Thank you for all of your birthday wishes! Birthdays are the best and I’m excited for Birthday WeekTM to continue with picnics and cake to keep things festive!
Before I create any new picnic recipes, I’ll just mention this fantastic dinner we ate last weekend. I had some chicken thighs in the fridge and a full bottle of really nice balsamic vinegar. It was a perfect match. Accolades were coming at me from every direction (well, at least to my right, since there were only 2 of us in the room) and there may have even been some plate-licking involved. I always seem to add rosemary to most things I roast…it’s my favorite herb after all, and it certainly worked well in this dish too. Simple to put together and the results were outstanding enough that you could easily serve this to all your fancy friends. Throw in terms like “balsamic reduction” and well, you’ve staged yourself a successful coup.
balsamic chicken
6-8 skinless chicken thighs
1 T olive oil
1 small onion, sliced thinly
salt & pepper
1 T dried rosemary
1 c balsamic vinegar
6 cloves garlic, sliced1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a 9×13 baking dish, toss around onion slices and olive oil. Add chicken to dish and sprinkle with salt, pepper and rosemary. Peek in on the chicken to make sure that the onions don’t burn up.
2. In a small saucepan, bring the balsamic vinegar and garlic to a boil. Keep sauce boiling until it reduces into a nice thick, syrupy consistency. Turn off heat and set aside.
3. When chicken is cooked, about 45 minutes later, scrape up all the onion bits from the bottom of the dish to loosen all the yummy bits and then pour over balasamic vinegar sauce over the chicken. Set dish to broil for 2-3 minutes or until bubbly. Serve with sauce heaped over chicken.
Print This Recipe
this looks delightful!
happy belated birthday! birthday week is even better than the actual day. Have lots of fun and eat loadsa cake! 🙂
Happy birthday week! (I love those, too – one day is not enough, I always drag my b’day out). The chicken photo is amazing, it makes me want to lick the screen.
I made a vinegar chicken dish that’s similar, but I love the idea of sweet, syrupy balsamic. Looks awesome.
Happy Birthday Week! Can’t wait to see your cake.
Finally! This image from Flickr that made me drool is linked to a recipe. I’ve got a superb bottle of aged balsamic vinegar produced in Modena, Italy and anything that touches it turns to gold – well, not quite but it sounds believable.
I’ll be making this one very soon.
Yesiree bub!
This is pretty much exactly the same chicken I made my boyfriend for his birthday last year (right down to the rosemary – and I totally throw it in whenever I roast too).
I made oven roasted cherry tomatoes to go along with it, and served it on a bed of grilled pollenta. Yum. Yum. Yum.
Ooh, this sounds really great. And you’re right, perfect for a ‘fancy’ dinner.
Happy belated!
Rosemary is my favorite herb too–and this looks like a fabulous use of it. I usually roast chicken things with the skin to keep the chicken moist and tender Then people can remove it or not on their plates.
All that said, your sauce and onion topping makes the chicken look really, really wonderful.
Yummmmm. I’m a rosemary fan too. I made homemade strawberry/rosemary ice cream last week, and it totally kicked butt. Happy belated b-day!
Belated happy birthday, Kickpleat! May your coming year be delicious.
meena, birthday weeks are always better than just a plain ol’ birthday!
thanks rachel, it was particularly yummy 🙂
maija, lick away 😉
annie i saw your vinegar chicken dish! looks awesome.
let me know how it goes, joanne!
beth, i’m sure you’ll agree that this chicken dish rocks!
perfect for those fancy & not so fancy times, judy!
wow, strawberry/rosemary ice cream? jennie, that sounds amazing!!
terryb, i’d be too tempted to eat the skin if i left it on, so i usually remove it.
thanks dawna!
Saucy and tangy are the two words that come to mind in describing this dish. I just sampled a portion of the balsamic chicken which I have prepared for dinner tonight.
Awesome. Very tasty. Yum!
My balsamic vinegar was runnning out and I was only able to make a half-cup’s worth of the reduction. I have this urge to slurp it up with the spoon (right now), but will have to refrain until dinner time, or there will be none left. Did your garlic slices remain crunchy? Mine did. Not that there’s anything wrong with that 😀
my onions were definitely crunchy, but not the garlic which was in the sauce. i definitely agree about slurping with a spoon…well, i licked the plate, but same difference 😉
oh man, this recipe looks divine.
I blogged it because it looks too good to not share!
thanks again!
amelia
450 for baked chicken? I usually bake chicken at 350, 375 at the highest so I just wanted to verify the oven temperature. The recipe looks amazing!
Francis, you can bake it at the usual. The oven we used was really old so that’s the temperature I used and it worked fine.
Hello, i just wanted to say that this is my favourite recipe on your blog. i’ve made it many times over the last few months (your site was recommended by a friend) and i’ve had rave reviews every time. i love how easy it is to prepare and yet how flavourful it turns out. thank you!!