Funny story – I was going to make this honey balsamic chicken with chicken thighs, but they were $3.49/lb. and the boneless, skinless chicken breasts were on sale (again) for $1.99/lb… so… yeah. Chicken tenders it was!
Obviously not everyone will catch this $1.99/lb. chicken sale as often as I do, so go with whatever cut is the best deal. To make this recipe with something like chicken thighs, just brown the thighs in the skillet (just like I did with the breasts) and finish cooking them in the oven for about 20-30 minutes at 375 degrees. Prepare the sauce in the skillet in the same manner as listed below. The sauce should be enough for four medium sized chicken thighs.
This chicken is bursting with flavor from the tangy balsamic vinegar, sweet honey, and rich butter. I seasoned mine simply with salt and pepper, but if you want a more herbal flavor you could always add a pinch of dried basil or thyme.
Honey Balsamic Chicken Tenders
Honey Balsamic Chicken Tenders
Servings 4Ingredients
- 2 medium 1.5 lbs. chicken breasts ($2.99)
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar ($0.80)
- 1 clove garlic ($0.08)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil, divided ($0.24)
- to taste salt & pepper ($0.05)
- 1 Tbsp butter ($0.10)
- 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar ($0.40)
- 3 Tbsp honey ($0.33)
Instructions
- Slice the chicken breasts on a diagonal into six strips each. Place the strips in a quart sized zip top bag along with 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar, one clove of garlic (minced), 1 Tbsp of olive oil, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix the ingredients in the bag and let marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
- When you’re ready to cook, heat the second tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, cook the strips until browned on both sides (about 2-3 minutes each side). You may have to do two batches. Place the cooked chicken on a clean plate.
- Turn the heat down on the skillet to medium-low and add the butter and last 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar to the skillet. Use a spoon to stir the mixture and dissolve the sticky bits off of the bottom of the skillet. Once the mixture has dissolved together, add the honey, increase the heat, and allow the sauce to simmer until thickened (about five minutes).
- Once the sauce has thickened, season to taste with salt and pepper (I just used a pinch of each). Add the chicken back to the skillet and toss to coat in the warm balsamic sauce. Serve immediately.
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Nutrition
Step By Step Photos
First slice the chicken into strips approximately 1 inch wide. Cut the strips on a diagonal across the chicken breast so they are a fairly uniform length and width.
Place the sliced chicken in a zip top bag along with 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar, a clove of minced garlic, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Refrigerate for at elast 30 minutes.
When you’re ready to cook, heat the second tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. When the oil is nice and hot, add the chicken strips. Cook until golden brown on both sides. You may have to cook in two or three batches.
The more browned your chicken is at this step, the better the color will be at the end. This first batch of strips was kind of blond…
But the next batch got nice and brown. Place the cooked chicken on a clean plate.
Your skillet will likely have a coating of sticky residue in it, which is a good thing. This is flavory goodness and will dissolve into the sauce.
After removing the cooked chicken, reduce the heat to medium-low so that the butter will not burn. Add the butter and balsamic vinegar. Stir the mixture together, allowing the butter to melt and the residue on the bottom of the skillet to dissolve into the liquid.
Once everything has dissolved off of the bottom of the skillet, stir in the honey. Increase the heat (if needed) and allow the mixture to bubble and simmer until thickened. This should happen fairly quickly – about 5 minutes. Season the sauce with salt and pepper.
Add the cooked chicken back to the skillet and coat it in the honey balsamic sauce.
Serve warm and ENJOY!
Have you tried marinating the chicken and then just baking?
Looks amazing! And thank you for putting the recipe before the detailed steps! Sometimes scrolling past all the lovely photos before I decide I want to make it is annoying!
This was really good! I didn’t realize I had to marinate it so I only had time for about 15 minutes and it still turned out good. I’m not much of a cook and I found this to be easy to make.
I’ve made sooooo many of your recipes and love them all! this is the second one that I’ve made, it was easy and delicious! I basically have learned to cook from your website, thanks Beth! I’m also a college student and feed my 5 brothers and sisters and father with all of your recipes, they love it!!!
I’m not sure what made me try this recipe – because I hate balsamic vinegar…maybe because the picture of it looked so tasty. I was pleasantly surprised! It was so tender and the sauce was very good – even my children enjoyed it. Thanks! :-)
I tried the recipe but wasn’t very pleased with the outcome. Maybe I did something wrong or my local version of the ingredients are different from yours. After frying the marinated chicken, they had a slightly muddy bitter taste, wich would stay until the end, even after glazing the chicken in the vinegar honey sauce. Or the sauce was the problem and I effed it up there.
I made this today and while it’s beautiful and turned out just like the pictures, it was nearly tasteless which confused me. If there’s any balsamic in a recipe, the balsamic flavors are usually pretty pronounced, but this came out mildly sweet with not even a hint of sassy balsamic. I was disappointed! I used a double acidity balsamic, unsalted butter, jarred garlic, and raw honey. Salted it generously and used fresh ground pepper. The only thing I could think of that might’ve made it bad was that I couldn’t make this last night like I planned, so it had been marinating since yesterday afternoon.
I made this tonight and it was awesome, I ended up tweaking the recipe slightly by accident. Instead of marinating the chicken breast and then frying I fried the chicken breast with a light coating of garlic powder and ginger powder first. Then made the glaze and covered it. Thank you for such an easy and great recipe!
Where does the honey come into play? It’s named honey balsamic chicken, but there is no honey anywhere in the recipe. Did I miss it?
Found it!
Honey is the last ingredient in the ingredients list and it’s added in step three. :)
So delicious and so easy!
Beth, do you think its possible to do a slow cooker version of this chicken?? It was so good!
Hmmm, I don’t think that will work because in a closed vessel like a slow cooker you can’t make a reduced sauce.
Really really tasty!!!
My wife is a great cook. Even went to school for it. I dont’ want to get into it but she’s a good cook. Until she tried this recipe. JK bus seriously? These flavors clash like some battle of the gods and you end up with something that for some strange reason tastes like gourmet french toast. Seriously french toast chick’n.
It was edible and deserves 2 stars but I gave it one to dilute the 20 or so nice people that gave it an underserving 5 star. Lets not forget the rating system 1 star = crap food, 5 = something worthy of note.
Wow you are pleasant.
hey beth,
My family and i are trying to get better eating habits so we tries this… And it was delicious! Even my little sister ate it!
Thank you x
Beth, one of these days, I’m going to find a recipe of yours that I just don’t like…but this isn’t it. Lol. Who would have ever thought chicken marinated in vinegar could taste so good? I served it with yellow rice and green beans. Happy hubby, and the child-monster ate it, too. Thanks!