Recipes: Chicken Marsala and Balsamic Roast Chicken with Cherry Tomatoes

I decided before the end of the semester that I was going to do a lot of cooking this summer. I've realized over the last six months or so that cooking is something that I really enjoy, and it's nice to know exactly which ingredients are being used in my food. I also have quite a few Paleo/Primal recipe books now, so there are so many options for any meal or occasion. So far, I've made two recipes from said books: chicken Marsala from The Paleo Diet Cookbook and balsamic roast chicken with cherry tomatoes from The Paleo Recipe Book. Both were quite delicious, and I look forward to trying other recipes soon. I also highly encourage you to buy both books, because the recipes and other information given are fantastic.

Balsamic roast chicken with cherry tomatoes:

This recipe was so delicious, and I will most certainly be making it again! I adapted the recipe from a book a bit-- I used chicken cutlets, rather than chicken breasts, and kind of made up the amounts for each of the ingredients to try and match the amount of chicken I had. So here's the general recipe I used:

-8 thinly sliced chicken cutlets

-1 lb cherry tomatoes

-Marinade:

-1 cup balsamic vinegar

-2 tbsp mustard

-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

-2 cloves of minced garlic

-Sea salt and black pepper to taste

-For the tomatoes:

-Olive oil

-Sea salt and black pepper

-Topping:

-fresh parsley, chopped

-lemon zest

-lemon juice

1. Combine marinade ingredients. Place chicken in marinade and refrigerate for 4 hours.

2. Lightly cover the tomatoes in extra virgin olive oil, then add sea salt and pepper. Mix well.

3. Preheat oven to 400º. Place chicken (in marinade) in oven and bake for 25 minutes. Add in tomatoes and bake for another 10 minutes.

4. Combine topping ingredients in a bowl. (I don't remember how much I used... I just kind of threw everything together, so adjust this step to how much parsley or lemon you like...)

5. When the chicken is ready, pour parsley/lemon mixture on top and enjoy!

Paleo Chicken Marsala:

This definitely wasn't like any chicken Marsala I've ever had before-- the oregano gave it a very distinct flavor and made it taste more like a "chicken with mushrooms" dish, rather than "chicken Marsala." It was still really good, though, and I recommend trying it. We added onions to the mushroom mixture instead of shallots, and made some other modifications as well (I took pictures as an after-thought and hadn't thought to really blog about it, so I can't remember the exact recipe we used). But here's the general recipe:

-8 chicken breasts

-Extra virgin olive oil

-Oregano

-For Marsala sauce:

-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

-3 cups mushrooms

-1 onion, chopped

-1 cup Marsala wine

-1 cup chicken broth

1. Heat olive oil in a cast iron skillet and cook chicken breasts for ten minutes, turning once halfway through. When cooked, remove and cover with foil.

2. Cook mushrooms in a pan for five minutes, stir in onion, and pour in Marsala wine and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for twenty minutes.

3. Place chicken back in skillet and cook for five more minutes. Add mushroom mixture and oregano, and enjoy!

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Quote of the Day:

"I don't like gourment cooking or 'this' cooking or 'that' cooking. I like good cooking." -James Beard

(This post is featured in Primal Cave #3.)