Pan-Fried Chicken with Hoisin Cranberry Sauce

It's that time of year when cranberry recipes make their appearances.  Even if it's canned cranberries.  The sauce that goes with this chicken has hoisin sauce in it, which I couldn't find at Walmart.  When I went to Hannaford to look, I went to the "international" section and couldn't find it there either.  I texted my sister to find out what the heck hoisin sauce was.  Then I called my husband and he googled it too.  Both of them found Hannaford's website which said what brand they had; my sister even texted me the picture.  It wasn't there.  I was getting mad.  I got what I thought would be a good alternative, based on a recipe Steve found for homemade hoisin sauce.  Then, because Steve found out it was "like Chinese barbecue sauce," I thought I would check by the ketchup and mustard, where the normal barbecue sauce is.  And there it was.  What weird product placement.  So all this made me mad at the recipe before I had even begun.  But it ended up being yummy enough that it was okay...from Simple & Delicious Oct/Nov 2012.

Pan-Fried Chicken with Hoisin Cranberry Sauce
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup panko bread crumbs
2 tbsp olive oil
 Sauce:
14 oz can whole-berry cranberry sauce
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Flatten chicken slightly; sprinkle with salt, pepper, and ginger.  Place the flour, eggs, and bread crumbs in separate shallow bowls.  Coat chicken with flour, dip in eggs, then coat with crumbs.

Cook chicken in oil in a large skillet over medium heat for 4-6 minutes on each side or until no longer pink.

Combine all sauce ingredients in a saucepan; heat through.  Serve with chicken.

Emma & Nathan didn't want the sauce on theirs.  Sam loved the sauce.  The chicken was juicy in the middle and the coating was crispy.  The sauce was very good.  It tasted very Chinese-y.  Almost like the sauce on the ribs you get at a Chinese restaurant, but not as thick.  And, no MSG.  Sam and I had some of the leftovers for lunch today, and the chicken wasn't crispy anymore, but I think the sauce was even better.