A classic chicken dinner

Alice Tucker of East Honolulu shares her easy chicken recipe that she has made thousands of times. Her children, Randy, Gary and Jill, and now her grandchildren, enjoy the gravy from the sweet-and-sour chicken over rice. This recipe was originally included in a cookbook done for the Hawaii Medical Association Auxiliary. Tucker volunteered with the club, as her late husband Jerry was a physician. Three ingredients are added to chicken thighs. Salad dressing, fruit preserves and onion soup packet merge into a tangy sweet-and-sour sauce.

Sweet-and-Sour Chicken

Ingredients:

• Oil or oil spray

• 3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

• 1 10-ounce jar apricot or pineapple preserves

• 10 ounces Russian dressing

• 1 1-ounce packet onion soup mix, such as Lipton’s

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Oil an 11-by-13-inch baking pan. Place chicken in pan skin side up.

Stir preserves, Russian dressing and onion mix together and pour over chicken. Cover with foil. Bake for 1 hour. Uncover and bake 30 additional minutes.

Skim off excess oil. Serve hot. Serves 6-8.

Lynette Lo Tom is the author of cookbooks A Chinese Kitchen and Back in the Day. She wants to hear about your cooking shortcuts. Reach her at lynette@brightlightcookery.com or @brightlightcookery on Instagram.