Balsamic Glazed Chicken

This is just another attempt to make a chicken dish seem a bit more than it is. The sweet and sour relish or jam is a nice addition that I usually reserve for pork. The wine sauce made this dish a bit more sophisticated than my normal grilled chicken and added another layer of depth to the overall flavor.

For the Marinade:

1/4C extra virgin olive oil

3T cherry balsamic vinegar

2 large garlic cloves

8 small sage leaves
1t smoked paprika

Directions:

Place the olive oil into the pan you will use for marinading the raw chicken. I prefer a glass pan for marinading. Add the balsamic and paprika.

Finely mince the garlic and sage leaves, then add them to the marinade. Stir all ingredients.

Add the chicken breasts and turn over in the marinade, making certain all the chicken is covered in marinade. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for one or more hours.

For the Fruit/Onion Jam:

1 medium onion

extra virgin olive oil
salt
1/4C dried cherries
3T red currants

1/4C cherry balsamic

Directions:

Pour enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan, add halved and thinly sliced onions and saute with salt until wilted, then add fruit.

Saute the fruit, then slowly add the balsamic and continue stirring until the mixture is fully cooked, when the vinegar has turned the onions to a deep rich color.



Start grilling the chicken while you make the sauce. Place it on a grill pan over a medium heat, and when the juices raise to the top, turn over the breast until it is fully cooked, usually when the juices return again to the top and run clear.

For the Sauce:

2/3 can chicken broth

3/4C dry red wine

1T cracked pepper

2T cherry and red currant onion jam

1T garlic rosemary butter

Directions:

Remove the jam from the pan and deglaze fully with the red wine. Add the balsamic and pepper. Reduce the wine by half.

Heat the chicken broth is a small sauce pan, add the reduced wine and 2T of the jam. Reduce this until it is half the original volume, take off heat and stir in the butter.



Plate the chicken breasts, and either set  the jam on top or to the side, then ladle on the sauce.