Blueberry Balsamic Rosemary Chicken

We tried this recipe for the first time today, and it was awesome! We got some blueberries in our co-op basket and were trying to figure out what we wanted to do with them, other than just eat them as-is :), and I was thinking for whatever reason that it would be good as a sauce with balsamic vinegar. Went on the trusty internet and found a couple of various recipes which were pretty much identical. Turns out someone else had the idea before I did! 

This is a French dish and was incredibly home~y and rustic. I could totally see myself ordering it at a French restaurant or maybe even a pub somewhere. :) We had it with mashed potatoes, and it was a great Fall dish - even though it isn't quite Fall yet! One thing we did notice was that 10 min. definitely wasn't long enough in the oven to finish cooking. I would definitely do it for at least double that. We kept checking w/ the thermometer just to make sure. Maybe we didn't brown it long enough? Or it really does make a difference browning in a skillet vs a regular frying pan? We're going to try browning it longer next time, but really either way it turned out great and the flavor was awesome! If you want to retain some of your crispy skin after browning I would use a larger baking dish so that your sauce doesn't completely cover your chicken. 

We had ours with brownies for dessert, but during dinner we ended up talking about other desserts that would go really well with this, like a free-form apple tart, baked cheesecake, lemon pie...yum! We figured this would be great for company and easy to stretch out, recipe made quite a bit of sauce. We were thinking it would also be really nice with a green salad with feta too, if you decided to serve it in courses... Such an inspiring dish, ha! And it was fairly easy to do and the results were well worth the effort!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 - 1/4 tsp pepper
• 4-6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts or 2 lbs bone-in leg and thigh (we used thawed frozen chicken thighs from Costco, 4 thighs in a pack, worked great) 
• 2 shallots, about 1/4 cup, thinly sliced (we substituted this with regular onion thinly sliced)
• 2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen - we supplemented with frozen)
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup honey or 1/3 cup maple syrup (Used honey because we already had it! But I imagine it would be really good with maple syrup, want to try it that way sometime...)
• 1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 - 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F
2. Heat 1 Tbsp each of oil and butter in a large skillet until hot and bubbly. Season chicken with salt and pepper, and sear over medium high heat until golden brown - about 1 minute per side or until a light crust forms. Remove to baking dish and set aside.
3. Add remaining oil and butter to pan and when hot stir in shallots and cook until soft and lightly caramelized - about 4 minutes.
4. Add blueberries to shallots and cook 1 minute. Add balsamic vinegar, honey or maple syrup, rosemary and salt and pepper. Simmer about 10 min, or until blueberries have collapsed.
5.  Pour blueberry balsamic mixture over chicken and place baking dish in top half of oven for about 10 min. (25-35 min. I would say start at 25 and check and then go from there), until the chicken has cooked to interior temp of 170° F