I didn’t have lime. Luckily, I had preserved lemon. Last year, I was on a preserving-pickle kick. My favorite was pickling whole okra with Himalayan pink salt and fresh peeled garlic in my little Weck jars. And out of blue, I decided to preserve a set of lemons and limes. My preserved lemons turned out really well — they are still yellow, even after a year in the refrigerator. The taste is a little different than fresh lemons, but in this recipe, it was really good.
Deviating from the original recipe from Better Homes & Gardens, which tossed the chicken and the apples in the wilted spinach salad, I realized I didn’t have enough leafy greens to toss in. And I didn’t want to stand in a line wrapping around the arcade of a shopping center, 6ft apart, just for extra greens. So then quinoa it is!
I burned the chicken a bit on my stainless steel french skillet (another wayward misdirection from the original recipe) when I dropped little dollops of the ginger-lemon-apple glaze on it. As the chicken was near its final stage of charred oblivion, I added the carrots to sauté in the blackened juice. Prior to bedding the chicken, I gave it a nice swirl in the ginger-(lemon)-apple glaze for an extra punch of flavor. Finally, instead of thyme, I substituted rosemary.
By the way, the ginger is also preserved (in mirin); tips learned from mom. This way you can use these ingredients all year round without freezing it. Save more room in your freezer for other goodies. 🙂
