventies. However, in recent years, apricot chicken has somewhat fallen out of fashion. Despite this though, a meal consisting of some sticky apricot chicken is still well-liked by many and is still a chicken recipe that many others are curious to try for themselves. As such, if wanting to try out cooking an easy apricot chicken recipe then you may be completely clueless about what to serve with apricot chicken. If so, then don’t worry, we will help you find some great options to try with apricot chicken.
Table of Contents
- What Is Apricot Chicken?
- What Goes With Apricot Chicken?
- How To Make Apricot Chicken?
- What To Serve With Apricot Chicken?
- Answered: What To Serve With Apricot Chicken?
- FAQ – What To Serve With Apricot Chicken?
What Is Apricot Chicken?
If you’ve never tried some apricot chicken before, then you may be unsure exactly what this dish is and indeed where it comes from. Now, this is a dish with somewhat of an unusual origin since it was created by The Lipton Company as another method for using dried soup mix that was introduced in 1952 to America.
However, apricots themselves are from Asia. Additionally, apricot chicken is like many meat dishes in fruit-based sticky sauce such as lemon or orange chicken. As such, to some, this dish is considered to be something of a fusion dish.
The dish itself though is a chicken dish that can be used with chicken breasts, chicken thighs and with or without skin that is coated in an apricot sauce that acts as a glaze. Often, it will also be marinated in this sauce as well which provides extra wonderfully sticky skin to the dish.
What Goes With Apricot Chicken?
When it comes to deciding what to serve with your apricot chicken, there is a multitude of options that you can pair with this wonderful dish. Now, this is something of a well known and well-loved family favourite way from yesteryear to cook chicken whether baking, using a slow cooker or any other method.
Of course, with such a delicious dish like this though, there is a multitude of options for what you can pair with this dish. Like with a lot of other dishes though there are a few ways that you can go about serving other dishes with your apricot chicken. These are to either try to contrast with the flavours and textures present within the dish or to double down on them.
In order to do so though, it is important to identify the main qualities of the apricot chicken so that you are able to perfectly pair them with other dishes. As such, there’s the savoury, juicy and crispy yet tender chicken and the sticky, sweet and fruity apricot chicken sauce.
How To Make Apricot Chicken?
If you’ve never made some apricot chicken but are curious about trying your hand at making some for yourself, you may be unsure where to start. Fortunately, the process for making this is actually relatively simple and can be made with an assortment of simple ingredients that can be easily found in most supermarkets. With that in mind then, when making yourself some apricot chicken you should get the ingredients and follow the methodology found below:
Apricot Chicken Ingredients
As mentioned above, apricot chicken is an excellent option for a delicious dish that is made from an assortment of easy to find ingredients. This factor combined with the simple recipe and deliciously flavoured dish makes it a great option. With that in mind then, when making some apricot chicken at home you will need the following ingredients:
- Three to four pounds chicken whether breasts and thighs, with or without the skin or bones
- A hundred and thirty grams of apricot jam or apricot preserves
- Two tablespoons of soy sauce
- Two tablesppons of brown sugar
- One teaspoon of red pepper flakes
- One tablespoon of dijon mustard
- One clove of minced garlic
- Three tablespoons of all purpose flour
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Three to five tablespoons of olive oil or vegetable oil
- One tablespoon of honey
- Two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
Apricot Chicken Recipe
When you are making an apricot chicken dish, there is an assortment of options for doing so. There are a wide array of methods that you can employ to do with slow cooker apricot chicken or a fried apricot chicken being possible options. However, the option that our recipe will use is to make baked chicken with an apricot sauce. As such to do so, adhere to the recipe below:
- In order to ensure that the dish cooks evenly you should preheat your oven to 230 Degrees Celsius (or 450 Degrees Fahrenheit). Doing this will also help to prevent the thermal shock from occurring to a Pyrex baking sheet or dish.
- Mix together the ingredients required to make your apricot mixture. These will be the apricot jam/preserves, minced garlic, soy sauce, vegetable/olive oil, honey, dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar and brown sugar.
- Season your chicken with salt, pepper, chilli flakes and some extra garlic. Following which, layer the chicken in a baking dish ensuring that they don’t overlap.
