Unordinary Love: apple cider baked chicken

I am obsessed with pumpkin. I am also obsessed with fall. But Colorado just recently had the arrival of true fall. The temperatures were still a little too high for me to bust out all the fall-ish treats. I also don’t want to overdo it too soon. I don’t want to ruin my love for pumpkin or for fall. But, like many, I was craving it. I was SO ready for fall to be here. I had to resort to other “fall” things to get my fix without prematurely jumping on the pumpkin bandwagon. Instead of pumpkin bread, I made banana muffins. Instead of pumpkin soup, I made Apple Cider Baked Chicken. Apple Cider recipes scream fall too so I successfully postponed my pumpkin while still getting my fall fix.

I absolutely loved this meal. In fact, it may just make it into the “staples” category for meals. Please try this. Quite easy and amazingly tasty.

RECIPE: (adapted from here)

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts, cut into large chunks
1/2 large onion, cut into large chunks
1 red bell paper, cut into large chunks
1 lemon, cut into thin rounds
2 cups apple cider
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp. dried thyme (fresh would be better - put in about 1/4 cup if you use fresh)
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
2 tsp. coarse ground dijon mustard
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 large apple, sliced
1/2 lb small red or yukon potatoes, cut into large chunks

Place all ingredients except the apple and potatoes into a large ziploc bag, shaking and combining well. Allow to marinate in fridge overnight or at least 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour entire bag of ingredients (including liquid marinade) into a roasting pan -- I used my iron skillet and it worked great. Cook for 1 hour and 30 minutes and stir halfway through. I like my potatoes on the softer side so I had to cook those for an additional 10 minutes or so.

Now that Colorado has had the first two snows of the year and halloween is in a few short days, I'm beyond ready to bust out the pumpkin! Thanks to pinterest, here are a few recipes I want to try out.