Pomegranate Balsamic Glazed Chicken
Feb 04
So the great people over at POM Wonderful sent me a lovely free box of sample juice to cook with. I’d say that’s rather kind of them since personally I can’t afford the juice. If I had a pomegranate tree, you can bet your bottom dollar I’d juice the life out of those fruity globes. To learn more about this superfruit, visit The Fitnessista. She has a 4 part series about the people at POM and the juice.
Anyway, I’ve never worked with pomegranate juice in cooking before. I snooped around the web to find a recipe I could work off of. I found recipes for pomegranate frosting, pomegranate molasses, and pomegranate lentil soup. I settled upon a recipe I found on BrokeAss Gourmet for pomegranate balsamic chicken.
A Chocolate Covered To-Do List
Adapted from Gabi Moskowitz
Ingredients:
- 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts OR 6 drumsticks w/skin
- 1/2 cup Pom 100% pomegranate juice
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/8 cup honey
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
- salt and pepper to taste
- toasted sesame seeds
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a zip-lock bag, combine pomegranate juice, balsamic vinegar, honey, brown sugar, thyme, salt and pepper. Stir until honey and sugar dissolves.
Place chicken pieces in the zip-lock bag. Press air out of bag and seal. Move bag around to ensure marinade disperses. Refrigerate bag for 30 minutes or overnight.
Remove chicken from bag and place in a large glass baking dish, spacing chicken evenly. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until chicken is tender but fully-cooked.
While chicken cooks, carefully pour remaining marinade from bag into a small saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil (Important: to kill bacteria), then lower heat to medium-low and simmer for 12-15 minutes until marinade is thick and syrupy. If it does not get syrupy, stir 1 teaspoon of cornstarch into a tablespoon or two of cold water and stir it into the marinade. Simmer until thickened. Remove from heat and carefully fish out thyme stems if you used fresh thyme.
Once chicken has finished baking, brush glaze over each piece. Sprinkle generously with toasted sesame seeds and serve.
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I highly recommend this recipe, it really is delicious. I served it with brown rice with pineapple tidbits. The next day I ate a bowl of brown rice with pineapple tidbits and leftover steamed veggies mixed with some leftover pom marinade. Mmmm, delicious!
POM’s juice is very tasty, and it’s completely 100% juice. Imported pomegranate juice has added sugar, colorings, and non-pomegranate juice. POM’s is grown in California and is never made with imported juice. I’m a big fan of 100% juice. If only I had a juicer and a pomegranate tree!
My pictures didn’t turn out, the picture above is by TheDelicousLife. The marinade is actually darker than above, but the same texture.