- Pour the apricot sauce mixture over the chicken in the baking tray. Following which, roast it for roughly thirty to thirty five minutes, ensuring that the chicken is fully cooked. If using a thermometer, the internal temperature of the chicken should read roughly 75°C (or 165°F).
- When the chicken has fully cooked then you should remove it from the oven and allowing it to rest for around five minutes. After which it is ready to be plated up and served.
- If you have any remaining apricot mixture it can heated up and thickened in a saucepan on the hob for around five minutes. Following which the extra sauce can be poured atop the dish to make it extra saucy.
What To Serve With Apricot Chicken?
When deciding on what to serve with your apricot chicken you may already have a bit of a grasp on what you should serve with this dish. Equally, however, you may have absolutely no idea what you should be serving with a meal of this nature. Fortunately though, like with deciding what to serve with jerk chicken or on some butter chicken sides there is a multitude of options you can have alongside the apricot chicken.
- Broccolli Florets
- Green Beans
- Rice
- Onions
- Peppers
- Roasted Potatoes
- Simple Salad
Broccoli Florets
Due to apricot chicken being a delicious mix of sweet and sticky sauce along with savoury and juicy chicken it is an incredibly flavourful and rich dish. As such an effective accompanying side dish to your main will balance this out by contrasting these traits.
With this in mind then roasted broccoli florets make for an excellent choice by providing earthy, nutty and slightly bitter tastes to the dish. Meanwhile texture-wise they can bring some delicious additional crunch and crispiness to the overall meal.
When making these to be used with your apricot chicken, there is an assortment of ways of using broccoli florets in the dish. Naturally, one way is to incorporate the florets into your baked apricot chicken baking dish, coating them with the sauce and baking them together with the chicken.
Another way to do so though is to bake them separately on a sheet pan. When doing so though, you should season them in an assortment of different ways.
One option for which is to season them with garlic powder, red pepper flakes and some lemon juice. Each of which will bring some extra contrast and flavour to the dish whilst also providing some extra synergy to the dish. Another way though that leads to some more pronounced contrast to your apricot chicken, then seasoning it with olive oil, parmesan cheese, garlic powder and black pepper is a great option.
Green Beans
Another green veggie that is perfect for near enough any meat-based dish, including apricot chicken, is of course some green beans. This is because when served alongside the main star of the meal, it is like the broccoli will provide some earthy flavour along with some extra crunchy texture.
When you are cooking green beans there is a multitude of methods that you can use to cook them. Some great classic ways of doing so are to steam or boil them. However, perhaps the best and most delicious option is to saute your green beans.
Sauteing green beans is a truly delicious, simple and quick way to cook them effectively. Simply sauteing them in butter, vinegar, sugar and potentially alongside some shallots will produce amazing restaurant-quality results with a combination of flavours that both reflect and contrast those found in the apricot chicken.
Rice
Of course, a dish that is potentially inspired by Asian cuisine like apricot chicken will of course be one that pairs excellently with rice. Of course, this is the case with a wide variety of main dishes though. However, for a recipe like this, the sticky sauce will mix wonderfully with the fluffy rice that will soak it up fantastically.
Of course, there are a wide variety of ways that you can prepare rice for serving with a dish like this. Two great options of course are jasmine rice and basmati rice as these long-grain varieties will soak up sauce more effectively.
Additionally, white rice will allow the flavours of the main dish to truly stand out whilst also adding some extra fluffy texture. Meanwhile, brown rice can bring in some additionally extra earthy flavours that will naturally bring extra nuanced and complex flavour to the meal overall.
If you want to make a more hearty rice side dish, then making some egg fried rice is to serve alongside your main apricot chicken dish. Naturally, there are a variety of ways to make this dish. However, when planning to serve egg fried rice with this dish, keeping it simple is best as it keeps the apricot chicken as the main dish.
Onions
Another excellent option to serve alongside your apricot chicken in order to provide some wonderful contrast to the taste and texture of the dish. Now of course onions are like rice a great option for pairing with near enough main dish. However, like with other similar dishes like orange or lemon chicken, onions can be a particularly great complementary option with apricot chicken.
Like with broccoli, they will be great for use as an addition to the core apricot chicken dish. When you add onions to the dish in this way they will cook in the sauce and become soft but crunchy which adds extra layers to texture to the dish. Additionally, they will also bring in addition of extra sweetness to the meal by caramelising them and therefore leaning into the flavours already present.
