Perfect Balsamic Chicken – You Can Love the Chicken Breast Again!
So, is everyone’s life is hectic as mine is right now? So hectic that one who LOVES to cook has no brain power or time left to cook a decent meal? This time of year, we have graduations, weddings, charity functions, Mother’s Day, seemingly endless birthdays, and a bad case of Spring Fever. Yeah, Spring Fever… which means that the clock has officially begun ticking on swimsuit season. Insert shrieking sound here… or a record scratch… or some other sound that says, “wait, WHAT?! Nooooooo!”
Or maybe you are not worried about swimsuit season, but are just looking for some way to cook a chicken breast for dinner that goes beyond Italian dressing, cream of chicken soup, lemon pepper or the other fallback stuff that we all do when it’s dinner time and all we have defrosted is a package of chicken breasts. Oh, and could you make sure they aren’t dry, please? Yes, I have a treat for you! You probably already have the few simple ingredients here already in your kitchen and you can have this on the table in 45 minutes or less. And. It. Is. Yummy. Just look at this juicy goodness…
Yeah, so back to swimsuit season, fast dinners and home cooked meals. Not at the same time, right? And we’ve all done the boneless-skinless-chicken-breast diet until we would be thrilled to never see another one again. Yet, out of guilt we continue to buy them and cook them in an attempt to eat healthy and drop a jean size. The problem is that after that blah-blah-blah dinner, we end up with a late night craving and end up destroying an entire bag of Puffed White Cheddar Cheetos just before bed and blow the whole thing. Or is that just me? Anyway.
So, there’s this recipe I saw on Food Network a while back that had me at “Balsamic”, so I decided to forgive the fact that it included a boneless-skinless chicken breast and give it a try. Can I just tell you?! This recipe was magic. So juicy, so perfect and so tasty. And it didn’t really occur to me until after I had inhaled a plateful and went back for seconds that this is pretty healthy. Bonus!!! Total go-to dinner.
So, on a day when I was feeling particularly adventurous, I decided to try it a different way… same method, but with a different sauce. I was craving Mexican, but needing to eat chicken. So, to make a long story short… it worked! Yippee!!! Now, I am on a mission to come up with 20 different ways to make the perfect chicken breast. Stay tuned for those additional recipes as I get them right. In the meantime, I will share the original. The one that started it all.
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2-4 chicken breasts boneless, skinless
- 1/2 onion thinly sliced
- 1 pint cherry tomotoes sliced in half or quartered
- 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 cup dry red wine
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 8 basil leaves fresh
- I am a firm believer in taking a minute or two to assemble and prep all of your ingredients. This helps ensure that you don't leave anything out of the recipe, and also makes the whole process go much more smoothly. There is nothing worse than burning dinner because you had to chop or grate something and it took longer than you thought. Always do this... this takes a huge amount of stress out of cooking!
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For prep, wash and slice your tomatoes, slice onion, chop garlic finely and lightly season the rinsed and dried chicken breasts with salt and pepper.
- Melt the butter and olive oil together in a skillet over high heat. When it starts to bubble, drop in the chicken breasts and cook one minute or so, just until golden brown, then flip and brown the other side. Remove chicken breasts, place them in an oven-safe casserole dish, and adjust heat to medium-high. Set casserole dish aside for now.
- Add sliced onions to the pan and sauté for 4 minutes, then stir in garlic and cook for one more minute, or until onions are soft. Add the tomatoes, balsamic and red wine. (I usually use whatever I want to drink with dinner that evening... cabs and merlots work great, and I have also had great success with sangiovese and rioja varietals as well.) Season with salt and pepper, bring to a bubble, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer on the stove for about 10 minutes, or until sauce has slightly thickened and reduced.
- Slice the basil leaves in a chiffonade and stir half into the sauce, reserving the rest. Pour the hot sauce over the chicken and distribute evenly in the casserole dish. Bake for 10 minutes (12 if your oven cooks a little slow), then remove from oven and top with remaining basil.
I must give the props to the originators Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh, who, if memory serves, were the first to win "The Next Food Network Star". Their recipe was originally written for a party portion that serves 12. I have cut it down to a smaller serving size and made a few tweaks to suit me flavor-wise. (Hello olive oil and basil!) But in the spirit of transparency, here is a link to the original. These guys and this recipe are amazing! 🙂
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/balsamic-glazed-chicken-breast-recipe.html
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