Sweet and Sour Stuffed Chicken

As I was reading Persian cookbook reviews on Amazon, I was struck by one post that complained about chefs who overplay the exoticism of their ethnic cuisine by adding far too many obscure ingredients and making a recipe more difficult (and thereby inaccessible) than necessary. It's a kind of cultural snobbery to keep foreigners at bay. This complaint was from an Iranian who insisted that his/her family makes traditional dishes using simple grocery store items that should be available pretty much anywhere.

I was grateful for that feedback because I wouldn't know what makes a Persian dish "authentic". However, I can say that the same complaint applies to the glut of Japanese cookbooks out there. If a Japanese Canadian who knows her way around Asian groceries can't get her hands on a certain ingredient, then what is the point of even publishing such a book?

I adapted the Persian Sweet and Sour Stuffed Chicken recipe posted at the Mage Publishers site to accommodate the restricted diet I'm following. Apart from some minor changes, there wasn't much I needed to do to simplify the recipe. It takes a bit of time to prepare because of the number of things that need chopping or filleting, but it is not at all difficult.

Sweet and Sour Stuffed Chicken
Serves 6-8

6-8 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
1 Tbsp light olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup prunes, pitted and finely chopped
1 cup dried apricots, finely chopped
1 baking apple, diced
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
¼ tsp saffron, steeped in 2 Tbsp of hot water
1 tsp honey
juice of 2 oranges

1. Butterfly and pound each breast to an even thickness.
2. In a large pot, heat the olive oil at medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, prunes, apricots, and apple. Don't allow anything to sear; just heat through gently.
3. Add the pepper, saffron with water, honey and the juice of one orange. Lower the temperature and allow the mixture to soak up the moist ingredients for about 10-15 min.
4. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
5. Place a ¼ to ½ cup of the stuffing mixture in the middle of each chicken fillet and wrap the meat around it. To hold it together, truss the the stuffed breasts with kitchen twine as shown above.
6. Place the stuffed breasts in a roasting pan and pour the remaining orange juice over them.
7. Bake for 1½ hours or until the chicken meat has reached at least 180°F. Baste the breasts frequently with the juices that have run off and mixed with the orange juice.
   
8. To serve, remove the twine and slice into cross sections.