Monday, November 7, 2011

Balsamic Asparugus Chicken

For Sunday dinner I made this........



All you mushroom haters, don't worry, you can make the sauce without the mushrooms and it will still turn out fabulous.
As you can tell from my photo above, I'm a mushroom lover. I loaded those things on. I could eat mushrooms 365 days a year. I just saute them in olive oil and dash some good ol' salt on them. Perfection.
I doubt my kids would eat it up because they are silly like that. If making it for your little jewels, I'd just leave out the mushrooms and asparagus, or put them on the side.
I got the recipe off of http://www.dealstomeals.com/ It is SO worth getting a membership to her website. You will love me for recommending you to her website because of all the money you will save. You can thank me later. ;)

Now, to the best part of this post.......
The recipe!

BALSAMIC ASPARAGUS CHICKEN
Chicken Marinade:
4-5 chicken breasts
3/4 cups balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup of olive oil (or cooking oil)
2 tsp. brown sugar
Sauce:
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
2 cups fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1 can beef broth (about 2 cups)
1 Tbsp butter
Pepper to taste
Topping:
12 asparagus spears
Mozzarella cheese slices (4-5)

Directions:
Combine marinade ingredients and pour in bag with chicken breasts. Refrigerate for about 2 hours. About 20 minutes before chicken is done marinating, heat oil in a large skillet. Add mushrooms and saute for a couple minutes. Add remaining sauce ingredients, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer for about 30 minutes or until sauce thickens and reduces to about 1/4 of its original volume. (When it is done, the sauce should be dark brown in color).
While sauce is simmering, place chicken in a lightly greased glass dish and bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes (or until chicken is cooked through). While chicken is baking, prepare the asparagus. Bring a saucepan, filled about half-way with salted water, to a boil. Toss in asparagus and boil for about 4 minutes. Quickly remove the asparagus and drop in an ice-water bath. Remove the chicken from the oven (when it's finished) and layer one slice of provolone cheese, a few asparagus spears, then once slice mozzarella cheese on each piece of chicken. Set the oven to broil and broil for about 3 minutes or until cheese is melted and starts to brown a little. Right before serving, spoon some of the sauce over each piece of chicken.

Now here are my alterations to the recipes:
I didn't have enough balsamic vinegar. I bought one of the smaller great value bottles of the vinegar. I was 1/2 cups short for the sauce. I left it as is with being 1/2 cup short and it was still delicious. So, if you're a little short on the balsamic vinegar, don't sweat. But, if you're really worried about it, you can just add some extra beef broth and I'm sure it would turn out fine.
Also, I only bought mozzarella cheese. I didn't buy the provolone cheese. You can substitute the provolone for an extra slice of mozzarella, or just completely leave the extra cheese out and do the 1 slice of mozzarella on top. On the bigger piece of chicken I did 2 slices of mozzarella, on the smaller pieces of chicken, I only did 1 slice of mozzarella.

It's a super easy meal. It just takes a little bit of your time in the kitchen. I am most definitely making this again.
We had 1 piece of chicken left over. I put it in the fridge for lunch the following day. Well.... it didn't last that long. It got eaten up at midnight. It was the best midnight "snack" I have ever eaten. ;)

1 comment:

Rachel said...

Sounds good. I love mushrooms!

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