Sweet & Sticky Chicken

This sweet sticky chicken is oh-so good! I put the bowl in front of my husband, he took one bite and he was like ‘wow, you really cooked this?!’ It’s THAT good… and SO simple! And it left my kitchen smelling delicious. You can never complain about that!

Ingredients:

• ½ cup balsamic vinegar
• ½ cup soy sauce (low-sodium preferred)
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• LOTS of garlic, minced (ok, 3 cloves should be good, but more if you love it!)
• Dash of pepper
• 6-8 chicken breasts

So first I should say that this recipe could serve 6-8 people. I did this to make the measurements easy. I might have mentioned this, but when I cook, I’m not super precise. I made a serving for 2 people (who eat a lot!) and used about a third of what I have listed above. It was the perfect amount for us.

I might have also mentioned that I hate using whole chicken breasts. I always cut them into smaller pieces, but I am going to assume everyone else isn’t as picky as me! If you use chicken breasts instead of smaller pieces or tenders, just prolong your cook time a bit. Check your chicken (you always should) to make sure it is fully cooked.

On a side note, LOOK AT ALL THAT GARLIC… mmmmm:

Combine all of your ingredients (minus the chicken) in either a shallow dish or a Ziploc bag. If you are cooking a larger amount, a shallow dish will work much better than a Ziploc bag. You want to mix all the ingredients very well, making sure your sugars dissolve. Add in the chicken and make sure it is well coated. You can marinate this for up to 24 hours, but if you are in a rush, you can just start cooking right away! There won’t be a big difference, so no worries.

When you are ready to start cooking, put your chicken and all of the marinade in a large skillet. If you are using a smaller portion of this recipe, I highly recommend using a smaller skillet. I didn’t even use a skillet to be honest! I am a one dish kind of gal and even though my husband always does the dishes, I try my best to use as little as possible. Since I serve this with rice, I just used the pot that I cooked my rice in.

So bring your sauce to a boil over medium heat. Once it is boiling, reduce it to low, cover and cook until your chicken is done. This will probably take 15 minutes if you are using full size chicken breasts, though mine only took about 7 minutes. Also, you need to turn the chicken every so often and stir the sauce. Once your chicken is done, take it out of the pan and place it in a dish, covered, so it stays hot.

At this point, I sliced my chicken up. I knew we were going to serve it with rice and that my silly husband was going to be sitting in front of the computer, so I wanted it to be easy to eat. You don’t have to cut it up if you don’t want to.

(Ha! He came in and took a few pictures… I didn’t know he took this one until I was putting my pictures in the post… he’s so cute!)

Turn up the heat for your pan to medium and start to cook your sauce. You want to turn it into a sort of syrup. This shouldn’t take long, 10 minutes tops. You just need to make sure you stir it very often. Once it’s thickened up, add your chicken to the pot and coat it with the sauce. And that’s it!

This sticky, sweet and delicious chicken goes great over rice. If you want to add a little more to the meal, throw in some bell peppers, onions, broccoli or snap peas. Any of those would be wonderful with this.