Lemon Apricot Chicken

The meat dish made for Books & Snacks. I used the thin-sliced boneless, skinless chicken breast you can usually find pre-packaged in the grocery store. Sometimes subbing that out when a recipe suggests pounding out the chicken works and sometimes it doesn't. This is one where it does. If you are making a variety of other foods and want to save some time and mess, I wholeheartedly stand behind taking the short-cut here.

Lemon Apricot Chicken

For the chicken:

1/4 cup butter, melted
1 egg
2 Tbsp water
1 cup Bisquick or similar baking mix
1 Tbsp grated lemon peel (I used dried, though I would be interested in how it tastes with fresh.)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper
6 small boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, about 1 lb. (I had more chicken, probably about 2 lbs. total in the thin-sliced version as discussed above.)

For the sauce:

2/3 cup apricot preserves
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp ground ginger

1- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spread 1 Tbsp of melted butter in a jelly roll pan, 15 1/2x10 1/2 (I used two pizza pans as I had already used my jelly roll pan for something else).
2- Beat egg and water slightly in a shallow dish. In another shallow dish, combine baking mix, lemon peel, garlic powder and pepper.
3- Flatten chicken to 1/2" thickness between plastic wrap or waxed paper (skip if using the thin-sliced chicken).
4- Dip chicken into egg mixture then coat with baking mix mixture. Place in the pan. Repeat with all pieces of chicken. Drizzle with remaining melted butter.
5- Bake for 20 minutes. Turn and bake about 10 minutes longer or until cooked through. Remove from oven and set aside to rest.
6- Prepare sauce by combining all ingredients in a saucepan until hot then spread small amount over the top of each piece of chicken. Serve any remaining sauce for people to add to taste.