Red Chicken

I'm not one to disappoint my fans and with three posts so far, none of which feature chicken and rice, I figure it's about time to start the counter. I decided to make a Newton family favorite tonight called 'Red Chicken'. As far as I can remember, my mother started making 'Red Chicken' sometime during my middle school or high school years. I never knew what went into it until moving out on my own after college, when it became one of the first recipes I requested. As luck would have it, it's super easy to prepare.

Before getting to the actual recipe, I will enchant you with a tale (because that's what blogs are for anyway, right?) about my pursuit of one of the key ingredients today, Russian Dressing. In my recent experience, Russian Dressing has become harder and harder to locate in the grocery store. I have always used Wish-Bone Russian Dressing, but it seems as if it's no longer available anywhere in my area (this gives me a great idea for a future post about stuff I used to love but can't find any longer). In fact, the only brand I can find is Ken's Steakhouse Russian. If you look at those two products, you will notice a distinct difference in color. I have used the Ken's brand once with acceptable results but I would prefer the Wish-Bone as The Newtster is a creature of habit.

With the apparent scarcity of the dressing in mind as well an interest in appearing authentic for my internet audience, I figured I would stop by the Russian Gourmet store at the end of my street and pick up some "authentic" Russian dressing. I had never been in the store before and have struggled to figure out where the big demand for it is in Old Town Alexandria.

Inside, the store looks a lot like the Sundry Shop near Polo and Student Apartments on campus at Wake Forest. It certainly has all the ambiance of it, yet somehow none of the charm. Who would have guessed a Russian store might appear cold, utilitarian, and uninviting? Luckily the two employees, an older Russian woman who did not speak English and a middle aged Russian man with blond hair in a pony tail that did, were pleasant. I walked around the store on my own at first to see if I could find what I was looking for. It should come as no surprise that there are no products labeled "Russian Dressing" in a Russian store, or if there are I could not find them because all of the labels are of course written in Russian. So I broke down and asked if they had any Russian salad dressing, at which point the man looked baffled and the woman continued to smile pleasantly, not knowing what I said. I further explained that it is a red dressing that is hard to find in the grocery store. The man said something to the woman in Russian and they came out from behind the counter and picked this product off the shelf.

He asked what I planned to use it for and when I informed him it was for a chicken marinade, he said it should work just fine. I paid and left, feeling great that I was about to get authenticity all up in this dish. Just in case it was not exactly what I was looking for, I decided to buy some "Americanized" Russian dressing at the grocery store along with the other ingredients.

Upon returning home, I conducted a taste test to see if the "authentic" stuff tasted like the Ken's stuff. Not really. So I decided to check the Interwebs to see 1) if other people were having trouble locating the dressing and 2) what Russian Dressing really is as I believe Catalina might be a close approximation, at least based on appearance. I never really got much beyond search number one as I found that people are indeed having trouble finding the dressing, which made me even more satisfied with my "authentic" purchase. I decided to seek out the history behind Russian Dressing as that may shed some light on it's new found scarcity. Much to my chagrin, I discovered on Wikipedia that Russian Dressing is actually an American tomato-based creation that dates back to perhaps the early 1900's. During the Cold War era, Russian Dressing was apparently given the "Freedom-Fry Treatment" and renamed "Sweet Tomato Dressing". Some also theorize that it is the precursor to Thousand Island Dressing (drats Joe!), though the origins of both are a bit unclear and based on my limited research, they appear to be contemporaries more than anything. It should be noted for Joe's sake that none of the dressings I have used include mayonnaise, so it's safe.

All of that aside, I decided to keep it "authentic" and use the stuff from the Russian store, which brings me back to the task at hand, the meal. The recipe goes:

- 3 -4 chicken breasts
- Russian Dressing (8 oz.)
- Apricot preserves (6 oz.)
- 1 envelope of Lipton Onion Soup Mix
- 1/4 cup of water

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine the dressing, preserves, soup, and water in a saucepan and cook over low/medium heat until the preserves break down and the mixture is smooth. This takes 10 minutes or less. Place the chicken breasts in a baking dish and pour the sauce over top. Make sure to spoon some on top of the breasts before covering and baking for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the dish and spoon more of the sauce on top of the breasts, then cover and bake for another 30 minutes. (Note: I suppose you can skip the second saucing and just leave it in the oven for an hour, but it doesn't hurt to do it if your are up for it). That's it. Make sure to put some of the sauce on top of your rice as well as it is super tasty.

The presentation here is essentially a "his and hers". Please note that The Newtster did not prepare the broccoli and corn as seen on Julia's plate. These were frozen goods that Julia microwaved and added to her plate, which she frequently does. And the verdict on the authentic Russian stuff? It was pretty good. I did not tell Julia about my adventure today so she will be reading about it for the first time along with you. I told her that I did something different and she said it smelled a bit sweeter, but the taste was the same. I would agree that the taste was the same if not better. The sauce seemed to stick to the chicken a little better as well, which is good.

Looking back on the day, it strikes me that in my endeavor to look "authentic", I should have first sought out recipes for how to make Russian dressing at home. I would have discovered the origin and not wasted my time looking like a typical American in the Russian store (Uhhhh, it's red...). However, this blunder did yield a nice change of pace in the recipe, which I will probably repeat in the future if the Russian store is still there and continues to carry the authentic stuff. After all, I suppose there's no real point in attempting to make this thing homemade since I'm using all pre-packaged items otherwise, which makes that pursuit about frivolous as one of Sandra Lee's "creations".

Add one to the chicken and rice counter.