Braised Chicken With Prune Sauce

Total Time: 1 hr Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 4 chicken breasts
• salt
• black pepper
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (olive oil works good, too)
• 1 carrot, scraped and cut into 1/2 inch wide rounds
• 1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup onion, finely chopped
• 1 sprig parsley
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup chicken broth
• water
• 1/2 lb pitted prune
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon flour

Recipe

• 1 pat chicken thouroughly dry with paper towel and sprinkle sides with salt and pepper in a 10 to 12-inch skillet melt two tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of oil over high heat.
• 2 add chicken skin-side down and reduce heat to moderate.
• 3 fry until sides are golden brown.
• 4 (don't worry if the inside is pink, we will be cooking the chicken more later) transfer the chicken to a plate.
• 5 add the celery, carrot, and onion to the fat remaining in pan, stirring occasionally, and cook until the vegetables are soft but not brown.
• 6 return the chicken to the pan and lay the parsley and bay leaf on top.
• 7 pour in 1/2 cup of chicken broth.
• 8 bring to a boil over high heat.
• 9 lower the heat and simmer for thirty minutes, basting it from time to time with the juices in the pan meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups of water, the 1 1/2 cups of prunes, the lemon juice, and the sugar.
• 10 place on high heat.
• 11 bring prunes to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes or until prunes are tender.
• 12 preheat the oven to 250 degrees f.
• 13 remove the chicken from the skillet and arrange attractively on an ovenproof platter.
• 14 scatter the cooked prunes over the top.
• 15 cover the platter loosely with foil and put it into the oven.
• 16 press hard on the vegetables with a spoonback releasing the juices.
• 17 discard vegetables.
• 18 set juices aside.
• 19 melt two tablespoons of butter in the skillet and add the flour.
• 20 cook on high heat until flour is golden brown.
• 21 pour in the 1/2 cup of reserved prune juice and the 1/2 cup of reserved pan juices (if there is less then 1/2 cup, make up for it by augmenting it with the chicken broth) boil until sauce is smooth and thickened.
• 22 serve at once.