Balsamic and Garlic Chicken Breasts

There are certain benefits to having my college students home for spring break, and one of them is that they don’t mind cooking.  Sarah and John prepared dinner tonight, Balsamic and Garlic Chicken Breasts, Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, and Steamed Broccoli.  At about 9:00 pm, Sarah and Anna pulled a homemade apple pie out of the oven!  This is a great chicken dish.  Sarah first prepared it for her meal management class at Murray State.  It was a winner there, and it’s certainly a winner at our house.

Directions:

thin-sliced boneless, skinless chicken breasts, (we used two packages, but just buy what you need for the amount of people you are feeding)

I really like the recipe-ready thin sliced chicken. If you’ve never used it, you might want to try it.   I buy it at WalMart and it is a real convenience!  It’s chicken breasts that have been sliced crosswise into about three thin pieces per breast.  It cooks up very quickly and is very tender.  It’s perfect for a recipe such as this.

2 Tablespoons all purpose flour

2 Tablespoons softened butter

5 cloves of garlic, diced

1 sprig of fresh rosemary (plus additional for garnish)

1/3 cup good-quality balsamic vinegar

1  2/3 cups chicken broth

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray cooking spray lightly into a non-stick skillet.  Heat to medium.  Pat the chicken breast pieces dry with paper towels and season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.  Place the breast pieces in the preheated skillet and brown on both sides.

While the chicken cooks, combine the flour and softened butter together in a small bowl with a fork to make a paste.

When chicken is browned, transfer it to a baking dish and bake for about 15 minutes (or until done) while you make the sauce.

To make sauce; add the minced garlic and rosemary leaves from one sprig to the skillet and toss lightly to toast.  Watch it carefully, garlic browns quickly.  It’ll only take a minute or so.

Stir in the vinegar, scraping the browned bits of chicken off the pan as you heat.  Simmer until the vinegar begins to thicken slightly (about 1 min. or so) 

 Stir the flour and butter mixture together with the broth and stir it well with a fork until the flour dissolves into the broth.  It’ll still have lumps but that’s okay.  Add this mixture to the garlic, vinegar mixture in the skillet and continue to heat until the sauce is bubbly and has thickened.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.  To serve, ladle some sauce onto chicken pieces and garnish with additional fresh rosemary if desired.