Blackberry Balsamic Chicken

Last weekend we headed out to Great Country Farms to do a little U-Pick of blackberries and peaches. Little B had the best time on the tractor ride, playing with the animals and hamming it up in the fields. Since we came back home with both our bellies and our buckets full I knew I needed to come up with a couple of fun recipes to use up our goods before they spoil. This blackberry balsamic chicken was a fun, simple and delicious way to highlight the berries. The sauce was so good that I was glad to have a loaf of good crusty bread to sop up the extras with. Little B loved it so much that he screamed hooray for blackberry jam! If you don’t have fresh berries on hand a similar sauce could always be made from frozen berries.  

4 Chicken breasts

1 lemon, juiced and zested

3 tbs of brown sugar

2 shallots, minced

¼ C Balsamic vinegar

1 pint of fresh blackberries (or frozen ones that have been thawed)

EVOO

½ C chicken broth

S&P

Fresh basil, finely chopped

Make a marinade for the chicken out of the lemon, brown sugar and shallots. Marinate chicken for a minimum of an hour in the refrigerator.

Heat EVOO in a pan and saute chicken (marinade set aside) until golden brown (about 5 minutes.) Remove chicken from the pan and set aside on a covered dish. Add vinegar to the pan to help deglaze the pan. Scrape the bits off the bottom of the pan while cooking down the liquid for a minute or two. Add reserved marinade, blackberries and stock. Allow the liquid to cook down until it has reduced and the berries have cooked through (about 4 minutes) crush berries that have not broken up with a fork and continue to cook the sauce for 4-5 more minutes or until the sauce begins to resemble syrup. Pour the sauce over the chicken, garnish with fresh basil and serve.