Balsamic Glazed Chicken

Too be honest, I always try to avoid cooking with chicken. Though I have no problems eating it when it’s been cooked by someone else. It’s just that once I know that there is some danger involved, I immediately get scared and back out. Which is plainly ridiculous, since I am missing out on so many opportunities to cook with this versatile ingredient. Besides that, it is so incredibly easy to prepare!

That’s why I decided to get real, face my fears, and just do it. This particular dish is actually somewhat based on a tapas dish which I once ate -no idea when and where though. The tapas dish was made with chorizo, instead of chicken. But I figured that it would go perfectly well with the chicken. Which it did! The balsamic vinegar provides the acidity in this recipe, while the sugar caramelizes along with the onion, which adds an extra sweet dimension. By having so many flavours brought together, I find it important to have a somewhat neutral sidedish, which is why I chose the oven roasted potatoes. You could also pair it with rice, or noodles for instance.

If I can be quite fair, the balsamic vinegar doesn’t really do much for the chicken’s appearance. But it’s the inside that counts, isn’t it? So try it, and let me know what you think!

Balsamic Glazed Chicken

Servings: 4
Time: 45 min
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

2 chicken breasts
3 shallots
4 garlic cloves
3 el (tbsp) olive oil
1.5 el (tbsp) brown caster sugar
3 el (tbsp) balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper

Used kitchen appliances

Oven
Baking tray

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 200C or 400F. Slice the chicken breasts vertically, so you’ll end up with 4 long pieces of chicken breast. Place these in a mixing bowl and set aside.
Proceed to slice the shallots in quarters. Smash the garlic cloves, but leave the skin on. By doing so, you’ll protect the garlic from the heat and prevent burning, instead the garlic will have a sweet taste.
Add this to the mixing bowl, along with the other ingredients. Season to taste, and mix all ingredients together. The sugar should be somewhat dissolved in the marinade. You can either cook it straightaway, or prepare this bit ahead on the same day, and leave it in the fridge in an airtight container until you need it.
The next step, is to simply place the balsamic-covered chicken in the baking tray, and cook it in the oven for about 30 minutes. It’s vital for the juiciness of the chicken to pour over the marinade once in every 5-10 minutes. Otherwise chances are that your chicken will be dry. At the end of the cooking time, make sure to check if the chicken is really cooked through! There should be no pink meat whatsoever. Don’t take any risks when it involves chicken!

As a side dish, I served this chicken with oven roasted potatoes. Also, I made panzanella to serve as the vegetable dish. This salad could actually serve as a lunch meal as well!

4 Comments Add yours

Sabina says:

June 10, 2014 at 17:27

This looks great!! I pretty much always cook with chicken because it’s so versatile, so I’ll have to try this.

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1. basilandoil says:
  
  June 10, 2014 at 17:31
  
  It really is! I am going to start cooking it more. Let me know how it turned out :)!
  
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