Maple & Orange Chicken With Peppered Pecans

This is lovely - sweet, sticky, juicy chicken, with the peppery bite of the pecans - and it smells heavenly when it's cooking. I like to serve this with soothing mashed potatoes and buttered greens. Prep time doesn't include marinading.

• Ready In: 1 hr 40 mins
• Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 2  boneless chicken breasts
• 2  oranges, juice of, only
• 1  teaspoon English mustard
• 6  tablespoons maple syrup
• 1  garlic clove, crushed
• 1  teaspoon  sunflower oil
• 1  teaspoon white wine vinegar

• For the Peppered Pecans

• 1⁄2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• 1⁄2 teaspoon  hot pepper flakes
• 1  garlic clove
• 1 1⁄2 tablespoons butter
• 4  ounces pecan halves

Directions

1. Mix orange juice, mustard, garlic, maple syrup, sunflower oil and vinegar in a bowl. Marinade chicken for at least 4 hours, but overnight is even better.
2. For the pecans, melt the butter, and stir in tabasco, pepper flakes and garlic. Stir in the pecans. Spread onto a flat baking sheet and bake on a really low temp - approx 120C for an hour. Be careful that the pecans don't burn though.
3. After marinading, remove the chicken and pour marinade into a small pan, bring to the boil, stirring until the marinade reduces to a sticky glaze. The oil will stop the Maple syrup from burning.
4. Grill or barbecue the chicken breasts, turning and brushing with the glaze regularly until the chicken is cooked but still juicy.
5. Serve the chicken with the remaining glaze as a sauce, along with the peppered pecans and whatever else takes your fancy.