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Bright and budget-friendly, Balsamic Chicken and Tomatoes is one of the best weeknight dinner recipes. This easy chicken dinner is ready in 30 minutes and bakes for just enough time so you can warm up some crusty bread to sop up all the luscious pan juices.
Chicken breasts are an American weeknight dinner staple. I might be even more fond of surprisingly quick-cooking, even more flavorful bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. Since thigh meat is slightly higher in fat, it’s moist and less likely to get dry when you cook it.
Speaking of moist, the pan sauce for this quick and easy chicken dinner ensures every ounce of meat is juicy, packed full of savory, umami flavor, and something you’ll crave week after week (if not more often).
Table of Contents
Ingredient notes
- Balsamic vinegar: Aceto balsamico, or balsamic vinegar, is a versatile pantry staple. Although balsamic vinegar is made from Trebbiano grapes and grape must (that’s all boiled down into a dark syrup and aged in wooden barrels with the vinegar mother), it’s not technically a wine vinegar. This concentrated liquid is slightly sweet and dreamy in everything from homemade vinaigrettes and glazes to soups and marinades and pan sauces like this.
- Whole grain mustard: Grab a bottle at the supermarket or stir together a batch of homemade mustard (it’s easy!).
- Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs: As I mentioned above, I love how succulent these bake up, but you could also use skin-on chicken breasts. The skin gets golden brown and crisps up beautifully.
- Grape tomatoes: Or cherry; either will do.
Step-by-step intstructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together balsamic vinegar, honey, mustard, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste (I like ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper). Add chicken and toss to coat. Marinate at room temperature for 20 minutes or in the refrigerator for up to 1 hour.
- Remove from marinade (reserve marinade) and pat chicken dry with paper towels. In a 12-inch oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil until shimmering. Add chicken in a single layer, skin-side down. Cook until browned, about 2 to 3 minutes. Flip chicken and add tomatoes. Cook until tomatoes have started to pop release their juices, about 5 minutes.
- Add reserved marinade and rosemary sprigs. Bring to boil, then transfer uncovered to the oven.
- Bake until the chicken reaches 165 degrees on an instant-read digital thermometer, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and remove rosemary stems.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This Balsamic Chicken and Tomatoes creates four dinner-sized servings that including 6 ounces of chicken each.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Sides to try: I prefer to pair this 30-minute chicken dinner with my best, biggest leafy green salad and a loaf of crusty bread to soak up every last drop of the sauce. Alternatively, skip the bread and serve this Balsamic Chicken and Tomatoes over a bed of buttery mashed potatoes, zucchini noodles, or grits.
Recipe FAQ
No rosemary handy? Try thyme instead. Or add fresh basil or chives as a garnish rather than cooking with the sauce.
Sure! Shrimp, steak, or pork would also taste incredible soaked in this marinade and cooked alongside the tomato-spiked sauce. Just adjust the cook time accordingly to cook your desired choice to the safe temperature. (Reference the USDA’s safe cooking temperature guide and use your digital thermometer.)
Mini Meatloaves with Balsamic Glaze
These pre-portioned Mini Meatloaves are juicy, delicious, and topped with a sticky balsamic glaze. The meatloaf mixture is simple to make from a few staple ingredients.
View Recipe
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Balsamic Chicken and Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar (see note 1)
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons whole grain mustard (see note 2)
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 1 ½ pounds, see note 3)
- 1 pint grape tomatoes (see note 4)
- 2 sprigs rosemary broken in half
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- In a large bowl, whisk together balsamic vinegar, honey, mustard, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste (I like ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper).
- Add chicken and toss to coat. Marinate at room temperature for 20 minutes or in the refrigerator for up to 1 hour. Remove from marinade (reserve marinade) and pat chicken dry with paper towels.
- In a 12-inch oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil until shimmering. Add chicken in a single layer, skin-side down. Cook until browned, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Flip chicken and add tomatoes. Cook until tomatoes have started to pop release their juices, about 5 minutes.
- Add reserved marinade and rosemary sprigs. Bring to boil, then transfer uncovered to the oven.
- Bake until the chicken reaches 165 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and remove rosemary stems.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Balsamic vinegar: Aceto balsamico, or balsamic vinegar, is a versatile pantry staple. Although balsamic vinegar is made from Trebbiano grapes and grape must (that’s all boiled down into a dark syrup and aged in wooden barrels with the vinegar mother), it’s not technically a wine vinegar. This concentrated liquid is slightly sweet and dreamy in everything from homemade vinaigrettes and glazes to soups and marinades and pan sauces like this.
- Whole grain mustard: Grab a bottle at the supermarket or stir together a batch of homemade mustard (it’s easy!).
- Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs: As I mentioned above, I love how succulent these bake up, but you could also use skin-on chicken breasts. The skin gets golden brown and crisps up beautifully.
- Grape tomatoes: Or cherry; either will do.
- Yield: This Balsamic Chicken and Tomatoes creates four dinner-sized servings that including 6 ounces of chicken each.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
I made the chicken thighs with cherry tomatoes, and it was delicious. Mine looked just like the photo. An easy and quick weeknight dinner. It also seemed healthy. I serves it with air fryer roast potatoes.
Thank you so much for the lovely comment, Sandra! I’m glad you loved it! – Meggan
Two bites in and I’m posting a review. So, so SO good! I love the flavors and this was so easy to make and so fancy looking. The tomatoes are bursting with flavor. The thighs as well! I made a few swaps, one was using yellow mustard since I forgot to pick up grainy mustard white at the store. And I mixed in dried basil in the reserved marinade and at the very end added a handful of chopped red onions. This recipe will go into regular rotation! I wish I could post my pics…I felt like such a chef!
Thank you so much for your comment, Shawna! I’m so glad you loved it! – Meggan
This recipe is amazing and so delicious. I make a little extra sauce to pour over my rice. YUM!
Thanks Diane! – Meggan
Any way I can sub the whole grain mustard for simply regular mustard?
Hi Hailey, unfortunately I haven’t tested this so I can’t say for sure how it would affect the recipe. Sorry about that! – Meggan
Serious conversation errors in the Balsamic Chicken recipe guys. I’m 40 years a Food Technologist so Im pretty sure 63g of salt & 227g garlic are nuts 😁.
29.57 ml balsamic vinegar (see note 1)
▢4 (8 ounce) honey
▢2 tablespoons whole grain mustard (see note 2)
▢226.8 g garlic minced
▢63.75 ml Salt and freshly ground black pepper
▢6 g olive oil
▢4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 1 ½ pounds, see note 3)
▢1 pint grape tomatoes (see note 4)
▢2 sprigs rosemary broken in half
This was delicious! My husband and I both loooved it, I made 1.5x recipe and so happy I did!
Thanks Natalia, I’m so glad you both enjoyed! – Meggan
Has anyone tried converting this to a crockpot recipe? Thanks.
Can’t believe how simple this was and turned out absolutely delicious.
Excellent and so easy. I don’t transfer to the oven. I keep it on the stove in a nonstick pan. When the directions say to put it on the oven, I just put a lid on it and finish off on the stove. I use boneless, skinless breasts. Have made with basil and rosemary. Both are fabulous. One of the best recipes I’ve discovered in 2020!