Balsamic vinegar, honey, brown sugar, and herbs create a sweet, tangy, irresistible sauce for this baked Balsamic Chicken Breast recipe.
Probably one of the easiest dinner recipes you’ll make this week. Chicken breasts with a sticky, sweet sauce flavored with balsamic vinegar, honey, brown sugar, and herbs is a delightful change of pace.
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, salt, pepper, oregano, and basil for the seasonings.
You could even substitute 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary for fresh if you’d like. The combination of the balsamic vinegar with the honey and brown sugar creates just the right balance of sweet and tangy. The mustard adds a nice fresh flavor while the herbs add some depth. So good!
Cooking Balsamic Chicken Breasts
To help the chicken breasts cook more evenly, 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.
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 breast 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.
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.
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.
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This post originally appeared in December 2019 and was revised and republished in May 2022.