BAKED BALSAMIC CHICKEN – Juicy and tender, oven roasted chicken with herbs and a quick and tasty balsamic glaze.
Well this has been an interesting experience. It’s been 6 days since I last shared a new recipe with you and that is basically for-e-ver when you have been sharing recipes 4-5 times a week for the past year and seven times a week for the year and half before that. And that’s including when I had morning sickness while I was pregnant with my twins last year! Before you jump to any conclusions, I’m not going anywhere. This blog isn’t going anywhere. We’re still here and we are sticking around whether you like it or not. It’s just been a weird week.
Last week I attended a photography workshop (my first ever because I am 100 percent self taught) in Minnesota and honestly it was life-changing. Life changing for someone who is passionate about photography and has built their career on that passion. But at the end I thought woah, I need to step up my game. You know when you look back at pictures of yourself in high school and think why on earth did my mother allow me to leave the house looking like that?!! No? You had perfect style and taste in high school? Okay well some of us were wearing some pretty funky stuff and when I look back I just want to hide under my bed. That’s how I felt this past week about my food photography. Looking back I think oh my word, why did no one tell me it was awful!?
But I’m not going to hide under my bed, and I’m not going to trash every recipe photo I’ve ever taken (partly because it’s scattered across three billion lightyears of internetspace and would be impossible) but I’m going to take what I learned and use it to (hopefully) make some big strides. While I was pondering all of that for 3-4 days, I didn’t post any new recipes and then when I thought I was ready to jump back in and share some goodness with you I ran into technical difficulties. Basically couldn’t upload a single photo to this blog – a blogger’s worst nightmare, cause who wants to hear about how incredibly amazing this baked balsamic chicken is if you can’t see it??? Yeah nobody.
BUT. The technical issues have been resolved. My mind has been cleared and I’m beyond excited to share a zillion and one more recipes with you. So let’s get back to the balsamic chicken, yeah?
What is this exactly? A 30 minute meal you will want to repeat over and over and over and over and… you get the idea. The chicken gets browned just for a couple of minutes on the stove and then goes straight into the oven. Meanwhile you are making that heavenly balsamic glaze in a sauce pan which seriously involved a couple of stirs and then watching it simmer while the chicken bakes. SO easy. And then you brush that glaze all over your chicken and voila! Seriously the best baked balsamic chicken on your kitchen table.
MAKE. IT.
What people are saying about this Baked Balsamic Chicken
“Simple, quick, healthy, pleased *everyone*. THAT is a home run at my house!! ALL THREE kids **AND** the picky spouse AND even me.. really liked it and gave it the thumbs up to have again. (That rarely happens…we unanimously agree on ONLY 7 meals. Now 8! Yippee.) They ate it up and were all smiles, ahhh the silence!! It was a beautiful thing, and quite satisfying for this domestically challenged mom. It was basically a miracle today. Thanks!!” – Busy Mom
“I’ve made this at least a dozen times in the past few months — this dish is delicious! The chicken comes out perfectly and the sauce goes very well with potatoes. Thank you for posting!” – Liat
“I decided to give it a try and I’m so glad I did. The recipe was unbelievably easy and uses common ingredients so everything was on hand. The flavor is out of this world!!!! Thank you for saving me from having to go to the store and for posting such a great recipe!” – Liz
“My husband says this is the best chicken recipe he has ever eaten in his whole life!!! I have to agree with him. It was amazingly wonderful!” – Shonda
Baked Balsamic Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts - pounded to even thickness
- salt and pepper to taste
- ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
Balsamic Glaze
- 1 cup balsamic vinegar
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Season chicken with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning.
- Drizzle a skillet with oil (about 2 teaspoons is fine) and cook chicken for 1-2 minutes on each side over medium-high heat, just to brown the very outside of the chicken.
- Transfer chicken to a greased baking sheet or large casserole dish. Cover with foil and bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.
- While chicken is cooking, make the balsamic glaze. In a small-medium sauce pan whisk together balsamic vinegar, sugar, honey, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to medium-low heat and allow to simmer while chicken is cooking. The liquid should reduce by half after 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Uncover chicken and brush some of the balsamic glaze on top of the chicken. Return to oven (uncovered) and bake another 5-10 minutes until chicken is completely cooked through. Drizzle remaining balsamic glaze over chicken and serve. Garnish with fresh parsley or rosemary if desired.
I have made a pork glaze similar to this, but I use light brown sugar. Would this work with this recipe or is white sugar better?
This was not very good.