Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Sometimes I get really excited about recipes. Can you tell? This Balsamic Chicken Skillet is one of those recipes. It’s just so freaking easy, the flavor is big, and it looks all pretty and fancy. :D I love it and I hope you will too.
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The marinade for this Balsamic Chicken Skillet is super simple and uses basic pantry staples, which means you can probably whip it up any time you want. When the delicious marinade hits the skillet it cooks down to a gloriously thick and rich glaze that coats the chicken in flavor. Using chicken thighs is key for this recipe because they are small and cook quickly, but always stay moist and tender. Plus, they’re really inexpensive, especially when you buy a value pack like I did, which will help keep this recipe affordable.
Whole Milk Mozzarella is Key
Another key to making this recipe so scrumptious is whole milk mozzarella. None of that “part-skim” stuff here. Whole milk mozzarella melts 100x better than part-skim mozz, and has a really rich flavor. Fresh mozzarella (the kind packed in water) also melts beautifully and would work well in this recipe.
Top Your Balsamic Chicken Skillet with Herbs
If you happen to grow basil, slice up a few leaves and sprinkle them over the chicken after it cooks. I don’t have a basil plant anymore, so I just used some fresh parsley to keep things budget friendly. Either way, a little bit of fresh green makes all the difference.
How to Serve Balsamic Chicken Skillet
You can serve this Balsamic Chicken Skillet over rice or pasta, but served some Marinated White Beans with the chicken this time.
Balsamic Chicken Skillet
Servings 6Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ( $0.22)
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.08)
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar ($0.39)
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce ($0.09)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.16)
- Freshly cracked pepper ($0.05)
- 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs ($3.02)
- 4 oz. whole milk mozzarella ($0.91)
- 2 Roma tomatoes ($0.54)
- 1/4 bunch fresh parsley ( $0.20)
Instructions
- Prepare the marinade by stirring together the olive oil, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, minced garlic, and some freshly cracked pepper (about 10-15 cranks of a pepper mill).
- Place the chicken thighs in a gallon-size zip top bag or a shallow dish and pour the marinade over top. Stir to coat the chicken in the marinade. Marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 8 hours, turning occasionally to redistribute the marinade.
- When ready to cook the chicken, heat a large skillet over medium flame. When the skillet is hot, carefully take the chicken thighs out of the marinade and place them in the hot skillet. Cook the chicken thighs until cooked through and browned on each side (about 5 minutes each side). While the chicken is cooking, slice the mozzarella into six pieces, slice the tomatoes (at least 12 slices), and roughly chop the parsley.
- Once the chicken is cooked through, remove it to a clean plate. Pour the remaining marinade into the skillet and let it boil over medium heat, stirring often, until it has reduced to a thick and rich glaze.
- Turn the heat under the skillet down to medium-low, return the chicken to the skillet, and spoon some of the glaze over each piece. Place a slice of mozzarella on top of each piece of chicken, followed by two slices of tomato. Place a lid on the skillet and let it heat through until the mozzarella is melted. Top the chicken with the chopped fresh parsley, then serve.
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How to Make Balsamic Chicken Skillet – Step by Step Photos
Prepare the marinade first, by stirring together 2 Tbsp olive oil, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 2 cloves of minced garlic, and some freshly cracked pepper.
Place six boneless, skinless chicken thighs in a gallon-size zip top bag, or in a shallow dish. Pour the marinade over top and stir to coat the chicken in the marinade. Marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 8 hours.
When you’re ready to cook the chicken, heat a large skillet over medium flame. When the skillet is hot, carefully add the chicken pieces (there will likely be some sputtering and splattering). Cook the chicken on each side until browned and cooked through (about 5 minutes on each side).
Remove the cooked chicken to a clean plate and pour in the remaining marinade. Let the marinade boil until it is reduced to a thick glaze. Stir the marinade often while it boils.
While the chicken and glaze are cooking, slice the mozzarella into six pieces (one for each piece of chicken). I bought a one pound block, so I cut it into quarters, then sliced one quarter into six slices.
Slice two Roma tomatoes, making sure you have at least twelve slices, or two for each piece of chicken.
Once the glaze is thickened, turn the heat down to medium-low and return the cooked chicken to the skillet. Spoon a little of the glaze over each piece of chicken, then top each one with a slice of mozzarella.
Place two slices of tomato on each piece of mozzarella. Place a lid on the skillet and let the chicken heat through until the mozzarella is melted.
Once the mozzarella is melted, sprinkle chopped fresh parsley over top and serve. I also added a touch more cracked pepper.
You can also drizzle a little of that glaze from the bottom of the skillet over top… Oooooh yeah. This Balsamic Chicken Skillet is gonna earn you some POINTS.
