Vinegar-Glossed Chicken

A friend enjoys making a meal based around a recipe for Vinegar-Glossed Chicken and she sent me the link to the recipe, it is posted on Leite’s Culinaria site.  The recipe sounded intriguing, so decided to make it for dinner.

My wife was out running errands and I asked her to go by the store and pick up some chicken breasts that I could use in the recipe.  The recipe calls for 5 1 /2-pounds of chicken, and she purchase two packages of boneless skinless chicken breasts for me to use.

I started by mixing the vinegar/garlic/rosemary mixture in a bowl and I let it sit for about an hour before I started cooking.  I decided to use one of the packages of chicken, which was around three pounds of meat.  Some of the chicken breasts were a little too thick, so I butterflied those before cooking.  I lightly salted and peppered the chicken and I was ready to cook.

I heated my non-stick pan on the stove on medium heat and once it was hot, I added about a tablespoon of grape seed oil and then half of the chicken breasts.  The recipe calls to brown the chicken for five minutes on each side for a total of ten minutes.  I should have known this was too long.  Once I browned the two batches of chicken, then I added 3 /4-cup of chicken broth and deglazed the pan.

I cut the chicken breasts into smaller pieces so they would all fit into the pan and turned down the heat to simmer to reduce the chicken broth.  I could see that there was not enough chicken broth, so I added about another 1 /2 a cup.  I simmered for the minimum fifteen minutes and then turned up the heat and added the vinegar mixture.

I must not have waited long enough, or had too much of chicken broth left in the pan, because I didn’t get the glaze affect the recipe describes.  I did have a small amount of tasty sauce in the pan that we served over the chicken and rice.

As I mentioned, I overcooked the chicken breasts so they were a little dry.  Having the sauce helped, but the next time I make this recipe, I will try it with thigh meat instead of the breasts so the meat will not dry out.  I would also cut back on the amount of chicken, only cooking as much as will comfortable fit in the pan in one batch, but keep the amount of vinegar mixture the same.

My wife was a little disappointed that this recipe didn’t make more of a sauce then a glaze.  Outside of the toughness of the meat, we enjoyed the flavor of the vinegar with the rosemary; I may have to do some experimentation with these flavors.

Find the Recipe at: http://leitesculinaria.com/27811/recipes-vinegar-glosse-chicken.html

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell