jam

One of my favorite dishes to make, especially in the fall, is a chicken and sweet potato slow cooker meal I found over on Busy Cooks. And one of the best things about the meal is that it uses peach or apricot jam or preservatives in the sauce. Spoiler alert: it tastes absolutely divine.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I saw this The Kitchn post about using jam to jazz up ordinary meat dishes. Basically, you can use any jam you’ve got leftover in your fridge and create an amazing jam sauce for steak, chicken pork, and pretty much any other meat.

Here’s how it’s done:

The equation for one cup of sauce is simple: Cook a little minced garlic and onion with a teaspoon or two of oil in a saucepan for a few minutes. Add a 10-ounce jar of jam, a splash of vinegar (about 2 teaspoons), and a few pinches of spice (like garlic powder, black pepper, and paprika). Let it cook on low heat for about 15 minutes. Taste and adjust with more vinegar and spices as needed. Then baste, slather, and sauce.

Here are some of their favorite combinations that I’ll certainly be trying out:

[D]ark berry, balsamic vinegar, and garlic powder for steaks. Apricot, apple cider vinegar, and cardamom for pork. Orange marmalade, rice wine vinegar, and ginger for chicken (or even fish).

Thanks to The Kitchn for the tip!

Check out some more cool jam tips: