Strawberry Balsamic Chicken

I got the much anticipated email from the strawberry farm last Monday that the fields were open and the picking had begun!  Since I was out of town for a few days last week, I wasn't able to get there to pick my first bucket of berries until yesterday.  I was soooo exicted.  And to make it even better - I had a partner to help me.

It didn't take us long to fill up 2 buckets with juicy, ripe berries.   There were lots of strawberries!

 
Long stem strawberries can only mean 1 thing really - they have some chocolate in their future. 

I had been saving this recipe for Strawberry Balsamic Chicken from gimmesomeoven.com until I had some really fresh strawberries so last night I finally made it.  It was really yummy. 
I changed up the recipe a little and cooked my chicken on the grill instead of in the oven and it it was the perfect meal to kick off strawberry season.

Strawberry Balsamic Chicken

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup balsamic vinegar, divided
• salt and pepper
• 1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and roughly chopped
• 4 oz. fresh mozzarella ball (or shredded mozzarella), roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine chicken breasts and 1/2 cup balsamic in a ziplock bag. Refrigerate for at least 5 minutes, or up to 5 hours. 

Remove chicken from bag and cook on the grill until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.

Meanwhile, bring the remaining 1/2 cup vinegar to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until reduced by half. Remove and set aside. 

In a small bowl, stir together strawberries, mozzarella and basil to make a caprese topping.

When the chicken is ready, transfer to serving dishes. Then top with the strawberry caprese topping, and then drizzle with the reduced balsamic vinegar. 

What a great way to kick off strawberry season!  There is nothing like eating the strawberries just hours after they've been picked from the field. 

Oh and just in case you're curios, my Courtney ate her chicken sans strawberry caprese.  She prefers her grilled chicken dipped in ranch dressing.  (A travesty in my book but whatever it takes to get her to eat it.) 










Oh, and of course there were chocolate covered strawberries for dessert.

Ciao!