Sandra's Apricot Chicken

My friend Sandra loves her mum's recipe for Apricot Chicken.  She told me about it every time she went home to visit her mum in New Zealand, and about 12 months ago, she gave me a copy of the recipe.  I tucked the recipe "safely" into a drawer, and totally lost track of it until recently, when it popped up as I pulled something out of the drawer.  Not wanting to lose the recipe a second time, I decided to make Sandra's mum's Apricot Chicken and post the recipe here for safekeeping.

The recipe appears to have been copied out of a Maggi soup cookbook, because all of the recipes on the page feature Maggi products as ingredients.  Sandra's mum has adapted the recipe somewhat, as she adds tinned apricot halves as well as apricot jam to the pot, and cashew nuts (which I left out).  She also uses her own mayonnaise recipe that Sandra swears by (but I just used a commercial brand).

I made this Apricot Chicken one night for dinner, and took the rest to work for lunch one week.  It made a tasty meal paired  simply with cooked frozen mixed vegetables.

If you would like to try out this Apricot Chicken recipe, it is as follows:

1.25kg chicken pieces
2 tablespoons oil
1 packet Maggi Crème of Chicken soup
1 cup water
4 tablespoons apricot jam
400g tin apricot halves, drained
2 tablespoons mayonnaise 

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Heat the oil in a large frypan, and fry the chicken pieces until golden brown.  Drain on paper towel, then place the chicken pieces in a large casserole dish.

Combine the soup, water and apricot jam in a small saucepan and heat until thick, then remove from the heat, stir in the mayonnaise and pour over the chicken pieces.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 45 minutes, then serve with vegetables.