Chicken with Apples and Honey

Food Editor's Notes: This is a variation of a recipe I found on the Aish HaTorah web site, a favorite of the ShalomBoston.com staff. This recipe is now one of our favorites as well. The name and the taste are perfect for Rosh Hashanah, but you can enjoy this year round. You might think this is a very sweet dish, but the soy sauce and spices tone down the sweetness. The end result is a tasty and different chicken dish that you will be proud to serve.

Ingredients

2 cup up chickens (approximately 3 pounds each)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon pepper
5 ounces dried apple rings, chopped or cut into small pieces
2 golden delicious apples, chopped
1 cup honey
1/2 cup apple juice
1/2 cup soy sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken pieces in baking pan skin side up. Mix together the cinnamon, nutmeg, and pepper, and sprinkle over the chicken. (I use a small fine sieve for even sprinkling.) Throw the dry and fresh apples on top of the chicken. Combine the honey, apple juice, and soy sauce and pour over the chicken. Make sure to soak all the dry apples, as they will burn otherwise.

Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. If the chicken needs more browning, remove the pieces to another pan and broil for a few minutes, watching carefully. Scrape the sauce from the first pan into a bowl to serve as "extra" or pour over the chicken when done cooking. (The sauce will burn if it cooks too much or at too high a temperature.)

Serve hot or at room temperature.