Chicken with Grapes, Thyme, and Wild Rice in a Chardonnay Sauce
The other day it was raining, so instead of doing our normal grilling I decided to use up what I had in the fridge. Namely chicken, grapes, and some old Chardonnay from a previous recipe. (Yep, my husband barely drinks wine, so if I can’t we can keep a bottle for months!)
Now grapes and chicken sound a little strange, but the sweetness in the grapes and the flavor of the thyme really bring a nice flavor to the chicken. At 383 calories per serving it’s healthy for you too!
For the recipe you will need:
1 1/2 cups wild rice blend
rice cooker
3 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 pounds of chicken breasts
1/2 of a small purple onion, chopped
1 tablespoon of garlic, minced
1 cup of seedless grapes
1 cups of a dry Chardonnay
dried thyme (I think fresh would be better, but I only had dried on hand)
salt and pepper
To start, make your wild rice. I love my rice cooker. You can make it on the stove, but I just love I can pour all the ingredients in and walk away. I used 1 1/2 cups of rice and 3 cups of water. Make sure you do this first because wild rice usually takes about 30 minutes to cook.
Season up your chicken well! Very well. This dish has light flavors and you really need to have the salt and pepper bring them out.
In a large pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil till very hot and place your chicken in the pan.
Brown both sides of the chicken but don’t cook them all the way through.
Once both sides are browned, remove from pan. Place on a plate and keep them warm by covering them with a lid.
In the same pan, heat the rest of the olive oil until hot. Add your purple onion and cook until caramelized. About 5-8 minutes.
When the onions are nice and browned, add the garlic and cook for an extra 2 minutes.
You should end up with a nice mixture of browned onion and garlic that looks like this:
Next, deglaze your pan with the chardonnay. I just poured it out of the bottle, but I think it was around a cup.
Add your chicken back in bring mixture to a boil.
Once boiling, reduce to low and add in your grapes.
Sprinkle with thyme. I used a lot, probably a tablespoon. Cover and let simmer on low for 15-20 until chicken is cooked through.
When you open your pan you will see many of the grapes have split open and lost their color a little. This is good, the split grapes add sweetness to the sauce!
Plate up your chicken on a bed of wild rice. Cover with onions, grapes, and some chardonnay sauce.
Enjoy!!
The skinny: Serves 6 @ 383 calories
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