Chicken With Goat Cheese and Balsamic Reduction

Ok, so this dinner sounds reeeeeeeeeeeeal fancy, but again, so easy. And please don't think that I all cook is chicken and sweet potatoes. I promise to post more variety. And besides, I had been living on that vegetable soup for a week - it was time for another comforting meal!

This dinner was a combination of 2 recipes I saw on the food network this week. The first was the goat cheese stuffed chicken, and the second included a recipe for the balsamic vinegar glaze. The salty creamy goat cheese was great with the sweetness of the vinegar.

First I made the balsamic vinegar marinade by combining about 1 cup of good balsamic vinegar, 4 cloves of crushed garlic, a bit of orange juice, and 1/2 cup of brown sugar. I used bone-in and skin-on chicken breast. I generally prefer baking/roasting chicken breast like this because it keeps it moist and adds more flavor. I marinated the chicken breast a little over an hour and then placed them on a baking sheet. I separated the skin from the meat, and stuffed the sliced herb goat cheese and whole leaves of basil under the skin. Then I sprinkled them with salt and pepper. I baked the chicken at 375 for about and hour. The goat cheese stays under the skin while it bakes, it wont ooze out like a softer cheese. Meanwhile, I took the marinade and transferred to a pot on the stove top and cooked on low while the chicken was in the oven. It reduced down and was thick and sweet! I used it as a sauce after the chicken came out of the over.

I served the chicken with sweet potato fries (slice, sprinkle with olive oil and kosker salt and bake at 375 for about 30 minutes) and a green salad with and orange vinaigrette and toasted walnuts (from the other half of the orange from the marinade).

You can see I love using the same ingredients, oven temperature, and flavors in each dish for the same meal. This makes things easier and everything blends well together. I hope you try this one!

Love,

Sam