Kelly's Stellar Kitchen

I’ve noticed over the last few days that many of my favorite food bloggers (read: heroes) have been making Thanksgiving foods in an effort to prepare their readers for the holiday. Me? I’ve been sitting here for half of the week wondering what in the WORLD to do with the fresh cranberries I bought on sale.

On Thanksgiving, I’ll be visiting the homes of my nearest and dearest, where there will be enough food to feed an army or two. My father fries the turkeys for my aunt who hosts; and on my mother’s side of the family, I am sure I will find some of my aunt’s signature pumpkin pie.

I will travel with White Mint Chocolate Cookies & Cream Fudge. (I’ll post pictures. The recipe belongs to a friend who has a cake/truffles/deliciousness business, so I can’t give away her secrets.)

What I’m getting at, here, is that I don’t plan to do any heavy-duty cooking this week.

But those cranberries! The only other thing I had on hand was chicken. So I Googled it. You know how I feel about Google.

This recipe was inspired by the first “hit” I got from Google. I served it alongside some Teeny Tiny Potatoes and cooked carrots.

And yes, it turned out to be an early taste of Thanksgiving.

Making a cranberry sauce turned out to be VERY low-maintenance!

Baked Chicken and Cranberry Sauce

Adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

• cooking spray
• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced in half (forms 6 thin breast servings)
• paprika and fresh ground pepper
• 2 cups fresh cranberries
• 1 1/2 c water
• 3/4 c packed brown sugar
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 cinnamon stick, whole

Directions:

Chicken:

1. Spray a large cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Place chicken breasts on cookie sheet, season each with paprika and ground pepper (just a dash of each!)
3. Bake approximately 20 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink in the center. Watch chicken carefully so you don’t dry it out!

Cranberry Sauce:

1. Combine cranberries, water, packed brown sugar, and red wine vinegar in a deep skillet. Add cinnamon stick.
2. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Remove cover, raise heat to medium, and simmer approximately 25-30 minutes. You want your sauce to be slightly thick, but not dry. Remove cinnamon stick before serving.

Oh, I'm ready for Thanksgiving.