Your Daily Dollop: Balsamic Chicken with Mushrooms

Last month at church we had a kind of recipe swap night where we all brought our five best "go to" recipes. Since I hadn't gone into labor yet (despite it being the night before my due date!) I went to the activity and came home with dozens of new recipes to try. Exciting, isn't it??

Now, here we are 4 weeks after I've had the baby and I've finally had the chance to try out some of these new recipes! One of the first I had to try was this scrumptious looking recipe for Basalmic Chicken. I got it from my friend Maria, along with the note that it's her and husband's favorite Weight Watchers Recipe. I'm not sure who gets the credit, but KUDOS to them! It was fantastic! My favorite part is actually the mushrooms because they absorb so much flavor. I could have skipped the chicken and eaten piles of the mushrooms.

Balsamic Chicken with Mushrooms

3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, divided
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 large garlic, minced or crushed
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
8 oz. button mushrooms, halved or quartered
1/3 c. chicken broth
1/2 tsp dried thyme, crumbled

Cut your chicken breasts into 4-oz portions (about the size of your palm). I had one really large breast and one average-sized, so I ended up with 5 pieces instead of 4.

Preheat a medium-sized pan on the stove. Coat with non-stick cooking spray. Mix together 2 Tbsp of the balsamic vinegar, the garlic, and the mustard. This is your marinade. Coat the chicken in the marinade and place in the pan. Pour any remaining marinade into the pan as well.

Cook until chicken is done. If all of the liquid cooks out of the pan, you may need to add a couple of tablespoons of water to keep the sauce from burning.

While chicken is cooking, prepare the mushrooms. In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the remaining tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, chicken broth, and thyme

After chicken is done cooking, remove from pan and place in a covered container to keep warm. Do not clean out the pan. It will add more flavor to your mushrooms! This is what mine looked like.

Into this pan, I poured the broth mixture and the mushrooms.

Then I cooked the mushrooms until they were done. You can tell mushrooms are done by their darker color and the fact that they have shrunk down in size. If you aren't sure, eat one. This is my favorite method in testing for "done-ness"!