Chipotle Apricot Chicken

If you are on Pinterest you've probably seen the popular recipe floating around where you dump some chicken breasts, peach jelly, and a jar of Sweet Baby Rays Chipotle BBQ sauce in and let it do its magic. Well, lately I've been going through a lazy period in the kitchen and that sounded *perfect* to me. I was ordering my groceries online (yes, sometimes I do order them and have them delivered... which is a life saver some weeks) and it became clear the recipe just wasn't meant to be. Peapod didn't have the BBQ sauce. They didn't have peach jelly. It just wasn't going to work with two of the three ingredients missing! I decided to improvise and ordered chipotles in adobo and apricot jelly. Well... the night before I wanted to serve this I am getting ready to assemble my crockpot meal when I open the pack of chicken and I realize they didn't send me breasts, they sent me chicken strips. UGH. Clearly that meal just wasn't meant to be.

I decided to just do my own thing, turn it into an oven based meal, and just go with the flow. This really took no more effort than the original and the results were delicious! I'll probably make this again soon since I have a large jar of apricot jelly to go though now. I should also note I only used one chipotle pepper because I wanted Landon to eat it but if you like that rich smokey heat that chipotles in adobo add I'd use 2-3. One wasn't enough, but it was perfect for a toddler.

Source: Stephanie Cooks Original

Ingredients:
1 pound chicken strips
1/3 cup apricot jelly
1/2 cup BBQ sauce
1-3 chipotle in adobo peppers, finely diced (one for mild, two for medium, three for hot)
Salt and pepper

Directions:
1- Assemble the chicken neatly into an oven safe dish.
2- In a bowl combine the jelly, BBQ sauce, and peppers. Mix well. Pour over the chicken.
3- Season with salt and pepper.
4- Allow to marinade in the sauce anywhere from 4-24 hours (I let it go overnight).
5- Bake at 375 for about 20-25 minutes, uncovered, or until chicken is cooked through and the sauce is bubbling gently.