Friends Are Like Recipes

Good morning, Kitschies!!  I hope you enjoyed your 4th of July weekend.  We didn't do fireworks last night and I'm a little disappointed about that.  I don't ever remember not seeing fireworks for the 4th.  Ever.  There's always next year, right?  Hopefully we'll get more rain by this point next year and we'll be able to have more access to the sparklies in the sky.  We did, however, give the boys some of those little poppers you throw on the ground.  They had so much fun with those!

I've given y'all 3 manis over the holiday weekend (in case you missed them, here are the links for those: #1, #2, #3), so it's time for some food! 

Back in May (?) I needed a recipe for a main dish to bring to the office for a potluck.  I couldn't think of anything so I put the question out to my peeps in Facebook land.  I got lots of great suggestions and this one topped the list, even though it wasn't the recipe I used for the potluck.  I did, however, make this for the family a few weeks ago.  This great recipe came from my old high school friend, Charles.  If he cooks like this all the time for his new wife, she's a lucky lady!

Friends are like recipes; they're great to have around and it's always fun to find new ones.

Almond Chicken
6 skinned and boned chicken breast halves
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
3 Tbsp butter, divided
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
2 Tbsp orange marmalade
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/8 tsp ground red pepper
1 cup package of sliced almonds, toasted

Flatten out the chicken halves to about a 1/4 inch thickness.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Melt 1 1/2 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add half the chicken and cook 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. I find you may need to use a lot more butter for this. Remove the chicken from skillet.  Repeat procedure with the remaining butter and chicken. When finished, remove the chicken, reduce heat to medium, add whipping cream, orange marmalade, Dijon mustard and ground red pepper, stirring well. Add chicken, sprinkle with almonds, and cook 8 minutes or until sauce thickens. Should yield 6 servings.

NOTES:  I flatted chicken by covering in plastic wrap first.  I tried using parchment paper but that did not work by any stretch of the imagination.  LOL  I used non-stick cooking spray rather than butter but I did add a little butter in with the whipping cream.  I couldn't find toasted almonds so I toasted them myself (oooh...amazing, I know).

This isn't a very good picture, but trust me, this is some good stuff!!  Nate pitched a little fit because "I don't like nuts" but after he got over it, he ate it all...and so did Mason.  Good stuff!

A *big* thank you to my friend, Charles, for this great recipe!  Definitely a make-it-again recipe for my family.