Raspberry-Balsamic Glazed Chicken

To my friend Carolyn: if you're reading this, this recipe post is for you.  We discussed this one a few weeks back; she'd said it sounds good and I promised I'd make it and post about it so that she could have the recipe.  (Before you think I'm a jerk because I didn't just invite her to dinner, she lives 6 hours away.)  It's appropriate for me to post it for her as she's a newlywed and I secretly think of this as "romantic chicken."  It originally ran in Cooking Light many, many years ago.  I actually made this dish for my husband on our second date.  I used the fancy grill at the beach house where I was staying, despite the fact that I'm pretty terrified of barbecues.  At one point, the intense heat fanned up toward my face, and in a panic, I began blowing on the grill like a moron.  I have a feeling it's then that my husband fell in love with me.

Raspberry-Balsamic Glazed Chicken

1 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped red onion
4 (4-oz) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 1/2 tsp minced fresh or 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1.  Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium high heat.  Add onion, sauté for 5 minutes.  Sprinkle chicken with thyme and 1/4 tsp salt.  Add chicken to pan; sauté 6 minutes each side or until done.  Remove chicken from pan, and keep warm.  Reduce heat to medium-low.  Add preserves, vinegar, and 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper, stirring constantly until preserves melt.  Spoon raspberry sauce over chicken.

The Verdict:  Yummmmmmmm.

This raspberry-balsamic sauce is to die for.  Balsamic vinegar is great on it's own with it's sweet yet tart taste and slightly syrupy consistency.  Added to the raspberry preserves, it creates a thick and caramel sauce that just oozes over the chicken.  You could use any type of preserves that you wish, but let me tell you the raspberry is magical.  I don't bother with the preserves needing to be seedless.  Unless the seeds bug you, you can use either. 

We don't eat pork in our house, but I can imagine that this would taste pretty good over a pork chop as well.

I served this with simple french fried potato wedges and edamame.  I'd suggest keeping your side dishes simple as the chicken itself is so packed with flavor.

This was the first time that my son ate this chicken and he loved it.  So that means that we will be eating raspberry-balsamic chicken for a long time.  Like, until death do us part.