Blackberry-Balsamic Glazed Chicken
05You know, for a foodie, I can be pretty picky. I’m not crazy about most seafood. I hate mayonnaise. The smell of cauliflower alone is enough to make me cringe. And I don’t like fruit mixed with my meat.
I’m working on the last one. I’ve never been one of those pork-chops-and-applesauce-people; never the fan of fruit in a salads. But, lately I have been eating a lot of salads with fresh & dried fruit in them, and I even added some raisins to my Moroccan chicken and lentils. And I loved it. So, I decided I could venture even further into the world of fruit and meat and make chicken with a fruit sauce.
This Cooking Light recipe for raspberry-balsamic chicken has gotten rave reviews, so I thought I’d start there. I changed the method very slightly and settled for blackberry preserves instead of raspberry since the blackberry preserves were seedless and I felt the deeper flavor would go even better with the thyme and balsamic.
This turned out quite tasty! Now, I am not a 100% convert. I liked this, but I still didn’t LOVE it. I think if you love fruit and chicken together, this is a really great recipe, even for being so simple and basic. For me, while good, I would still rather save the preserves for my toast and the chicken for my dinner 🙂
Blackberry-Balsamic Glazed Chicken
adapted from Cooking Light
Serves 2
1 tsp. canola oil
2 boneless/skinless chicken breast halves
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 cup onion, diced
1.5 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
3 Tbsp. seedless blackberry preserves
salt and pepper
In a large skillet coated with cooking spray, heat the oil. Sprinkle the chicken with salt, pepper, and thyme. Add the chicken to the skillet and cook through, about 5 minutes per side. Remove from the skillet and keep warm.
Add the onions to the pan and saute until translucent. Stir in the balsamic vinegar and blackberry preserves. Stir continuously until the preserves melt. Serve the sauce over the chicken.
Nutritional Information Per Serving: Calories: 241 / Fat: 3.7g / Carbs: 23g / Protein: 26.5g
Could one somehow use fresh blackberries for this??
Sure, Missy. You can heat them for a little bit with a little water or lemon juice and, if you want, some sugar, and then push them through a strainer.
Sounds delicious either way but I think I would love to try the recipe with fresh blackberries. How much fresh blackberries, sugar water/or lemonjuice should be used and how long should this mixture cook?
I’d probably use about 1 T of juice/water for ever 1 cup of berries. As for the sugar, it will really depend how sweet your fruit already is and how sweet you want it to be. You can leave it as-is, or you can just add the sugar by the tsp. until it gets to the sweetness you want. You’ll want to cook it until the berries start falling apart, and you can easily smash them.
Thanks Elly my family, especially the kids, loved this dish. Delicious, quick and easy.