Balsamic Marinated Chicken Thighs

We are at that weird time of year at the end of September where we can still grill but summer produce is a little thin. I have chicken thighs in the freezer and a sugar pumpkin on the counter. How can I make this a meal? I’m going to to grill the chicken and make roasted pumpkin. After thinking about this one, I am going to have to change up my usual teriyaki marinade to something more autumnal. This is how I have come up with Balsamic Marinated Chicken Thighs.

If I am grilling or broiling a boneless, skinless piece of chicken it is usually going to be a chicken thigh. I am way less likely to overcook and dry out a chicken thigh than a chicken breast. Because thighs are dark meat and have more fat they are much much harder to overcook. They are thinner and take up more of the flavor of the marinade. My favorite marinades all have something acidic in them that really has a lot of flavor such as soy sauce, bourbon or vinegar.

Balsamic vinegar sounds good with the pumpkin and I was originally thinking about doing a balsamic reduction with the pumpkin. It took me a while, but finally I came to my senses. I realized that I couldn’t physically make a reduction. The thick sweet balsamic vinegar my brother brought me from Italy is long gone. Still having balsamic vinegar on the brain, I decided to use it to make a chicken marinade. This is how Balsamic Marinated Chicken Thighs were born.

I don’t usually marinate things in balsamic vinegar but instead use red wine or sherry vinegar. But, why the heck not? This is my new normal and I have thrown out some of my old cooking playbook. I have added in some new moves. My cooking world has not fallen apart and I have found that some of these new ways of doing things work even better or at least close enough to my old ways. Change, is my friend.

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Balsamic Marinated Chicken Thighs

A deep flavored and very moist chicken thigh.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time16 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Keyword: balsamic, Chicken, Thighs

Servings: 4

Equipment

• grill or broiler

Ingredients

Chicken

• 8-9 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs

Marinade Ingredients

• 1/4 cup Olive Oil
• scant 1/4 cup Honey
• 1/2 cup Balsamic Vinegar
• 3-4 cloves Garlic minced
• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 1 teaspoon Oregano dried
• 1 teaspoon Alepp Pepper or a Pinch of Cayenne Pepper

Instructions

• Place the chicken thighs in a zip lock plastic bag or a container with a lid that is only slightly larger than the thighs. Let sit while you make the marinade.
• Whisk all the marinade ingredients in a medium bowl. Pour over chicken thighs. Turn until all of the pieces of chicken are evenly coated in the marinade.
  
• Cover or zip and refrigerate for 6-24 hours,turning the chicken a few times.
  
• Remove the chicken thighs from marinade and grill or broil both sides of the chicken for 5-7 minutes per side or until cooked through.
  

Modifications

One of my new cooking tricks is to always use a measuring cup that is bigger than the size that I need. If I shake or wobble the cup while lifting it to its destination, it won’t spill everywhere. My metal measuring cups have lines on the inside wall for smaller measurements. I use a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup for liquids and it has a handle and a lot of leeway at the top.

A cooking tip that is good for everybody but especially for those with weak hands is to measure the oil right before you measure out a sticky ingredient. The oil greases the measuring cup or spoon. Because I did this the honey slid right out of the measuring cup and didn’t require scraping. I put the ingredients in order with the oil first in case anyone forgets this tip!

I used a garlic press for the garlic. Cutting larger cloves of garlic into smaller pieces makes the press easier to compress even though it takes a little more time. My Kuhn Rikon garlic press has a swing out hinge which makes it much easier to clean out the remnants of the garlic.

I used a bowl for the marinade and stirred it with a spoon but some of the heavier ingredients like the salt still ended up on the bottom of the bowl when I poured it out. It probably won’t make a huge difference in taste, but I had to get a spatula and scrape it onto the chicken. Next time it will be easier on my hands to use my mini food processor to blend all the ingredients for about 10-15 seconds.