experimenting with rice and apples

My husband really liked the way this turned out, but the next time I make it, I know what to do differently.

I was making Chicken and rice for dinner, so I was looking for something a bit different to do with the rice.  I cut some apples up with the skin on, and added that to the rice, I didn't have any nuts, I wanted walnuts, but came across a small pack of trail mix, almonds, granola, cranberries and raisins,  (I picked out the granola bits) and added that, to the rice with the apples, a little bit of brown sugar, some white wine, and a little bit of peach schnaaps.  and when the chicken was half baked I put it in with the chicken so that the flavors of the chicken and the rice would blend.

My husband really liked it.

To cut down on the sweetness we added a touch of basalmic vinegar.

But here's what I will do different next time.

I will cook the cranberries (dried) and nuts with the rice, and in a different pot make a glaze out of the rest of the ingredients, in which I'll start by reducing the schnaaps and wine, with the apples and a touch of lemon for acidity.  And I will pour it over the rice and chicken mixture and use it as a glaze.

So its something different, and while it wasn't perfect and didn't turn out quite like I wanted to it was very very good.

Another thing you could do, is without cutting the sweetness down, go with the rice and make a desert out of it.  By way of rice pudding.

My husband told me that he would have never thought to be creative and use apples in rice with chicken.

Mooch