I made this tonight and it definitely going into the dinner rotation! The only change I made was the cooking method just for timing purposes. I browned the chicken on the stove top and then put it into a baking dish. I boiled the marinade in the same stove top pan and then spooned it over the chicken. Topped chicken with tomato and mozzarella and baked for 20 minutes. It was absolutely perfect! So tasty! Thank you so much for the great recipe.
We made this last night and it is a definite repeat! It was so good that I made another batch of marinade tonight for barbecued boneless chicken thighs.
Is there anywhere I can find the old original recipe? When you diced the red onions and tomatoes? Placed them on top after cooking the chicken then put it in the oven?
Thanks!
Yep, I’ll email that to you! :)
I would so like the original recipe please!
You got it. :)
Can I get the original too?? Thank you!
Also what do you recommend serving this with?
Just emailed it to you, Piper! We love this one with any of our pastas, cheesy grits, or marinated white beans!
Can I get that emailed to me as well?
Sent!
Any recommendations for this recipe with bone in thighs with the skin still on? That’s all I had on hand
If you make them as the recipe is written, I would remove the skins (but you can leave the bones in) because even if they are crispy when you top them with cheese, they won’t stay that way. You can save the skins and fry them up to use as a topping or freeze them to add to chicken soup or broth the next time you make it! Otherwise, just make sure they are cooked in the center and reach an internal temperature somewhere between 165-185*F. ~ Marion :)
One of our weeknight absolute favorites! So easy and so delicious! Thank you Beth!
Can this recipe be made in an oven??? Don’t like to fry things.
Maybe, but I’d need to do some testing before offering instructions.
Hi–since I’m cooking for two and only needed three pieces of chicken, I halved this recipe, used a smaller skillet, and crossed my fingers that it would work out. Unfortunately, the glaze BURNED almost immediately when I put the chicken in the pan. Any idea why that happened? Heat too high? [The burner on my gas stove was set on medium.] Brown sugar too old? [Package said “best by May 2020” and it’s August. What could I do to avoid this next time? Thanks!
Yep, it sounds like the heat was too high. Unfortunately there isn’t really any standardization for burner settings and the type of cookware you use can also make a big difference with how they heat up and retain heat. Cooking is one of those things that is very intuitive and you have to get a feel for as you learn over time (usually through failures). I’m so sorry it didn’t work out for you this time!
Whoops – anything bad going to happen if the chicken marinates for 24 hours instead? This will be Easter (eve) dinner with your fluffy garlic herb mashed taters … yum!
The only thing that may happen is that it’s possible for the chicken to over tenderize from the acid, but it’s hard to say how noticeable it will be, if at all. :)
I just made this over the weekend, and like everything else I’ve tried from your website, it was a hit. My dad went so far as saying it was the best homemade chicken he’s ever had – that’s high praise. I used 3 chicken breasts, sliced into two pieces each, and pounded to an even thickness. Also used shredded mozzarella vs. pieces as shown in your recipe – it turned out amazing. No dryness at all.
Thank you for your hard work in perfecting these recipes for us!
When trying to reduce the remaining marinade into a glaze it seemed to separate. I got thick clumps of balsamic goop swimming in a yellow oil. Any idea what may have happened? Chicken was great and family loved it, so I definitely want to try again. Note that I did sub coconut sugar for the brown sugar – which hasn’t been an issue for me in other sauces to date.
Hmm, I’m not sure about that one! Try using a whisk to dissolve the browned bits from the skillet after you added the remaining marinade. That might help.
Probably the best recipe I’ve found for chicken yet. Pairs nicely with half mashed red potatoes.
So because it’s last minute, I have chicken breasts thawed to use. Can I sub the thighs for the breasts?
Yes, just make sure to either pound them out to a equal thickness, or filet them in half to be two thinner pieces to make sure they cook through. :)
This is absolutely delicious! The balsamic marinade is fantastic. I’ve made your other one in the oven as well, and I definitely think the glaze on the stove is superior. Can’t wait to enjoy last night’s leftovers!
This recipe is delicious. both kids and husband loved this recipe. Don’t know how I had dinner without it for all these years.
Hi Beth,
I tried this recipe today and the glaze tasted a bit burnt. Is it meant to? I followed your instructions – turned the heat right n
down and stirred regularly until it thickened.
It sounds like butter may have gone just past brown to burned. It can be tricky and the timing/heat levels can depend greatly on the thickness of your cookware.
Beth! I made this before and I’m making a portobello version for my veg friends this weekend. You mention butter here, but it’s not in the recipe. Is the glaze supposed to be “mounted” with butter? Thank you!
Wow! This was so tasty! We all loved it and look forward to having it again real soon. Thank you, Beth. You’re my hero☺
Delicious!
