Balsamic Lemon Chicken with Spinach Recipe

There was one recipe that we didn’t get a chance to make in my last cooking session. Since I basically had all of the ingredients, I wanted to go ahead and see the recipe through. This was definitely a light stretch for me as I don’t remember ever eating mustard and I am sure I have never tried Balsamic vinegar before. This is definitely not a recipe I would have tried a year ago, even if cash was offered. Yet now I ate the chicken and really enjoyed it. With the slight modifications below, I think this will easily become a dish I will make in the future and I think the final presentation will help you score a home run with dinner guests.

I think the things I would do differently with this recipe next time are: even more lemon juice and butterfly the chicken breasts. The breasts (as you can see below) that I purchased were huge and took a long time to cook all the way through. Butterflying the chicken breasts (basically cutting them in half the thick way) would help with cook time and also help by allowing those eating the chicken to enjoy more of the sauce.

Balsamic Lemon Chicken with Spinach Ingredients (serves 2-4):

  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
  • 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 chicken breasts
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 2 large handfuls of spinach per person

Initial Preparation: Combine the vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Transfer this liquid to a zip-top bag. Add chicken and make sure the liquid is well placed around the chicken. Push the air out of the bag and seal. Place bag in the fridge for 2-24 hours to marinade (I did 12 hours).

Cooking: I decided to cook the chicken on the stove – place chicken into a large skillet or grill pan. Add the extra sauce into the pan. Cook the chicken thoroughly until all the pink is gone (I always make a small cut in the chicken to check because I am freakish about undercooked chicken). Once the chicken is done, remove from pan and then add some water (or wine) to the pan to get up the drippings that have attached to the pan (chefs call this “deglazing”).

Serving: Take spinach and place on plate as seen below. Place a chicken breast on top of the spinach, top with lemon zest and serve while chicken is still hot.

I welcome any comments and/or suggestions on how to improve this recipe even further!

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