I was reading through some freezer cookbooks and I found a great recipe for raspberry basalmic glazed chicken. I tinkered with it a little bit to find a way to incorporate a vegatable without getting too many more pots and pans dirty. Then I added fresh herbs and doubled the glaze to cover three different proteins. I tried it with regular basalmic vinegar but the carrots came out such a dark brown my husband thought I made cocktail weenies for a side dish. Man was he disappointed when he bit into one and discovered it was a baby carrot! He did admit that they were pretty great tasting carrots, but he would have prefered the weenies. Now I make it with white basalmic vinegar and the carrots get to keep their great orange color.
Ingredients:
1 cup white basalmic vinegar 1.50
2 10oz jars seedless raspberry preserves 4.00
1/3 cup reduced sodium soy sauce .50
3 sprigs of fresh thyme .50
2 lbs baby carrots 2.64
1 large white onion .30
3-4 pork steaks or pork chops 5.95
3 chicken breasts 4.02
1 ham steak 3.53
You can make this dish with all chicken or all pork. Whichever you prefer. I like to mix up the proteins so there is more variety. We may even grill one, and bake another so they have a little different flavor.
Directions:
In a large frying pan stir together all of the raspberry preserves, 1 cup of white basalmic vinegar and 1/3 cup reduced sodium soy sauce. Pull the leaves of the thyme off the stems and add them to the pan. Heat over medium heat until the preserves melt into the vinegar and the sauce starts to bubble.
Reduce the heat to low and let the sauce reduce by 2/3rds. Once it gets syrupy and thick then you can turn off the heat.
This will take about 20-30 minutes. So while the sauce is reducing place the carrots in a large sauce pan and cover with water.
Bring to a boil and cook for 5-8 minutes. Once a fork can just barely pierce the carrots when poked, turn off the heat. Drain the carrots and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Divide into three sandwich bags and set a side.
Then take out three gallon sized zippered freezer bags. Open the packages on your meat and place the ham into one bag, the pork steaks into a second bag and the chicken in to the third. Peel and slice the onion. Add 1/3 of the onion rings to each bag. Set aside.
One your sauce is reduced by 2/3rd, you protein has been divided and you carrots have been partially cooked and cold shocked you are ready to bring it all home! Add one ladle of sauce to each bag of protein and one ladle of sauce to each sandwich bag of carrots. If you have any sauce left after you have been around to each bag, then divide between the protein bags. Seal them up and match a carrot bag to each protein bag.
Mix them well with your hands to distribute the glaze all over the carrots and meat. Take out three new gallon size zippered bags and label each one. Then put one bag of protein and one bag of carrots into each labeled gallon freezer bag.
Place them in the freezer for later or the fridge for later tonight. Please allow two days in the fridge to thaw before cooking if you are making the freezer meal.
Place the protein on a baking sheet and bake topped with the onions uncovered for 30 minutes on 350 degrees. While the ham, pork steak of chicken is baking pour the carrots into a small sauce pan and heat over medium high heat stirring frequently until the liquid is gone and the carrots are nice and shiney like little new cars.
Here's the ham steak after it's been baked.
Here it is all put together for dinner.
Sooooo good! I was able to make three raspberry basalmic glazed dinners for $7.64 each. The meat had a great savory quality and the carrots had a smooth sweetness. Although the glaze was the same it has a different taste on protein and vegeatables.
Enjoy!
Christie aka Keeza
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