I tried to give 5 stars but my keyboard jumped back the stars, my mistake, it deserves 5 stars!!!!
I am SOOOOO making this for my mom’s upcoming visit this weekend. I plan to put it over some cauliflower rice that I have with a lil bit of the glaze spooned over. Yum and thanks!
This was absolutely delicious and pretty quick to make! Thanks Beth! My only question is where do you buy your chicken?! I haven’t found any prices anywhere that are as low as yours!
On sale at my local grocery store! :)
What do you do with the milk???
There is no milk i this recipe, only “whole milk mozzarella”, that is not the “part-skim” kind.
My family LOVED this recipe!! Delicious, easy and quick to make. Best three ingredients in a recipe.
Thank you so much for this post! I am always looking for a cheap and easy recipe to throw together on the week nights. I personally have a plethora of food allergies and these ingredients are all safe! With my busy schedule of coaching, advising and working full time this should be a great recipe to try.
I love balsamic and think the combination with the chicken, this recipe looks sooo tasty!!!
I think I am going to have to give this one a go!
Do you think it would also work well cooking in the oven?
I have another recipe that uses the same marinade, but is baked in the oven. The only difference is that the marinade does not thicken to a nice glaze in the oven. It still tastes great, though!
Hi Beth! What would you do differently with bone-in chicken thighs? Got them accidentally but still would like to make this for dinner!
They will take longer to cook through, so you may need to add a lid and let them simmer in the sauce a little while before removing the chicken and reducing the sauce.
I was planning to make this tonight but I completely missed the marinade step… would it hurt the thighs to marinade for longer than eight hours (like if I did this as a weeknight meal) or should I just stick the thighs in the freezer to get back to another day? I’m planning to try the extended marinade at this point but any clarification helps. Thanks!
I think you’ll be alright with an extended marinating time. :)
Cool! This came out absolutely delicious, by the way, will definitely make again!
This recipe was simple and delicious!!!!
Cert good
Husband and I, lazily mumbling to each other “what about dinner…” I pull up this pic and just point to the screen. Husband grunts “yes.”
Too lazy to even think about a single extra dish to wash, I prepared this in the oven like your other balsamic chicken recipe (that we already love), so we did not have the reduced glaze. We also had to use the wedge of Gouda we bought the payday before and hadn’t touched yet (poor us, I know!). We did have fresh basil I got for another recipe, to garnish.
This was so different for us – cheese and tomato on a baked balsamic chicken. SO GOOD!!! And the Gouda was such a happy substitute – I hadn’t had Gouda in years, I think, and it’s one of my fave’s. It melts like nothing else!
Served only with a simple romaine salad that was already prepped the day before, when I wasn’t so lazy.
Best kitchen habit I’m acquiring: when I’m feeling motivated, I prep as much as I can. It makes “lazy day” a breeze!
I am vegetarian so I substituted tofu for the chicken and it was excellent :) In case anyone is interested in trying it!
I’m visiting with vegetarian friends this weekend and I’m going to try it with portobellos. The marinade is SO GOOD!
This was super delicious and very simple to make! Moist and full of flavor, served with some plain pasta, the husband gave rave reviews. Thanks!!!
Hi Beth! This recipe looks delicious, but I have one question. I hate raw tomatoes (except for in salsa, weirdly), but I love cooked tomatoes. If I were to top this recipe with cooked/grilled tomatoes instead, do you think I should cook them separately? Or do you think I should put them under the broiler in step 5 instead of just covering the pot with the lid? Would broiling in the last step mess up the cheese or the sauce?
Thanks again for continually putting out amazing recipes. It’s so, SO appreciated!
It’s possible that the broiler could burn the cheese, but I think if you just keep an eye on it and make sure the chicken is far enough away from the broiler that it cooks a little slower, that would work. You could also dice the tomatoes and cook them with the balsamic glaze as it boils down. :)
This sounds delicious Beth! It’s going to be dinner this Sat. night for myself and DH! I’m going to make several, marinate one in the fridge for dinner and put two more in the freezer for freezer meals. Then all I have to do is add mozzarella and
tomatoes on a busy night!
Oh my goodness, this was delicious and super easy! The boyfriend is snobby about chicken thighs loved it as well, such a fan of your site!!
Made this last night for my boyfriend and me, and it was great. It was tangy and salty, and the glaze thickened up perfectly without any effort. I poured the leftover sauce in a tiny tupperware, cut up the chicken and more tomatoes, and had it for lunch as a salad.
This recipe is delicious, healthy, easy to prepare, and price effective. You can’t ask for anything more. I will definitely make it again.
I would shred or grate the cheese rather than slice it. It melts faster and more evenly and looks nicer.
