Hot Pepper & Bourbon Glazed Chicken Breast with Pea Tendril & Radish Salad

After a week off for our Florida vacation, I was happy to return home to my first Greenologist farmer's market home delivery waiting for me.  I was excited to get back into the kitchen on Saturday to cook something healthy and I couldn't wait to use some of my fresh local ingredients such as the hot pepper jam, radishes, and pea leaves.

I thawed a few boneless chicken breasts and decided to make a simple baked chicken breasts.  The chicken was simply seasoned with fresh cracked salt and pepper and put in the oven at 400 for a few minutes for each side.  While the chicken was cooking, B made a simple glaze using the Silverbrook Farm hot pepper jam.  I tasted a bit of the jam and it had a nice combination of sweet and spicy. 

To thin out the jam a bit for the glaze, B added some of his favorite bourbon - Maker's Mark.  We both thought that bourbon would add a nice element to this glaze.

When the chicken was mostly cooked through, he added the glaze to the chicken and broiled it for a few minutes before turning it over and glazing the other side for additional broiling.  Since the jam obviously contained sugar in it, we didn't want the glaze in the oven too long with fears of it burning.

While B worked on the glaze, I got to work on the pea leaves (also known as pea shoots or pea tendrils).  I have actually never tasted or cooked with pea leaves but I ordered them anyway because I want the farmer's market delivery service to be an excuse for me to try working with something new every week. 

We did some research and pea leaves are pretty versatile.  Since it was warm out, we decided to use them as greens for a simple salad.  I also sliced up a gorgeous bunch of local radishes.

I cubed some leftover Cabot Seriously Sharp cheddar cheese which I received from Cabot at the Boston Wine Exchange Blogger event that I co-hosted a few weeks ago.  On a side note, here is a great re-cap of the blogger event by Meghan, who co-hosted the event with me. 

The salad was bright and vibrant.  Although we have plenty of already-made dressing on hand, we decided to make a simple vinaigrette using our favorite white champagne balsamic vinegar that we picked up at LeRoux Kitchen during out visit to Portland, Maine in March. 

The chicken had a nice sweet and spicy glaze to it but the sharp taste of the radishes and pea leaves help break up the sweetness.  The cheddar cheese helped mellow out the radishes when it got to be a bit too sharp.

In addition to being bright in both flavor and color, I was happy that our dinner was quick, simple, healthy and made using mostly local ingredients.  I'm looking forward to cooking throughout the summer months using more local ingredients.

Tell me, what have you recently made using local ingredients?