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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’ve been making this recipe for my family for years. It is my husband’s favorite dinner. Super easy and the absolutely tastiest thing ever. It’s something he wishes I could make double of every time so we can have lunch leftovers (unfortunately our pan is too small lol). I cook it with basil (which is what an older version of this recipe used to use) as he doesn’t like rosemary. The honey makes the sauce so yummy. Definitely a 10/10 recipe!!!
Thank you for the lovely comment, Valerie! I appreciate you taking the time to write! Take care! – Meggan
I think I’ve made this four times in the past six weeks! Super tasty, especially with chicken thighs; we mostly have breasts or tenderloins in the house but for this recipe I will definitely keep buying thighs 😁
I’m so happy you love it, Josie! – Meggan
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!
Hi is the calorie count for all 4 servings, or does each individual serving have 521 cals?
Hi Christina, sorry for not getting back to you sooner. The 521 calories if for one serving, not all. It’s assuming 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs about 6 ounces each, and that you are eating the skin. If you didn’t eat the skin, the calories drop to 358. I also think the true calorie count is slightly less, because here the 6 ounces would include the bone, which you don’t eat, but I can’t find the information on how much chicken you’re left with if you remove the bone. I need to get a pack of bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and remove the bone and weigh them to know. I hope I haven’t confused you. Anyway, if you are concerned about calories, don’t eat the skin and that will help a lot! You could also make this recipe with boneless skinless chicken breast. It’s still really good. Thanks! -Meggan
Easy recipe on a weekday evening and the flavors (tangy, sweet) are wonderful. I did forget the rosemary, so need to remember to snip some next time. I used fresh diced Roma tomatoes because that’s what I had on hand. I also sautéed mushrooms in a different pan with some of the marinade (simultaneously while chicken was in the big pan), then combined it all together before placing in the oven. I served it over a bed of fresh spinach (for healthier meal), but also served white rice as another option). Excellent dinner!
I made this in our quarantine time and my whole family loved it! From my parents to my kids! It’s such a simple yet packed with lovely flavors recipe ! Thanks so much for sharing it, keep up the good work!
This is one of the yummiest and easiest recipes I have made in a very long time. I added oregano as well and made 1.5 times the sauce recipe. Never transferred to oven. Hubby says it’s in the top three of what I cook. Even picky child liked the chicken…his I didn’t serve with any of the tomatoes. Served with bread and steamed asparagus. Leftovers made amazing chicken sandwiches. I wish I had a skillet big enough to hold 6 chicken breasts. Have sent this recipe url to so many folks. Hope you get more traffic on your site because your recipes rock!
Hi Cheryl, this makes my day! The recipe is super simple so all the credit goes to you for cooking it perfectly. I am so happy to hear all of this. If you send me your address, I’ll send you a skillet big enough to hold 6 chicken breasts (there is one at Williams-Sonoma I love that I will ship to you). My email is meggan@culinaryhill.com, just mail me your address if you want to! Thanks again and take care. Happy Cooking. -Meggan
Dishes like this are perfect easy healthy meals after heavy eating over the holidays! Great recipe!
Thank you Elizabeth! I think so too, it’s all about keeping it simple so we might actually cook the food! Happy new year! -Meggan
I made this for dinner, I’m no cook but it was amazing. I used chicken breasts, which stayed juicy and I did reduce the sauce after leaving the chicken to rest and it made it thicker. I ate half a baguette mopping up the sauce in the pan.
Am dying to try this but tomatoes are seasonal in the tropics so won’t see any for many months and grape or cherry tomatoes make an appearance every 2 years or so. If push comes to shove, can I use well-drained tinned tomatoes?
Hi Taylor, YES OF COURSE! It should still be delicious. I hope you try it, and I hope you love it! Where in the tropics? Thank you for visiting the site! Take care.
Thank you so much for this recipe. I have made this over five times now. Everyone loved it! ??? this has become my favourite recipe now! Gonna make it again tonight, with mashed potato. ?
Hey Anoosha, thank you so much! It’s one of my favorites and I make it ALL THE TIME too! Serving it with mashed potatoes sounds like the best idea ever. :) Thank you for sharing! Have a great weekend!
Just made this and added mushrooms to the mixture, it’s fantastic! Will definitely be making again :D
Mushrooms! Brilliant! I love it. :) Glad you enjoyed it!
Oooh Meggan, I LOVE this!!
Baked chicken works so brilliantly with tomatoes, and I love the idea of adding balsamic too.
The best part about this post though is your VIDEO! I LOVE that you’ve put the Godfather theme to it ….lol! Giggling away here! Off to subscribe to your Youtube channel! :-)
I do love delicious accidents :) SO happy you made a little video finally :) Yay you!
I made this last night, I added in red onions… it was amazing. It was the perfect light dish that felt like comfort food! (We served it with mashed potatoes… which helped with the comfort food part ha ha)
I might even add in spinach next time. Yum!
Yay, that is so great to hear Alena! Serving it with mashed potatoes sounds epic. :D Thank you for the idea!
This looks so simple and delicious! Love a tasty chicken recipe
I made this for the family and everyone loved it. So simple yet extremely tasty. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Jacinta! I completely agree, it’s the simplest (non)recipe ever, and yet I just love it. When I’m really hungry, I can usually hold off long enough to make it. :) Thanks again!
I’m in the process of making this right now! I’m so excited to be trying a new way to make chicken! The husband claims to dislike vinegar, so we’ll see how it goes over!
Just made this tonight and it was great! My girlfriend loved it a lot. A bit crunchy on the outside, but very tender on the inside. I may add a bit more vinegar next time (well, I used Chinese dark vinegar actually and it worked fine). I’ll definitely cook this again in the future. Thanks!
(sorry for the Guest comment, there was a problem with my login at first)
Thank you so much for trying the recipe, Luke! I’m glad you liked it. I will definitely have to try Chinese dark vinegar. I love vinegar on chicken so I’m sure that’s a good one too. Thanks again!!
Sorry, I thought I had replied to your comment but I don’t know where it went! I am so glad you loved it, I swear nothing is easier! The Chinese dark vinegar sounds like a fun twist to try!
Wow, this dish looks so beautiful! What a nice way to use balsamic vinegar in a recipe. Will definitely try it!
Thank you so much, Maggie! It’s super easy and colorful and everything I love about food. :)
Using balsamic vinegar is my favorite way to get flavor into chicken breasts and this dish has all my favorite flavors. It looks really tasty.
This is a wownderful chicken dish. I can’t wait to try it. How easy and quick to make.