Week Night Dinners: Balsalmic Chicken with Cherry Tomatoes

Chicken breast is not something I cook with very often.  Leg meat is tastier and doesn’t dry out so easily so it’s the chicken cut of choice in my kitchen.  I have three exceptions to this rule though:

1. Grilled rosemary & garlic chicken cutlets
2. Fajitas
3. Balsamic chicken with tomatoes

All three are dishes where the chicken is cooked so quickly it doesn’t get a chance to dry out and all three are ideal for a speedy weeknight dinner.  The third dish is one of my favourites at the moment.  Served with couscous and a vegetable (roasted fennel in the picture), it’s a rather elegant little meal.  As it provides most of the flavour, a good balsamic vinegar is essential for this recipe.  For example, this lovely one my Dad bought me on holiday…

I could eat it with a spoon.  🙂

Balsamic Chicken with Tomatoes (adapted from the patronisingly bossy but undeniably brilliant, Tasmin Day Lewis)

(serves two generously)

Butter

2 cloves  garlic, crushed

2 free range chicken breasts, cut width ways into 2cm slices

400g cherry tomatoes, halved

3 tblspn good quality balsamic vinegar

Handful of basil leaves, shredded

Sugar

Salt and pepper

• Melt a knob of butter over a medium high heat in a frying pan.  Add the chicken and saute  for a couple of minutes until sealed all over.
• Add the garlic and stir well.  Cook for a minute then add the tomatoes, vinegar and another knob of butter.  Reduced the heat and simmer gently for 15 minutes until the tomatoes have turned into a sauce and the chicken is cooked through.
• Add the basil and season with salt, pepper and sugar.
• I like this served on top of couscous.

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