Hot Honey Red Kuri Squash With Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:

• 2 whole airline chicken breasts

• 1 small to medium sized red kuri or kabocha squash, ends trimmed, seeded and cut into 1 to 2 inch segments

• 2 shallots, roughly chopped

• 3 red thai chilis, ends trimmed

• ¼ cup parsley, finely chopped

• 1.5 qt chicken stock

• 1 tbsp avocado oil

• ¼ cup rice vinegar

• ¼ cup honey

• 2 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tbsp fish sauce

• Salt and pepper

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C) with the rack adjusted to upper/center position.

1. Trim the end of the squash and cut in half from root to base, remove seeds, chop into 1 to 2 inch pieces and rub with avocado oil and salt. Place on a foil lined ½ sheet baking tray and roast until fork tender and browned, turning half way through cooking (about 45 minutes total).

2. In a separate ¼ sheet pan, place shallots and Thai chili’s and roast until browned (about 15-20 minutes)

3. Place the squash, shallots and chilis in a food processor along with 1 qt of chicken stock. Blend thoroughly.

4. Raise your oven’s temperature to 450°F (232°C). Pat your chicken breast dry and season generously with salt on all sides.

5. Heat your avocado oil in a skillet on your stove top over high heat. Add in your chicken breasts, skin side down. Leave them to cook for 6 minutes. Flip them with a flexible spatula and transfer to the oven until the thickest part of the breast registers  150°F (about 8 to 10 minutes).  Remove the beasts from your skillet and set aside to rest.

6. Return the skillet to your stovetop over med-high heat. Add the remaining chicken stock, scrapping the base of the pan to loosen any crusty bits. Stir in squash along with rice vinegar, honey, soy sauce and fish sauce. Cook for several minutes to thicken, adding water if needed to loosen. Add in half of the parsley and stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

7. To plate, add half of your sauce to a deep rimmed plate and float a chicken breast on top of it. Garnish with the remaining parsley.