Made this tonight and it was very tasty. A bit on the sweet side for my personal taste – when I make it again I will probably reduce the brown sugar – also the olive oil to decrease the calories. Didn’t have Roma tomatoes – I subbed grape tomatoes cut in half and cooked them while the sauce was reducing. They worked well. Served over pasta. This will be a repeat in my home.
I’m kind of disappointed that the marinade for these chicken thighs is the exact same as your balsamic chicken thighs recipe :\
Correct! I based this recipe off of that one. :)
What adjustments would you make if doing this recipe with breasts?
I’d probably pound the breasts out so they were an even thickness throughout (so they cook evenly). Other than that, the cooking method should be the same. The amount of time needed to cook the chicken in the skillet will just depend on the size of the pieces. Chicken thighs always stay more moist and tender than breasts, though.
In all the food safety classes I’ve taken over the years, we were always told in order to reuse a marinade in this way, it must be brought to a rolling boil and kept that way for ten minutes. I personally think that may be a bit over precautious, but something to not regardless
This is a lot like my bruschetta chicken, except I grilled breast pieces and finished it under the broiler. (And made some bruschetta). This is going on my shopping list this week, thanks Beth!
Is it possible to still use chicken breasts instead for this recipe?
They might be a bit more dry, but you could do it. I would suggest pounding the breasts so they are an even thickness beforehand, to help them cook faster and more evenly.
One general comment — Beth, most of us don’t have gas ranges. Electric is much more common, especially among people who are middle/lower-class and who read budget-related blogs like yours. It would be super helpful for us as readers if you could translate the gas temps to electric…is “medium flame” the same as medium (actually, the center tick mark on the dial) on my stove? I assume that it is, but I just wanted to give you a heads up about the fact that most of us don’t have gas. And for some of your other recipes, like the various kabobs you’ve broiled, can those recipes be made with electric ovens?
Yep, it’s generally the same, although every single range, whether it’s gas or electric, is going to be a bit different with the settings. So you always have to take the heat settings with a grain of salt and just get the “feel” for your equipment. The type of cookware you use makes a big difference, too. Using a thin pot or pan can make a medium-low setting burner cook like it’s medium-high. Electric ovens often have broilers, too, and they can be used for the kebabs. :)
Wow, Aurelia. Maybe it’s a regional thing. I’ve been lower-income my whole life in Boston and have always had gas ranges. The last cooking class I taught did have an electric range for me to use and I fumbled with it like I’d never used a stove before. At my shitty apartment now, my old gas oven doesn’t have any temps left on the dial, so I just guess that 350 is setting the dial to the vertical 12/6 position. Also, it looks like some fiberglass insulation had been torn up (possible old rodent problem?) in the broiler, so we just don’t use it. The guy who owns and manages our property is as close to a slumlord as I want to get (again). Technically, my stove “works”, so there’s no getting a new one. But ya, like Beth said, we just have to learn how our own equipment works (or doesn’t).
I agree on the whole “learn to work with what you have” concept. I’ve just moved to a new apartment, so I’m re-learning on this new stove.
As for gas vs electric ranges, I live on the west coast, and no one has gas here. Literally nobody I know owns a gas range. I think it’s a difference in electricity types/prices. Here, all of our power is either hydroelectric or wind (or solar in California), so our electricity is 50%+ renewable energy and costs only about half of what yours does. As a result, most buildings don’t use any gas at all, so installing an electric range would also require running a gas line to the building.
That’s surprising to me! Having lived in NYC, Chicago, and Providence, my experience was always that older/cheaper apartments tend to have gas stoves. Most older stoves have gas ranges, the only people I know with electric stoves live in houses or in newer apartment buildings. I agree with Flynn, sounds like it might be a regional thing!
I agree, I think it’s not only regional, but how old your place is. Here in the south there are a surprising number of buildings that have not been significantly updated in the past 40-50 years and they all still have old gas stoves. Gas is often touted as “high end” these days, but they make super cheap/basic gas stoves, too. I had a brand new, but super cheap and basic, no-frills gas stove in my last apartment. Gas is really popular here in the south (surprise, suprise), so you find gas ranges all over and in every quality level.
Interesting – I’ve only had an electric stove in the nicer rent houses and now the house I own. Always had gas in the cheaper places.
The balsamic glaze and mozzarella cheese sound like they’d be delicious together!
This looks wonderful! I will be making it using chicken breasts instead of thighs. Do you have any recommendations on anything I might alter due to the change?
I would suggest pounding out the chicken breasts so they are an even thickness. This will help them cook faster and more evenly. :)
My mouth is watering right now. I’m looking forward to making the Balsamic Chicken Skillet for dinner soon. :-)