Balsamic Sauteed Chicken and Asparagus for Man Food Mondays

HI Folks,

Michelle was gone for most of the weekend at a WordPress thing, so I decided that I would create something that I could put together in a hurry. My plan for the weekend was to get some of the things done around here that the doing of would drive Michelle “crazy”. So, not cooking all weekend was my goal. I got some of it done ….but not enough in my opinion.

This dish is Balsamic Sauteed Chicken and Asparagus, which was a simple and quick, one pan, kind of meal. Chicken thighs, asparagus, jalapeno peppers, mushrooms, garlic, and shallots, great ingredients and good for you too. I like asparagus, I have some growing in the garden, but we rarely get enough to make a meal, so I stopped off at the local food distributor’s place and picked up a big bunch. I used bone in thighs that were not skinned but you can buy the boneless skinless to cut down on your prep time. The trick here is to cut up the chicken into relatively equal sized 1 inch chucks, this will make all the pieces get done in the same amount of time. I prepared the chicken first and got it into a lemon/balsamic vinegar marinade, and then went about cutting up the veggies to give the chicken some time to soak up the flavors. The marinade was simple, and the chicken only sat in it about 30 minutes.

Note here: I use the term divided after 2 of the ingredients. This means I want you to use part of the ingredient for the first part and the other part for the second part.

Still interested? Let’s go see how this went together.

Balsamic Sauteed Chicken and Asparagus for Man Food Mondays

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Prep time 15 mins
Cook time 30 mins
Total time 45 mins
Author: Steve Recipe type: Entree Cuisine: Healthy Serves: 4 servings
Ingredients

• 2 lbs chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch chunks These can be bone in and skin on or boneless skinless
• 1½lb asparagus cut into 1 inch long pieces
• 8 oz sliced mushrooms
• 2 jalapeno peppers sliced thin and seeded
• 1 medium shallot sliced thin
• 2 garlic cloves crushed and chopped
• ½ cup tamari (organic gluten free soy sauce)
• 4 tablespoons of EVOO divided (extra virgin Olive oil)
• 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar divided
• 1 lemon
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. If your chicken has bones and skin you will need to remove these then cut the chicken into equal sized chunks, if they are boneless skinless you still need to chunk them :). Salt and pepper them and place these in a non reactive bowl or reusable plastic bag.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of the EVOO, 2 tablespoons of the balsamic vinegar and the ½ cup tamari to the chicken.
3. Using a small diameter grater, zest the lemon and set the zest aside. Squeeze the lemon into the bowl or bag that has the chicken mix well and set this aside.
4. Cut up the asparagus into 1 inch long pieces and wash.
5. Cut the Shallots thinly.
6. Crush the garlic and chop it.
7. If your mushrooms are not sliced then slice then and wash them.
8. Slice the jalapeno peppers and remove the seeds. You can leave some to make the dish a bit more spicy.
9. Add the remaining EVOO to a shallow pan and heat to medium high.
10. Add the shallots to the pan and cook until translucent, being careful do not allow them to turn brown.
11. Add your chicken and cook for about 5 minutes or until it's no longer pink on the inside, then remove the chicken leaving as many of the shallots as you can behind.
12. Add the asparagus and cook tuntil they start to get tender, about 4 to 6 minutes.
13. Add the jalapeno peppers, garlic and the mushrooms.
14. Add the remaining balsamic vinegar and simmer for 15 minutes.
15. As the balsamic vinegar and the oil start to reduce, add in the lemon zest (about the last minute of cooking).
16. Remove from stove once the "sauce" is starting to caramelize.

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This is something I want to make again soon. I am thinking that I can substitute fried tofu for the chicken and the veggie boy here would like to eat it…I may have him cook it again on Wednesday so he can have some practice.

I served this with a oil and vinegar salad. You can add rice to this if you want and that would round the meal out nicely.

Give it a shot and let me know what you think.

Till next week, take care!

Steve

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