Tag Archives: balsamic vinegar

Onion Chicken in Balsamic Sauce

Posted by deliciousonadollar in Main Dish and tagged with , , , , ,
Onion Chicken in Balsamic Sauce

Onion Chicken in Balsamic Sauce

It’s been snowing here all day and the inches are accumulating.  A good day for staying indoors.  My oven was already warmed up from having baked a dessert, so I decided to put together a meal that would be mostly cooked/baked in the oven with only a short period on the stove top for some pre-browning.  I love it when the whole meal is in the oven, and I can set the table and relax while its cooking, don’t you?

This chicken dish was served with stuffed acorn squash.  I thought that chicken would be good with the squash, but wasn’t sure how I wanted to prepare it, so I went looking on the all recipes.com web site and came up with this recipe.  Everyone who had made it rated it very highly for ease of preparation and outstanding flavor.  So I decided to give it a try.  I’m sure glad I did, because I have joined the ranks of all those other folks who made it and loved it.  Although I was missing one of the ingredients, I substituted roasted red peppers for the sun-dried tomatoes with equally tasty results.  I don’t think that I would ever have made a sauce from chicken broth and balsamic vinegar, but here it works and the aroma of this dish while it’s cooking will certainly get your taste buds salivating.

Roast red peppers were a tasty addition.

Roast red peppers were a tasty addition.

ONION CHICKEN IN BALSAMIC SAUCE

Yield:  serves 2  Adjust amounts accordingly to serve more.

Ingredients:

  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 chicken leg quarters
  • 3 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1  1/2 cups chicken stock
  • 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350*F.   Lightly spray a 9-inch baking dish or 13 x 9-inch pan.

2.  In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat.  Add onion and reduce heat to low.  Allow onion to caramelize, stirring only enough to prevent sticking and to be sure that all sides are fully cooked.  Add garlic and sauté briefly.  Transfer to prepared baking dish.

3.  Increase heat to medium.  Add chicken pieces to skillet and brown on both sides.  Remove chicken and place in baking dish.

Pre-browning the chicken before baking.

Pre-browning the chicken before baking.

4.  Combine the chicken stock and vinegar.  Deglaze the skillet with this mixture, then bring to a boil and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has thickened.  Add in the sun-dried tomatoes, or in this scenario, roast red peppers.  Pour mixture over chicken.  Cover dish tightly with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 45 – 50 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.

This chicken went very well with the stuffed squash.

This chicken went very well with the stuffed squash.

Note:  Some modifications can be made to this recipe such as using chicken breasts or thighs instead of leg quarters, add sliced mushrooms to the onion/garlic mixture, serve over pasta of some sort to take advantage of the great sauce.  These are all suggestions by others who made this dish.

SOURCE:   Allrecipes.com

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Chicken with Mushrooms and Onions in Balsamic Cream Sauce

Posted by deliciousonadollar in Carolyn's Originals, Main Dish and tagged with , , , , , , ,
Chicken with mushrooms and onions in a balsamic cream sauce.

Chicken with mushrooms and onions in a balsamic cream sauce.

Challenge day # 3 without a refrigerator.  This is the requirement right now:  cook with what you have on hand, ONLY.  Going to the grocery store to fill in the blanks is not an option.   Today these were the food items that had priority for usage:  a package of 6 chicken tenders that had defrosted,  a half-package of mushrooms,  some  light cream, and part of a can of chicken broth.  To those ingredients I added 1 large onion, some balsamic vinegar and some butter to come up with what turned out to be a very good chicken dish.

The chicken tenders worked well because they cooked quickly, and remained tender in the cream sauce.  You could also use boneless chicken breasts, cut vertically in half, so they are not too thick.  The amount of sauce is plentiful, so it’s a good idea to plan rice or noodles to spoon it over.  I used a package of herbed rice pilaf with our meal.  To go along with this I used up the leftover  herbed butternut squash from day #1.

This is how I created this entree:     CHICKEN WITH BALSAMIC CREAM SAUCE, MUSHROOMS AND ONIONS

YIELD:   Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

  • Chicken tenders, at least 6 pieces, or 2 boneless chicken breasts, cut vertically in half.

  • Chicken Tenders

    Chicken Tenders

  • 1 large onion, cut vertically in half, then sliced into “half-moons”.

  • A large onion, cut into "half-moons".

    A large onion, cut into “half-moons”.

  • 1 pkg. mushrooms, (or less), sliced or halved

    Mushrooms, butter, and chicken broth.

    Mushrooms, butter, and chicken broth.

  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • 1/2  cup cream, light cream, or half and half
  • 3 Tablespoons butter, divided
  • 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Over medium heat, in a large skillet, melt 1 Tablespoon butter.

Hot skillet with butter melted.

Hot skillet with butter melted.

Add the sliced onions, reduce heat to low and sauté until nicely caramelized, about 15 minutes.  Remove to a bowl, and set aside.

Nicely browned, caramelized onions.

Nicely browned, caramelized onions.

2.  Melt the remaining 2 Tablespoons butter in the same skillet, add chicken pieces and cook to brown each side.  Chicken will not be fully cooked at this point.  Remove to a plate.

Chicken browned, but not thoroughly cooked.

Chicken browned, but not thoroughly cooked.

3.  Deglaze the pan with the chicken broth, scraping up any browned bits into the broth.  Add the cream and balsamic vinegar and stir.  Add the mushrooms and salt and pepper.  Decrease heat to low and simmer a few minutes.

Saute mushrooms, add broth and cream.

Saute mushrooms, add broth and cream.

4.  Bring heat back up to medium.  Add the chicken and onions to the pan mixture and cook the chicken all the way through.

5.  To serve, transfer chicken pieces to a serving dish, pour mushroom-onion-cream-sauce over the top and garnish with parsley if you wish.  (I did not have any parsley on hand.)

A satisfying dish of chicken, mushrooms and onions in a rich cream sauce.

A satisfying dish of chicken, mushrooms and onions in a rich cream sauce.

Our assessment of this dish?  My husband said ” UHMMM! this is great”.  But he loves mushrooms, so anything with mushrooms in it is AOK with him.  I thought it was a very good combination of flavors.  Most importantly for me is that the chicken remained moist and tender.  I always worry about white meat chicken becoming dried out, tough and chewy, but this didn’t.  The cream in the sauce smoothed out the tang of the vinegar, with the vinegar providing a dark color to the sauce. The mushrooms and onions rounded out the dish and were a good compliment over all.  I’m glad I made rice to go with it to put the sauce on.  I will definitely be making this dish again.

SOURCE:   A Carolyn Original