Episode 30 How to Use Apricot Jam

In this episode, Kathy shares ways to use up home canned apricot jam.

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Recipes

In this episode you'll learn:

Different ways to use up a surplus of jam
An easy recipe perfect for weeknight dinners

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Transcript

Hello everyone. Welcome back to the pantry. I was recently in my pantry looking at some of my canned goods that I canned last summer and was realizing I have some items I really need to use up.

One of the items that we haven't used a lot of since I made this summer is Apricot Jam. We kind of go through these phases where we eat a ton of one type of jam.

Maybe it's raspberry or peach, or apricot or blackberry. And then we always have an excess of some jams, and right now we seem to have an excess of apricot jam.

So I wanted to share a few ways that I'm gonna be using that jam up. . We of course, like to use it for breakfast in the morning with on our toast or on a bagel or on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

But I have a lot of recipes that also use jam as an ingredient. One of those is apricot bars. It's a dessert that has like a shortbread crust. Apricot jam is the filling, and then it's topped with sliced almonds and baked. It's a really nice, easy dessert to make.

And another one is thumbprint cookies. These were super popular during the holidays, and it's a pecan based cookie, and you make a thumbprint in the center of that cookie, and then you fill it with any type of jam. Apricot Jam is perfect for using.

I also have some puff pastry pinwheels that are really fun. I made those for Christmas morning This year. You take puff pastry and cut it into little squares, and then you put a little dollop of jam. Apricot jam is perfect into the center, and you fold it up into a little pinwheel and you dust it with a sugar and bacon.

And then the recipe I want to share with you today is for apricot chicken. And guess what?

We're gonna be using that apricot jam right in there. This is a great, easy recipe. It does take about 40 minutes to cook, but most of that is hands off time. You get a sauce ready, you put the chicken in the oven with the sauce, and then it's pretty much on its own until it's done. So for this recipe, we use a cup of apricot jam.

Now use your own homemade jam, but if you don't have that, that's okay. Store bought works well too.

So a cup of apricot jam, a quarter cup of finely diced onions, two tablespoons soy sauce, a tablespoon of honey, a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, a teaspoon of minced garlic, a teaspoon of ground and an eighth of a teaspoon of red pepper flakes. If you don't like a little bit of spice, just leave that out and don't worry if you're not writing all this down, I'm going to leave you a link so you can go directly to the recipe and get everything that you need.

And then for the chicken, you use six chicken thighs. I like to use skin on and bone in.

The first thing you do is make the sauce. You put all those sauce ingredients in a sauce pan and you just heat it over, medium heat until the jam melts and everything's heated through.

You're just combining all those ingredients together. You take your chicken and you place that in a lightly greased baking dish, and you sprinkle it with a little bit of salt and pepper.

Then you pour that sauce right over the chicken. You place the whole dish uncovered in the 375 degree oven, and you bake for 20 minutes. And then you take it out, you ba that, uh, sauce right over the thighs. Just get a spoon, get into the bottom of that pan to dig up that sauce and put it right back over the top of the chicken.

Return everything to the oven and cook for another 20 to 25 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. When you take it out, you let it rest for about five minutes. I like to top with just a little bit of freshly chopped parsley and serve it. It's great with rice or noodles or pasta. It'd be great with a salad.

It's a super easy dish and it's has so much flavor and it's a great way to use up that apricot jam. That is it for today, but since I've made room now in my pantry, next week I'm going to be sharing with you how I make orange marmalade, so check back in next week for that recipe. I'll see you then. Bye.

Thanks for listening. And be sure to tune in again next week for more episodes of Preserving the Pantry.