Recipe: Cranberry Chicken

Cranberry Chicken
From: The American Institute for Cancer Research

The cranberry gets its 15 minutes of fame during the winter holiday season. Then it's forgotten for another year. It doesn't have to be this way. Cranberries are versatile, store well and are nutritionally rich. They can be used in sweet and savory dishes, and come fresh, frozen, canned and juiced.

Cranberries are abundant in dietary fiber, vitamin C, and flavonoids, a powerful group of phytochemicals that helps fight cancer and heart disease. Scientists have also confirmed "old wives' tales" that this fruit helps prevent urinary tract infections. Some studies have found that drinking a 10-ounce glass of sweetened cranberry juice daily reduces the incidence of bacterial infections of the urinary tract in elderly women by about 50 percent after four to eight weeks. When buying sweetened cranberry juice, if you have diabetes or glucose intolerance, choose the artificially sweetened versions, since regular cranberry juice cocktail contains about three tablespoons of sugar per cup.

These scarlet berries grow in large, sandy bogs on low, trailing vines. Cranberries grow wild in northern Europe and in northern North America, and they are extensively cultivated in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Washington and Oregon.

Fresh cranberries usually come in 12-ounce plastic bags. Tightly wrapped and refrigerated, they will last at least 2 months, or frozen up to a year. Some markets stock frozen cranberries and canned cranberry sauce, jellied or whole-berry, is available year-round. Sweetened dried cranberries are used like raisins in baked goods and other foods. Because they are extremely tart, cranberries are usually combined with sugar or another, sweeter, fruit.

Cranberries can be used in many ways. Cook four ounces in a cup of orange juice until they pop and use this sauce over green vegetables. Before baking apples, fill their centers with cranberries and a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar.

Canola oil spray
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1/2-1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (3 oz. each)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups cranberry relish, chutney, or whole-berry sauce
2 Tbsp. finely minced scallions (white part only)
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Have ready a non-stick baking pan, or cover a non-stick pan with aluminum foil and spray surface lightly with canola oil spray.

Whisk together oil, mustard, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Transfer two tablespoon of the mixture to a small cup or bowl and set aside remainder. Use the 2 tablespoons to brush on chicken pieces before placing meat on prepared pan. Discard any remaining mixture used on chicken. Roast 12 to 15 minutes on each side, or until cooked through, turning once. Remove chicken from oven. Preheat broiler. Broil chicken until tops begin to brown, about 30 seconds. Remove from the broiler.

Meanwhile, whisk cranberry mixture, scallions and vinegar with remaining mustard-oil mixture. Heat gently in microwave until hot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Spoon warm sauce over chicken and serve.

Makes 4 servings.

Per serving: 347 calories, 9 g. total fat (1 g. saturated fat), 49 g. carbohydrate, 21 g. protein, less than 1 g. dietary fiber, 569 mg. sodium.