Balsamic Chicken

Balsamic Chicken. One of our all-time favorite meals in this house. It is simple. It is easy. It is delicious. It is one of those recipes that I always have the ingredients for, so if we don't know what to eat, we could always eat Balsamic Chicken.

Here are the ingredients:

2 tsp. vegetable oil; 3 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar; 2 tsp. Dijon mustard; 1 large garlic clove, crushed; 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast; 2 C. mushrooms, small, halved; 1/3 C. chicken broth; 1/4 tsp. dried thyme, crumbled.

Important Note: It does need to be a boneless, skinless chicken breast. I tried making this meal once with some chicken breasts I had that still had the bone in them and it did not work out well at all. It took too long to cook and even then, the meat ended up not thoroughly cooked.

Okay,let's get started. First, take that garlic clove...

and slice it. I know it says to crush it in the directions, and if you're good at that, then by all means, go for it. But, I always end up not smooshing it enough or smooshing the garlic to death, so I chose to slice it this time.

Now, combine 2 Tbsp. of the balsamic vinegar with the garlic...

add the Dijon mustard...

then mix it together.

Take your chicken and emerge it into the mixture, making sure it's completely coated.

Heat up the oil in a skillet. While you're waiting for it to warm up, take those mushrooms and clean them off so we can cut them up.
Hello, mushrooms. I love you.

Halve the small ones and quarter the larger ones. Then try not to eat them all right there on the spot. I really do love mushrooms. Probably more than most people.


Now, once the skillet is warm, put the chicken and the marinade in. Saute the chicken until it is cooked through, which will take about 5 minutes or so on each side. I'm sorry I have no pictures of this step, but apparently I thought it unworthy to take pictures of the chicken cooking.

Once the chicken is cooked, put it and the marinade still in the skillet on a platter and throw it into the oven and keep it warm. I keep my oven at around 180 degrees when I'm just trying to keep something warm.

Now, add a smidge more oil to the skillet and add those mushrooms.

Add the chicken broth, thyme and that last Tbsp. of balsamic vinegar.

Saute those mushrooms until they get a dark brown (about 2-3 minutes) like so:

Add the mushrooms to the chicken on the platter and you're ready to go!

Look, my dish is uneven and all the juices went to one side. Well, that's what you get when you're kitchen table is over 100 years old. :)

We served ours with asparagus and cottage cheese.


What I love about this dish is the tartness of the balsamic vinegar and the Dijon mustard. It really compliments the mushrooms and chicken, which seem to soak up the flavors.

But, this meal is not as flavorful as leftovers. I don't know why, but even when we store the leftovers in the marinade, the tastes seem to escape the chicken and mushrooms once you've reheated it to eat a couple of days later. So, it is a bit bland. Nevertheless, it's a fantastic dish!