Chicken Balsamico with Broccoli and Tomatoes

Chicken Balsamico is one of my favorites, not to mention how much T loves it, so I've actually developed a few different varietals that pair with pasta or rice and involve different vegetable partners. This one combines full broccoli spears and sun dried tomatoes - though canned, diced tomatoes or even fresh grape tomatoes will work just as well.

For starters, you want to slice up some boneless chicken breasts so you have smaller, close to bite-size pieces. Place these into a hot pan, coated with just a little olive oil and about two cloves of crushed garlic. Let the chicken sear on both sides until it gets browned and then you add a little onion, some more olive oil and some crushed almonds (again, I use this but breadcrumbs are also useable here). Then you want to turn down the heat, add in some balsamic vinegar (say 1/2 cup) and let this all simmer until the sauce thickens up. Next up, mix in the sun dried tomatoes and the broccoli spears.

Let all of this simmer, covered, for close to 10 minutes or until the broccoli is softened. Note: this does not mean to make the broccoli less than crisp - in fact, you want to retain some green or else it will suck - for reference, see the done photo below! Pour in some more balsamic vinegar (1/3 cup or less if yore not a balsamic fan) and give it another few minutes over very low heat, with the lid off.

I served this stop some brown rice, drizzled it all with the balsamic mixture and grated some parmesan.

- Melissa