This Balsamic Chicken tastes so good you won’t believe how easy it is to make, and it’s ready in 30 minutes!
You mix up a quick sweet, sticky, and tangy sauce using pantry staples like balsamic vinegar, honey, brown sugar, and herbs. Pour that over chicken breasts (or thighs) and bake just until cooked through. So simple and delicious, everyone in my house loves it so much and requests it all the time.
Scroll down to learn more about how this wowzer of a chicken dinner recipe comes together, or click here to jump straight down to the recipe.
Making The Balsamic Sauce
The sauce comes together in about 3 minutes and most of the ingredients are already in your pantry. In addition to the balsamic vinegar, you’ll need olive oil, some minced garlic, honey, brown sugar, and mustard. Plus rosemary (fresh or dried), salt, pepper, dry oregano, and dry basil for the seasonings.
You can substitute 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary for fresh if you’d like. Or use fresh thyme (1 tablespoon) or dried thyme leaves (1 teaspoon).
The combination of the balsamic vinegar with the honey and brown sugar creates just the right balance of sweet and tangy. The mustard is tangy and rich, while the herbs add some depth. So good!
Type Of Chicken To Use
The recipe below calls for 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts. Alternatively, you can use boneless skinless chicken thighs. Sometimes, chicken thighs are sold as larger flat pieces and sometimes they are rolled into bundles. If they’re in bundles, unroll them so that they are thinner and will thus cook more quickly. When unrolled like that, the thighs will cook in the same amount of time as the chicken breasts.
Chicken breast cutlets are also a great option. As you’ll see below, I recommend pounding the chicken breasts to get them a bit thinner. Cutlets are already thinner so they save that step.
Bone-in chicken pieces like drumsticks, leg quarters, bone-in thighs, or bone-in breasts can be used instead. They will take longer to cook though, and the sauce can get too thick. If using these pieces, reduce the cooking temperature to 350˚F and cook until chicken is no longer pink near the bone and has reached 165˚F internally, 40-50 minutes.
Prepping The Chicken
To help chicken breasts cook more evenly and quickly, I like to pound them to about 3/4-inch to 1-inch thickness. This step takes a little extra time, but it is so worth it when every bite of the chicken is tender and not dried out.
What is quicker is to buy chicken cutlets, or, slice the chicken breasts through the center (with your knife parallel to the cutting board) so that the breast is butterflied and half as thin. It then cooks more quickly and has more surface area for sauce.
As mentioned above, if you use boneless skinless chicken thighs instead, then you want to unroll them so that the are just 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick.
Cooking Balsamic Chicken
Arrange the chicken so that there’s a little room in between each breast so the sauce has the opportunity to completely surround them. After pouring the sauce over the top, I like to turn the chicken over a couple of times in the sauce so that all sides have some sauce on them. I make sure they end up rounder-side-up in the pan. Not that it makes a difference in the cooking time, I just think it makes a prettier breast to serve.
Speaking of serving – this recipe is amazing served over rice or mashed potatoes. But my favorite way to serve the balsamic chicken breasts is over boiled fettuccine noodles with halved fresh cherry tomatoes scattered around, a sprinkle of parsley and a simple spinach salad. Some crumbled feta cheese or small slices of fresh mozzarella are also great additions.
And don’t forget to spoon the sticky, sweet, tangy sauce over the chicken. I think it’s the best part of the recipe.
More Chicken Breast Recipes
You can browse my entire collection of chicken recipes, but here’s some more tasty options for chicken breasts.
- Italian Chicken Breasts
- Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Breasts
- Creamy Coconut Chicken Breasts
- Pesto Chicken Recipe
- Honey Mustard Chicken
- Lemon Chicken Recipe
Podcast Episode: Making Balsamic Chicken Breasts
Listen to me explain briefly about how to make these chicken breasts, along with some other great tips, by clicking the play button below:
Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.
Print
Balsamic Chicken Breasts Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Entrée
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
DESCRIPTION
Balsamic vinegar, honey, and herbs create a sweet, tangy, irresistible sauce for this baked Balsamic Chicken Breast recipe.
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded to even thickness
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 Tbsp. honey
- 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
- 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary*
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
- 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp. dried basil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400˚F. Lightly oil a baking dish.
- If the thickness of the chicken breasts is very uneven, pound them a bit to even things out (see this post for how to do that), keeping the chicken 3/4- to 1-inch thick.
- In a small bowl combine oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, honey, brown sugar, mustard, rosemary, salt, pepper, oregano, and basil.
- Arrange the chicken breasts in the baking dish. Pour the sauce over, flip the breasts in the sauce to coat evenly.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until an instant read thermometer in the thickest part of the chicken reads 165˚F.
- Spoon sauce over chicken and serve.
Love this recipe? I’d appreciate it if you could scroll down and add a *5 star rating* to help others know they’ll love it as well!
Notes
*You can use 1 tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves instead of the fresh rosemary, or 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary or dried thyme leaves instead.
This post originally appeared in December 2019 and was revised and republished in May 2022.
Delicious …hubby loved it
So glad to hear that, Diane! Thanks for coming back to comment.
This recipe was so yummy! I couldnt decide if I wanted to do balsamic roasted brussel sprouts or balsamic chicken. Then I seen the recipe and it was perfect! I subbed a couple cloves of roasted garlic from my freezer and only had golden balsamic on hand. Im sure it was just as delicious. I roasted the sprouts in evoo and S&P alongside the chicken.. same time and temp. And, of course I couldnt resist drizzling some sauce over the brussel sprouts after I tasted the chicken. SO GOOD!
Am, I’m so happy to hear that! And thank you for letting me know. You’ve made my day! :-). Oh, if you get a chance, could you come back and give the recipe a 5 star rating? Thank you!
Simple and tasty. Even my picky-eater son ate it!
Glad to hear it, Ed! :)
This was so easy and wonderful! Thank you for the recipe! I didn’t have fresh Rosemary so I used dried. I also used Coconut Sugar rather than brown sugar. I will be saving this to my “recipes will make again” folder. It was a hit with roasted veggies and rice. The chicken is so tender and we used the juice on all of the food.
You’re welcome, Cathy! So happy you enjoyed.
Where is the brown sugar amount? Its in the description but not the recipe?
I’m sorry about that, Tracey, not sure what happened there. It’s 2 Tbsp. of brown sugar. I’ve updated the recipe card above, thanks for letting us know!
The balsamic chicken breast sounds wonderful. Will try the recipe tonight
Thank you, Terrence!
These look so yummy! My family would love this recipe!
Enjoy, Tracie!