Roasted Chicken with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre

Last night I went to see Mary Poppins - The Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Musical while it was in Orlando with my boyfriend. It was Matt's first broadway experience. It was just a great show and we had a lot of fun (... I still have the songs stuck in my head).

Before we went though, I made us dinner. My boyfriend is the MOST pickiest eater I have ever met, so I don't really like cooking for him a lot. I took a chance though and made him this dish with homemade macaroni and cheese (seriously, who doesn't like that?), broccoli (only vegetable I know he'll eat), and yeast rolls. For dessert we had brownies.

Like I said in an earlier post, I'm not a fan of bone-in chicken, so I made a few a adjustments. I got the recipe from foodnetwork.com and came courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis. I used two boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut in half. I used the same amount of marinade though and the chicken turned out very tender and juicy. Since there were only four thin pieces I roasted them for only 25 minutes. By accident I didn't do the last part of the recipe after the roasting of the chicken. It still turned out awesome, but next time I'll try to remember the whole recipe.

Yield: 6 servings

 

Total Time: 3 hr 15 min

Prep: 15 min

Inactive: 2 hr 0 min

Cook: 1 hr 0 min

 

 

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 (4-pound) whole chicken, cut into pieces (giblets, neck and backbone reserved for another use)
• 1/2 cup low-salt chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves

Directions:

1. Whisk the vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper in small bowl to blend. Combine the vinaigrette and chicken pieces in a large resealable plastic bag; seal the bag and toss to coat. Refrigerate, turning the chicken pieces occasionally, for at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Remove chicken from the bag and arrange the chicken pieces on a large greased baking dish. Roast until the chicken is just cooked through, about 1 hour. If your chicken browns too quickly, cover it with foil for the remaining cooking time. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter. Place the baking dish on a burner over medium-low heat. Whisk the chicken broth into the pan drippings, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the baking sheet with a wooden spoon and mixing them into the broth and pan drippings. Drizzle the pan drippings over the chicken. Sprinkle the lemon zest and parsley over the chicken, and serve.