Apricot Chicken

Add this traditional Apricot Chicken Recipe to your weeknight meals recipe collection. Served with rice, you can have it on the dinner table in under an hour and it's sure to be a winner with everyone in the family.

Jump to:

• Your new family favourite
• Ingredient notes
• How to make Apricot Chicken
• Recipe FAQs
• More chicken dinner ideas
• Apricot Chicken

Your new family favourite

This retro recipe tends to polarise – but I'm definitely a lover of Apricot Chicken. My mum made it often as I was growing up and I was always pleased to see it baking in the oven. Even the smell of it as it cooks is satisfying!

I reckon if you don't love it, you're just not making it right! And here's how my version of this recipe will help you make it just right:

• the sauce ingredients have been tweaked so you get a lovely thick, rich and sticky sauce – forget watery, bland apricot sauce
• the addition of both french onion soup mix and soy sauce balances the sweetness of the apricots
• searing the chicken first adds more depth and flavour.

I know, there's a few extra ingredients and steps in my version. But it's still a super quick dinner idea and the little extra effort delivers so much extra flavour.

Here's one of the 3-ingredient original Apricot Chicken recipes that inspired this one. It appears in the Kurri Kurri King Coal Cookbook from 1979.

(And that recipe book has some other fantastic old school recipes. Check out the Snickerdoodles, Potato Cakes, Scottish Tablet and Texas Sheet Cake recipes.)

Ingredient notes

I prefer to make this chicken dish with tenderloins, however chicken drumsticks or thighs also work well. I don't recommend using chicken breasts, as they tend to dry out during baking.

When it comes to browning the chicken, I recommend vegetable oil or canola oil.

Apricot nectar can be found in the long life juice aisle at the supermarket.

Optional ingredients are the apricot halves (something my mum adds, and makes the dish a little extra lovely) and parsley (for garnishing, if desired).

You'll find a fill ingredient list and measurements in the recipe card at the end of this post.

How to make Apricot Chicken

Start by finding a large baking dish and pre-heating your oven to 200 degrees celsius / 390 degrees fahrenheit (fan-forced).

Next, coat the tenderloins in flour (with a little salt and pepper added) (see image 1).

Add the vegetable oil to a frypan and heat over high heat. Cook the chicken on both sides for about 1-2 minutes (or until browned a little) (see image 2) before adding to the baking dish.

TIP: You can skip this step, but it is a whole lot better when you take the little extra time required to brown the chicken a little before cooking in the oven. It adds a powerful flavour boost and reduces the oven cooking time.

Next, drain the apricot halves and place them in the baking dish (see image 3).

Combine the apricot nectar, soy sauce, cornflour and soup mix and whisk to eliminate any lumps. Pour over the chicken and apricot halves (see image 4).

I told you this was still a super easy apricot chicken casserole recipe!

Bake in the oven, uncovered, for 35 minutes.

Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

Slow cooking instructions

Start by prepping in accordance with the instructions above but placing ingredients into the slow cooker rather than a baking dish. Then simply cook in your slow cooker on low for 6 hours or high for 4 hours.

Recipe FAQs

More chicken dinner ideas

Want some more easy and tasty chicken recipes? Start here:

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