Maple Glazed Chicken with Apples

It's getting cooler at night here, and I was in the mood for something Fall-ish. I came across this recipe in a Weight Watchers cookbook and I have to say, it's good, but next time I'd definitely do some things differently.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup apple cider
• 1 firm apple, cored and cut into 8 wedges (I used Granny Smith)
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
• 2 chicken breasts

Directions:

1. Line broiler rack with foil; preheat the broiler. In a medium nonstick saucepan, mix the apple cider, apple, maple syrup and thyme; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. (I would recommend mixing the cider, syrup and thyme first; boil about 5 minutes, THEN add the apple. Otherwise, the apple gets too mushy.) Cook until the apple is tender and the sauce is reduced by half (Make sure the sauce is a syrupy consistency before removing from the heat. Otherwise it won't caramalize properly when broiled on the chicken). Remove from the heat and keep warm.

2. Place the chicken on the broiler rack and brush on both sides with half of the maple mixture; broil 4 inches from the heat until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Turn and brush the top with the remaining maple mixture; broil until the chicken is cooked through, about another 4 minutes. Serve with apple wedges on the side.

I served this with white rice, cooked in chicken broth with 1 Tbsp olive oil to keep it fluffy.

The apples in my dish were good, but they got a bit mushy from cooking too long. I also cut the apple in 16 wedges, not realizing it should've been 8, so hopefully with a larger piece of apple and less cooking time, they will remain crunchy, but cooked. Overall, this was tasty, but it needed some work. I do plan to make it again with some modifications to the sauce.