Fancy Schmancy Balsamic Chicken Breasts

Once upon a time I saw a recipe on food network for a Balsamic Chicken appetizer. It seemed pretty awesome, but I wasn't throwing a party. I didn't want to wait until my next party to rock it out, so I decided I needed to turn it into a real dinner. Easy enough. Substitute chicken breasts for wings. I did a little more tweaking and tada, it was heaven in my mouth. Observe.

Fancy Schmancy Balsamic Chicken Breasts

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup honey syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
5 sprigs of rosemary
handful of dried garlic
3 large skin-on chicken breasts
4 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

First, before you go to work in the morning, get a giant ziploc bag and dump in the balsamic vinegar, honey syrup, brown sugar, soy sauce, rosemary sprigs, and dried garlic. Now, let's talk about honey syrup. Honey syrup is something used by bartenders and coffee shops. It's this or this. I used this instead of honey because it's just as sweet, maybe even a little sweeter, has a yummy honey flavor, but is more liquidy and easier to work with than honey. Because it was more liquidy it mixed better with the vinegar and soy sauce and coated the chicken more easily. Annnd because its a smidge sweeter than actual honey, I was able to use less brown sugar. So, subbing honey syrup for honey was a win all the way around if you ask me. Anyway, shake the bag to mix everything up and dissolve brown sugar. Add the chicken and shake again to make sure the chicken is really covered in the marinade. Put in the refrigerator and leave it there until you get home from work... or at least 2 hours.

Later, back at the hall of justice, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Put your chicken in a baking dish, but make sure you save your marinade. I used a stoneware brownie pan. You should rock out something similar. Bake for about 45 - 50 minutes. The skin should be a little crispy and kind of blackened in some spots.

When the chicken is close to being done, bring your marinade to a boil (in order to kill Salmonella and his Evil Flagella of Doom). Simmer it and let it thicken up a little bit. It won't get super thick since we used honey syrup, so don't leave it on there forever thinking that it's going to get molasses gooey. As you can see from the picture, it should look pretty disgusting when it's done.

After it's thickened up, take out the rosemary sprigs and brush some of the sauce / marinade on the cooked chicken. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and the chopped parsley. Tada!

Ps. The original recipe can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/balsamic-chicken-drumettes-recipe/index.html

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