Time needed:
1 hour or so...but ya can multi-task it

Number of servings:
6-8

Description:
This is not the flaming brandy version; sorry! It's basically baked chicken, dressed up with a fruited sauce.

Ingredients:
3-4 large whole chicken breasts, Split (6-8 pieces o' bird)

1 can (20 oz.) light cherry pie filling

Parsley, minced (fresh or dried, whichever's available to you)

Salt & pepper

Instructions:
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken pieces on a rack in a baking pan, (or on a broiler pan), skin side up. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and parsley. If you leave the skin on, you will not have to baste or add any oil, freeing you for other tasks, like salad-tossing (or popping open cans o'veggies, dumping rice and water in a steamer, dealing with children's questions/homework... ;-)
The chicken should bake for 45-50 minutes, or until it is tender and lightly browned (and when a piece is pierced with a knife, the juices run clear). If the chicken breasts are Very meaty, it may take slightly more time.

Warm the pie filling/"sauce" by simmering at a fairly low temp. on stovetop OR heating it in the microwave until it's bubbly warm. Then, the basic idea is, a little sauce is ladled over each piece of chicken...but read on below:

Other comments or suggestions:
Juicy chicken seems slightly at odds with convenience. Once the sauce is on top, on your plate, it's a bummer to play with removal of skin and bones. The chicken needs to cool slightly before you can mess with it easily.

OR you could buy approx. the same amount of chicken breasts, boneless (I'm thinkin' 4 pounds or so), place them in a baking dish spritzed with olive oil; spritz the bird, too; season, cover with foil, and bake at 350 degrees F. until chicken is tender and passes that "poke test." The appearance is not quite the same, but on a busy day, that might not matter so much...and you're gonna put sauce on it anyway!

Blueberry or Apple might be an interesting change, and the addition of some veggies to the sauce (minced, diced, chopped) would also vary it easily. A splash of cider vinegar would make it sweet and sour. There are lots of easy ways to play with this, and I'm going to keep it in mind for the vacation cabin this year.

We had steamed rice and canned veggies with this (my steamer isn't 2 tiered).

If you have fresh cherries, plus time to remove the pits (1 1/2 c. pitted fruit), it takes a tablespoon of cornstarch and maybe 1/2 c. water (keep more nearby to add as needed) plus a Minimum of 2 Tablespoons of granulated sugar (you decide the maximum)...simmer until the sauce bubbles, thickens, and becomes clear. Add a few drops of red food coloring. Minus that last item, this is a method of making a fruity sauce that would adapt to other fresh fruits, including berries. Whoa, mommabear's got a craving for gooseberries, or rhubarb n' strawberries, or...whatever isn't nailed down, I guess...

We lived on the island of Guam before my daughter was born, and, no lie, there was a tree in the front yard that had fruits shaped like little green pickles. I knew they were edible, because whenever they got ripe, the neighbors, who were from the Philippines, always politely asked if they could come pick them, and I always said "anytime!" I got curious, then adventurous, and made a sauce with "sliced pickles" off the tree, that was pretty much made as above. It reminded me of anything made with Gooseberries, a flavor that took me all the way back to Kansas without leaving the island. Soon after that, the Navy decided to install central air conditioning in all the housing units on base; personnel had to move into renovated units as they became available. That's how my polite neighbor finally got to call the "pickle tree" her own, at least for the duration of their tour of duty. It's nice when life works out that way. I never did find out the proper name of that darn tree, either, or what sort of cool things my neighbor was cookin' up with the fruits.

I am also reminded of a brief visit at a relative's home in summer. Our hosts grilled chicken on the patio BBQ grill, and we praised it, because it was very good. What was her secret seasoning? Plain ol' "seasoning salt." She keeps a Giant economy sized bottle on hand at all times. Shake, shake, shake! Cha, cha, cha! I like that woman's style! ;-)