Chicken in a Balsamic Cream Sauce

Holy crap, I really didn't post for the entire month of March. To be honest, I was having trouble coming up with new recipes to try, and I had some pretty bad failures. Mostly, there were problems in executing actually decent ideas. I did, however, manage to make this little gem. It combines the acid of balsamic vinegar with the smoothness of cream to make a delicious sauce, which doesn't curdle!

Anyway, start by taking two chicken breasts, salt and pepper them and pan fry them.

I feel like so many of my recipes start this way. Anyway, while you're waiting gather these ingredients.

Oh, and butter... I forgot the butter. When the chicken is done, melt the butter in your pan (the same one you just took the chicken out of) and then add in your flour. For a good roux, you typically want about equal parts flour and butter. BTW, that's what we just made, a roux.

You want to cook the roux for about two or three minutes, just to get the raw flour taste out of it. Once that's done, add in your balsamic vinegar. It looks like I used about a tablespoon.

Stir it all around and try to get some of the chickeny goodness off the bottom of the pan. Then let it cook down for about a minute. We just need to allow the acid to cook down a bit. It will stop us from curdling the cream later. The fat may also do that... I'm not a chemistry person.

Perfect! Now it's time for the chicken stock. About a quarter cup will do. This is why we made the roux, so that we can get the chicken stock in our sauce to tighten up. See, it all makes sense... right?

Stir that all up and allow the stock to cook down for around 2 minutes.

Look how dark is got after that little amount of time. The balsamic is really integrated in. Now it's time for the good stuff... heavy cream. Just a tablespoon or two is probably good. I may have done three, I don't remember. Cream makes my memory hazy.

Stir all that cream in, and you will end up with something that is a brown-ish color. Not ugly brown though, smooth brown. At the end, I threw in around a half teaspoon more of balsamic, just to give it a bit of vinegar bite. It was worth it.

Damn, I love balsamic vinegar.

Something possessed me to warm up some tortillas and serve this over rice. It was a momentary thing. So, I warmed up the tortillas in the toaster. Just a minute or two on a low temperature.

Hi Mr. Toaster, it's been too long.

Then serve it up.sa

It's just my bad photography: I promise that the sauce is much more appetizing in person.

Here's the recipe so that you can enjoy this too.

Chicken in Balsamic Cream Sauce

2 chicken cutlets
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
2 tbsp + a dash balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup chicken stock
3 or 4 tbsp heavy cream
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Salt and pepper chicken cutlets and pan fry in olive oil.

2. Remove the chicken and add butter and flour. Allow to cook for about two minutes.

3. Add balsamic vinegar, deglazing the pan, and allow to cook down, about one minute.

4. Add chicken stock and stir vigorously. Allow to reduce by about half (2 minutes)

5. Add heavy cream and stir again. Add salt and pepper to taste. Return cutlets to the pan and then serve as you would like.