When it comes to making delicious and easy dinners, few ingredients are as versatile as chicken breasts are. Though chicken gets the reputation of “tasting like everything,” it’s mild flavor and texture make it a good choice for many different dishes and many different seasonings. Depending on your mood, you can make spicy Indian-style chicken meals or a more savory Italian style dish with very little effort. Still, we have a recipe today that you may not have tried out as often.
Today’s recipe is for slow cooker balsamic chicken and is incredibly easy to whip together. While we’re used to sautéing chicken in a pan with butter or rubbing it down with dry spices, balsamic vinegar is a relatively unique ingredient when it comes to seasoning. It has an acidic taste as well a note of sweetness, balancing out the other flavors in the dish very nicely and tenderizing everything in the process. After you try this recipe, you’re sure to make it again and again. So let’s get started.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- 8 boneless and skinless chicken breasts
- 1 sliced white onion
- 1 pound of baby carrots
- 1 pound of green beans, cut and trimmed
- 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- 4 cloves of finely chopped garlic
- 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of pepper
- fresh parsley
Here’s what you do:
1. First, pour your olive oil into the bottom of your slow cooker to grease it up before adding in your chopped garlic cloves as well. Chop your baby carrots up and throw those in also before adding your chicken thighs on top.
2. In a side bowl, combine your vinegar, honey, garlic powder, rosemary, salt and pepper. Whisk everything together well so that it combines and pour it into your slow cooker, coating everything below it.
3. If you haven’t done so already, slice up your onion and put the slices on top of the chicken as well. Finally, cover it up and set it to cook on low for eight hours or on high for four.
4. About a half hour before the cook time is finished, add in your cut and trimmed green beans as well. When the time is finally up, check to make sure the chicken is cooked through. If everything looks good, garnish it with fresh parsley and you’re ready to eat.
As you can see, all the ingredients in this dish are simple and the whole thing is easy to combine. Regardless, adding the balsamic vinegar to the chicken blends everything together so well and adds some complexity to dish that could otherwise be a little too simple. At the end of it all, you and your family can enjoy flavorful and perfectly tender chicken with no effort.
Like other slow cooker recipes, the steps to this one are very easy but they also allow some room to experiment. If you like these flavors, feel free to add other veggies into the mix for even more flavor and texture. Mix up the seasonings if you’d like as well. Above all, have fun with this recipe and let us know what you think.
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