Alternatively though, if preparing something like the aforementioned egg fried rice to your meal, then incorporating some onions to that side dish makes for a wonderful combination. These can be in the form of caramelised onions or an assortment of other types such as shallots or spring onions.
Peppers
In a similar vein to onions, peppers are an excellent option for adding some extra crunch and flavour into the apricot chicken dish. Here though, the peppers will bring in some additional spice to the dish alongside some crunch and potentially additional sweet flavours.
Now of course these can be implemented into some egg fried rice or into the apricot chicken bake itself. However, another option is to of course cook them separately by either baking them or frying them with some simple seasoning.
When you are preparing them separately though, peppers can be cooked alongside other vegetables. Of course, when using the oven to cook them, making a selection of roasted vegetables is a great idea. When doing so, including peppers, broccoli, onions, potatoes and a variety of other choices would make for a great selection to pair with your main dish.
Roasted Potatoes
Another wonderful veggie option for serving with this dish is of course some hearty roasted potatoes. As mentioned above, they are can be included in an assortment of mixed roasted vegetables. However, they can also be served by themselves are even potentially within the same dish as the chicken and apricot sauce.
Like with broccoli, the type of seasoning that is used with roasted potatoes can dramatically change the way that they taste dramatically. One option of course is to simply season it with some fresh herbs. However, another more elaborate option is to sprinkle them with some grated parmesan cheese and garlic powder. This like with the broccoli option mentioned above will add a mix of great flavours that both reflect and contrast with those found in apricot chicken.
Another option though is to use some sweet potatoes for roasted potatoes. This is because when used with apricot chicken this will really lean into the sweetness of the dish by adding a syrupy sweetness to the meal. That said though, it will also bring in the wonderful earthy flavour and crunch that potatoes are known for.
Simple Salad
If you’re looking for a more healthy option for what to have with your apricot chicken, then having a simple salad alongside it is a wonderful idea. The reasoning is that the rich apricot chicken will contrast brilliantly with a fresh salad that brings in a sense of lightness to the meal, along with an assortment of delicious flavours,
When it comes to some salad ideas, there are a few options that you use to pair with apricot chicken. One great example is a simple arugula salad that incorporates lemon juice, olive oil, thinly sliced shallots and shaved parmesan cheese.
Meanwhile, other options include another classic green salad made up from an assortment of other veggies. However, more elaborate options are also a great idea. Some ideas include salad varieties such as Caesar salads, greek salad or potentially a more elaborate arugula salad which also features creamy goat’s cheese and crunchy apples.
Answered: What To Serve With Apricot Chicken?
When you are deciding on a side dish to have alongside your apricot chicken, there is an assortment of options that you can serve alongside it. Due to being a dish that is incredibly rich and saucy, these options will often play second fiddle to the main dish in order for the meal to not be overwhelming.
That said though, the options that can be served alongside your apricot chicken can mirror the dish, contrast with it or potentially be a hybrid of the two. With that in mind then, these will all complement the main dish in some significant manner.
With that in mind then, the above options are truly the tip of the iceberg when it comes to serving a side alongside your apricot chicken. This means that if they have given you some ideas of your own for apricot chicken sides, then you absolutely try them. After all, cooking is more an art than a science so you may end up stumbling upon something truly special.
FAQ – What To Serve With Apricot Chicken?
Can you freeze cooked apricot chicken?
Apricot chicken can be easily frozen very simple and can last in the freezer for roughly six months. When freezing it though, you should always try to keep it sealed in an airtight container to keep it fresh.
What do you eat apricot preserves with?
Apricot preserves can be eaten in or with a variety of options. Some examples of such include apricot chicken, on buttered toast, atop breakfast porridge, mixed in yoghurt, atop pancakes or even on some cheese on toast.
What goes well with apricot jam?
Apricot jam is an excellent option to serve with a variety of different options. Some great possibilities include buttered toast, atop breakfast porridge, mixed in yoghurt, atop pancakes, on toast or even on some cheese on toast.
Where did apricot chicken come from?
Apricot chicken was created by The Lipton Company as another method for using dried soup mix that was introduced in 1952 to America. That said though, apricots are from Asia and the dish of apricot chicken is similar to Asian dishes such as lemon or orange chicken. As such, apricot chicken can potentially be considered a fusion dish.
