Chicken with Cherry Sauce

Week 246. Heather turns 38, dinner party with community, Tom made huckleberry pie

The kitchen continues its work. Every week, the stove is lit and the meals are made and the family gathers at the table — a table that now holds four people, two dogs, and the accumulated weight of six years of cooking through everything life has thrown at this family. The table holds. It always holds.

The rhythm of this life — Tom\'s morning coffee, my evening cooking, Mason\'s questions, Lily\'s horses, Hank\'s slow decline, the garden\'s steady production — is the rhythm I chose. Not the rhythm I was given. Cancer gave me a different rhythm: infusion, crash, recover, repeat. Divorce gave another: manage, endure, rebuild, repeat. But this rhythm — cook, eat, love, repeat — this one I chose. This one I built. And it plays in the kitchen every night, the same song with new verses, the same recipe with small variations, the same life getting better by degrees so small you only notice them when you look back and see how far you\'ve come.

I made food this week that reflects where I am: roast chicken, huckleberry pie, birthday. The food is the evidence. The food is always the evidence — of who I am, of what I\'ve survived, of the people I feed and the love I put on plates. The recipe is the record. The kitchen is the archive. And I am the cook, standing at the stove, stirring, waiting, serving, and beginning again tomorrow.

For my 38th birthday I wanted something that felt like the year felt — a little sweet, a little savory, genuinely earned. Chicken with Cherry Sauce was exactly that: a dish that looks like a celebration without requiring you to be anything other than yourself in the kitchen. Tom handled the huckleberry pie and I handled this, and somewhere in the middle of all of it the table held us all the way it always does.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 6 oz each)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 cup fresh or frozen dark sweet cherries, pitted and halved
1/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1/4 teaspoon dried)
1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon cold water

Instructions

Season the chicken. Pat chicken breasts dry with paper towels. Season both sides evenly with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
Sear the chicken. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook undisturbed for 6–7 minutes until a golden crust forms. Flip and cook another 6–7 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 165°F. Transfer to a plate and tent loosely with foil.
Build the cherry sauce. Reduce heat to medium. Add butter to the same skillet. Once melted, add cherries and cook 2–3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they begin to soften and release their juices.
Deglaze and simmer. Pour in the chicken broth and balsamic vinegar, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Stir in the honey and thyme. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook 3 minutes.
Thicken the sauce. Stir in the cornstarch slurry and cook 1–2 minutes more, stirring constantly, until the sauce is glossy and coats the back of a spoon.
Finish and serve. Return the chicken to the skillet, spoon sauce over each breast, and warm through for 1 minute. Serve immediately over mashed potatoes, rice, or roasted vegetables with extra sauce spooned over the top.

Nutrition (per serving)

Chicken with Cherry Sauce — The Birthday Table That Holds Everything