Okay… the true name of this recipe is honey plum soy chicken but I didn’t use plums so I didn’t think it was fair to call it something it’s not. If I had, it would’ve gone something more like this: Title/Recipe name: Honey plum soy chicken without the plums. Because that makes so much sense, right? So honey orange soy chicken it is. Or was.

The missing plums in the recipe is completely the fault of my local grocery store, which flat out stinks. I feel like I live in some strange secluded land at times. Maybe plums, or more specifically plum preserves isn’t that common of an item. I don’t know. I looked not once, but twice. Two completely different trips to the store but to clarify, the first trip I was there for other reasons and just browsed the jam section so I knew what to plan for. My second trip was the shopping trip for ingredients. I stood staring at jars of jam, jelly, preserves, marmalade and spreads for easily 5 minutes. I probably looked ridiculous.

Did you even know there are so many options? And did you know the differences really aren’t that significant? Julie and I were talking about that the other day. She sent me this article. It all comes down to how smooth or chunky an item is and how much sugar has been used. Completely scientific. Well… my store had one whopping jar of plum something er other and at the time I didn’t remember what the differences were between the many options. It didn’t help matters that the jars started to blend together, along with the names, types and flavors. I got lost in a sea of thickened sometimes sweetened fruit stuff. This is why I went with my second option of orange. Long story over. Oranges are easy to find and if a store doesn’t have oranges and some kind of orange spread, well… it’s a sad strange world.

This recipe is easy to whip up but I took a massive detour from the original recipe. I basically took the idea from the original and changed it up more to what I’d like to eat. Chicken thighs? I’d rather white meat so breasts it was. And since we were at it… I chopped those babies up into bite sized pieces. I didn’t use egg noodles and I cut way back on the soy sauce, though let’s give Gina a little credit for that one since she warned us this dish was already salty on it’s own.

In the end, it was an easy dish to make and much quicker to cook than the original but it still wasn’t my favorite. I liked the chicken and noodles, plus the added spicy kick I gave it. It was tasty, but I’m not a fan of sweet and salty food. The addition of a fruity flavor to an otherwise perfect spicy and savory dish just didn’t do it for me. It was weird. BUT if you like sweet and salty food, you’ll probably love this.

My notes:
-Use whatever fruit and preserve combo you can find that you like. Don’t be deterred if you can’t find plum, it’s not that important.
-I used chicken breast cut up into bite sized pieces instead of chicken thighs.
-Instead of egg noodles, I used stir fry noodles. They were thick and even quicker to cook since they were tossed right in the pan and tossed around for just a few short minutes.
-I didn’t want to cook for 1-2 hours. Initially I planned on tossing everything in my slow cooker, but then I got it in my head I wanted an easy to eat, no knife dish.
-The dish had SO much liquid. I actually removed a bunch after pouring it into my pan and that’s already after cutting the recipe way back.
-I added seasonings that weren’t originally called for, because I like to season my dishes. I can’t help it. I used salt, pepper and a dash or red pepper flakes for a nice kick.
-I cut this way back. Yes, I’m pretty sure we all cut the recipe back yet again. Something about these recipes and having over the top quantities. The one thing that completely shocked me was no cream or dairy of any kind?! But there was a mess… so I guess you get one or the other, not always both.

Be sure to check out what the other girls thought of this weeks recipe.
Table For Two Blog
Wanna Be A Country Cleaver

And stop by Gina’s for the complete recipe:
Running To The Kitchen

In case you missed any of the previous PW Wednesday posts:
Week 1: Fried Tacos
Week 2: Mushroom Sliders with Spicy Fry Sauce
Week 3: Carnitas Pizza
Week 4: Breakfast Pizza
Week 5: White Chicken Enchiladas
Week 6: Italian Cream Cupcakes
Week 7: Orange Sweet Rolls