Baked Chicken With Plum Chutney & Cheese

Today's Special from Cuisine Paradise Kitchen is this Baked Chicken With Plum Chutney & Cheese. All thanks to Tracy (my best pal and sister-in-Christ) who gave me her Homemade Plum & Apple Chutney which you can find the original recipe at here. But according to Tracy, since she don't have crystallized ginger, she replace it with fresh ginger slice and it really makes nice fragrant of her version of chutney. At first when she made this Chutney, both of us still cracking our head on how to use those bottles of homemade chutney. But after experience it with different food and spread both our family members and us actually find it as a new way to bring about the taste of plum.


As you can see from the 2nd pictures, the colour of her homemade chutney is so gorgeous and it's really like red ruby sparkling in the light. The taste and aroma of the chutney is sort of like sweet, sour and spicy. It is full of flavour and texture which I think it will make a great Marinade ingredients. So without hesitate, I go ahead to experience it. I used it to marinate with chicken Maryland over night in the fridge and baked it with some extra fresh plum to give it more texture on the fruits.

At first, I still wonder how will it taste but my doubt was clearly after the aroma of the chicken flow out from the oven. The kitchen was filled with the fragrant of the spice from the chutney and the adding of the extra Mozzarella cheese also give a great enhancement to this dish. I have served this dish with baked herbal vegetables & some extra chutney. And the dessert for the night is Orange Caramalized Banana.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
2 Chicken Maryland, trim the fat
8 Tablespoons of the Plum Chutney
2 Fresh Plum, stoned and cut into wedges
2 - 3 Tablespoons Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
2 Medium Size Potato, cut into chunks/cubes
1 Small Carrot, cut into chunks/cubes
1/2 Teaspoon of Dried Mixed Herbs
1 Teaspoon Olive Oil

Methods:
1. Trim and wash the chicken the cut a few slits on the meat of the chicken, pat dry and stuffs some plum chutney into the slits then top with the remaining chutney.
2. Marinate it for at least 2 hours or over night in the fridge.
3. An hour or two before baking the chicken, you can marinate the mixed vegetables with the mixed herbs and olive oil.
4. Remove the chicken from the fridge 5 - 10 minutes before cooking.
5. Heat up a saucepan with 1 teaspoon olive oil then pan-fry the vegetables until slightly brown and almost cooked through.
6. Remove and place it on foil paper and put it in the oven toaster and toast for about 5 minutes, turning once or twice. (this will make it totally cooked through or soften and at the same time, force out the extra oil when frying)
7. Next, place the chicken, skin side down in the saucepan that is used for frying the vegetables and saute the chicken till the skin is slightly brown.
8. Turn it over and saute it for another 3 minutes, then add in the fresh plum wedges and remaining marindae sauce, cover and let it simmer for about 5 minutes.
9. You can add it a 1 - 2 tablespoons extra of the plum chutney if you find that it's too dry to simmer.
10. Remove chicken, plum and etc from the saucepan and place it in a baking dish and put it in the toaster oven and baked for another 10 minutes or so until the chicken is cooked through. (or to save the trouble, you can put everything in the baking tray and baked at 200 degree for about 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through)
11. Next sprinkle the shredded Mozzarella Cheese on top of the chicken and let it baked for another 1 - 2 minutes until the cheese is golden brown.
12. Remove and serve it with the baked herbal vegetables, extra chutney and fresh plum.