Balsamic Roasted Chicken

This is a recipe that I keep going back to as it is so good and very easy to prepare. It is adapted  from one of Donna Hay’s many cook books, all of which are brilliant and packed full of great ideas as well as very stylish modern photography. The marinade for the balsamic roasted chicken is based on a recipe for balsamic marinated steak in “New Entertaining”.

As I tend to cook more chicken than I do beef, I thought I would try it out and it works brilliantly. However if you love your steak, then this recipe does go well with the fillet steak that Donna Hay suggests.
There are so many ideas I have for how to cook chicken with a whole variety marinades, none of which are difficult to do. It is also a good way of learning about what flavours go well together and how putting just a little bit of thought into what you cook and eat can enhance and educate your taste buds!
While you are roasting the chicken in the oven you could also throw in a tray of new potatoes sliced in half with some chunks of onion and Rosemary. Cover them with a splash of olive oil and rock salt. They will take about 40 minutes, so put them in 20 minutes earlier than the chicken.

I love salad, so I would have this as a side dish. Even if you don’t think you would go ahead and cook this, just take away the idea of flavouring and lightly marinating your meat/fish before yo cook it. This is the perfect time of the year to experiment with new BBQ ideas ad marinading your meat will make such a big difference to the flavour.

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Balsamic Roasted Chicken

A Mediterranean inspired marinade for chicken.

Course Main Course, Meat

Cuisine Mediterranean

Keyword balsamic roasted chicken

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings 4

Author Laura Scott

Ingredients

• 4 chicken breasts skin on
• 80 ml olive oil
• 80 ml balsamic vinegar
• 4 cloves garlic peeled and sliced
• 1 punnet cherry tomatoes on the vine
• 1 packet basil leaves torn roughly
• salt & pepper

Instructions

1. Marinate the chicken in a shallow dish with the olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar, pepper and salt
2. Leave to marinate for about 30 minutes but if you can't then give it 5 minutes, the flavour will just be less intense

3. To cook the chicken, place it on a a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Pour over the remaining marinade and throw over the cherry tomatoes - these will break down & make a sort of sauce 

4. Cook for 20 minutes then check the meat as a small breast will cook in that time but an extra 5 minutes may be needed depending on your oven

5. When it comes out of the oven tear up the basil and distribute it over the chicken and the cherry tomatoes