Balsamic Glazed Chicken

It's no secret that I love cooking chicken. Like I've said before, I love how versatile it is - it can really be used with so many different ingredients and flavors. And yes, I have over 100 chicken recipes in this blog! To scroll through them, click on the Recipe Index tab at the top of this page.

The most recent Taste of Home Cooking recipe swap was based on the popular Secret Recipe Club Blog Swap. I was given a cooking/food blog and was able to choose any recipe that I wanted to make for the swap. I was excited to get the blog JBean Cuisine - just looking through her pictures is enough to make your mouth water!

I chose a recipe for Balsamic Glazed Chicken. JBean originally made this recipe as part of an earlier blog/recipe swap, and she made a few changes. I followed a few of her suggestions and changes, and made a few changes of my own. My adaptation of the recipe is below.

My dad came over when I made this and we both really liked it - I will definitely make this again. However the one thing that didn't work for me was that the sauce didn't become sticky as JBean mentioned. I kept reducing it, but it never got sticky enough to really stick to the chicken. Still, it was delicious. I wouldn't normally serve hot chicken over noodles and cold greens, but it really worked! And bonus points for being a healthy dish!


Ingredients

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 c chicken stock
• 1/2 c balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp honey
• Cooked rice noodles (I used Pad Thai rice noodles)
• For under the rice and noodles: chopped romaine, chopped cucumbers, sliced grape tomatoes, chopped cilantro
• Garnish: chopped cilantro
• Next time I will also add chopped green onions as garnish. I would also like some sliced mushrooms and/or chopped tomatoes in the sauce.

Directions

• Heat olive oil in a saute pan
• Season chicken with salt and pepper; add to the pan. Cook about 8 minutes per side, or until cooked through. Transfer to a plate and keep warm.
• Add the garlic to the pan and saute 1-2 minutes.
  
• Add tomato paste and chicken stock; stir, scraping up all the little brown bits stuck to the pan.
  
• Add the balsamic vinegar and honey; bring to a boil for 3 minutes and let reduce by half.
  
• Return chicken to the pan and let simmer several minutes.
• Put cold veggies in the bottom of a bowl, top with noodles then the chicken, some sauce, and garnish with cilantro.