Brown Sugar Chicken

[Nancy]

I tried this Saturday night for experiment night and it was a hit. Fast...easy... and I had all the ingredients in my cabinet.

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 tablespoons catsup
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons mustard
6-8 chicken breasts

* Combine brown sugar, butter, catsup, worcestershire, and mustard in sauce pan and heat until butter is melted.
* Pour sauce over chicken in 9x11 inch pan.
* Bake, COVERED, at 350 F for 60-90 minute

[mobetsy]

Since I was a kid I've been cooking a chicken recipe with brown sugar, from Peg Bracken's "I Hate to Cook Book" (one of my absolute favorites). Sprinkle the chicken with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and brown sugar, then dab with butter (I sometimes spray with olive oil instead). Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or so.

I really don't like mustard, even in small amounts, but I bet I could leave it out of your recipe; it would be a good change of pace!

[Nancy]

you really can't even taste the mustard. I think it just keeps it from being too sweet. But you could probably leave it out and it would still be good....

[mobetsy]

Another question...did you really need that much butter? I'm fine with using it, but it drives me nuts to waste it making way more sauce than is needed.

Now that I'm thinking about butter, I'm remembering I have some in the fridge for lemon bars; we have some gorgeous lemons on our tree and I want to use them.

[Nancy]

It was extra sauce. Could have put over rice, but I didn't.

[Tina]

we have some gorgeous lemons on our tree and I want to use them.

I am SO jealous!

Nancy, that recipe sounds really good!

[Sue]

The brown sugar, mustard, ketchup etc is basically the recipe for barbecue sauce (although I don't put that much brown sugar in my bbq sauce), so I'm curious. Would you say it's like bbq chicken, or does it have a sweeter (rather than tangier) flavor? Because I love brown sugar, so this sure sounds like a keeper!

[Nancy]

I thought the same thing, Sue. But it really wasn't like BBQ at all. It was sweeter than BBQ, but had a little bit of a twang to it.

[mamaotter]

Is this for boneless chicken breast or bone-in? I have some boneless chicken breast and I was thinking of making this tonight, but the cook time seems way up there for boneless....

[Nancy]

I used boneless. I did cook it less time, but my oven tends to take shorter than most prescribed times.

[CarolC]

This looks very yummy! Betsy, I have started buying Smart Balance 50/50 Butter Blend. Honestly, it still tastes like butter!

[Nancy]

You should serve with rice, if that's your deal. THere's a lot of sauce left over and it was good served over rice (I did a Zatarain's chicken rice).

[mobetsy]

We use the Smart Balance stuff too, Carol; I agree that it is quite good. I'm just a cheapskate who hates recipes that make a ton of sauce that then is left behind in the pan Serving it with rice, or maybe noodles, sounds good.

Janet, I've ended up not distinguishing between boneless and bone-in unless it is a quite thin breast filet.

[CarolC]

I scored on Smart Balance at Kroger this week -- 79 cents for four sticks. I bought four packages!!