Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
(I crack myself up.)
I found this recipe on Pinterest and although I was initially skeptical, I decided to give it a try after reading all of the positive comments.
Evidently this recipe has been around for a long time, in one form or another.
Some people call it “Russian Chicken.”
Some people call it “Crazy Chicken.”
The blogger who posted the recipe that I found called it “Sweet and Tangy Chicken.”
But whatever you want to call it, just make it. Because it’s really really good.
Crazy Easy Chicken
(Slightly modified from this recipe) 
Serves 3-4 hungry adults
Ingredients:
- 8 chicken thighs (use the ones with the skin and bones)
- pepper, to taste
- 1 (8 oz.) bottle Russian dressing (or Catalina or Country French … it’s the red-colored dressing!)
- 1 cup apricot preserves
- 1 package of dry onion soup mix (see picture of what I use. I use this mix all the time to make oven-roasted potatoes!)
- 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
- rice for serving (I used white Basmati rice)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Put the chicken thighs in a large baking dish (I put foil down in the bottom of mine, for easier clean up). Season with a little pepper.
- Mix the dressing, apricot preserves, onion mix, and red pepper flakes together in a bowl. Pour the mixture over the chicken.
- Bake (uncovered) for about 1 hour (I did 1 hour and 5 minutes). Take the chicken out and baste it with the sauce a few times during cooking, to keep it nice and moist.
- While the chicken is baking, cook your rice.
- Serve chicken over rice. Add a little of the pan sauce on top for extra flavor.
This chicken was moist and tender, with a spicy-sweet hit of flavor.
Serving it with rice was key, so that we could use the rice to sop up all of the delicious juices. 
I’m also a big believer in using chicken thighs for this kind of recipe, as opposed to boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Sure, you can use the breasts. But it will be much more difficult to get a moist and juicy end product.
Brandon gave this recipe an “A+” Honestly, he doesn’t love when I use bone-in chicken pieces because they’re more difficult to eat. But he didn’t really care on this recipe, because the end result was so tasty! 
Question for ya …
Ever cook with parts of the chicken other than the breast? Do you find certain parts easier to cook than others?
Have you seen a similar recipe to this before? If so, what was that version called?
What did you do this weekend?
