One Pan Balsamic Chicken
Juicy one-pan balsamic chicken topped with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil. This easy dinner comes together so easily and will surely become a family favorite!
For more one pan meals, try our basil chicken.
Balsamic Basil Chicken
This one-pan balsamic chicken is one of our favorite dinner meals. It’s flavorful, delicious, and can be made year-round!
The chicken breast is quickly seared on the stovetop with delicious homemade balsamic sauce. Then topped with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil, to finish baking in the oven.
It’s a meal that can easily be prepared on a weeknight. It serves well over anything that can soak up the sauce, such as rice, mashed potatoes, or pasta.
Ingredients
- balsamic vinegar
- honey
- avocado oil
- garlic
- Italian seasoning
- Dijon mustard
- grape tomatoes
- mozzarella balls
- fresh basil
- chicken breast
- salt and pepper
Can I Use Boneless Chicken Thighs?
Yes, you just have to adjust the cooking time. Thighs cook really fast so I recommend checking for doneness after 7-10 minutes. Also, since thighs are more tender and juicy than chicken breast, there’s no need to pound them.
How to Make Basil Balsamic Chicken
- Whisk together the ingredients for the balsamic sauce.
- In a separate bowl, toss together the tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil.
- Over high heat, cook the chicken breast until lightly golden brown. Add balsamic sauce and bring to a simmer.
- Top with tomato mozzarella. Bake at 400F until chicken is cooked through.
Serving Suggestions
This one pan balsamic chicken is a great dish to pair with something to soak up the delicious pan juices and sauce. Here are a few of our favorites:
- Cheesy Mashed Potatoes
- Cauliflower Rice Pilaf
- Pineapple Rice
- Cauliflower and Ricotta Mash
- Egg noodles
- Roasted vegetables
- Quinoa
Video: How to Make One Pan Balsamic Chicken
More One-Pan Meals
- Creamy Honey Mustard Chicken
- Thai Chicken and Cabbage Skillet
- Orecchiette with Baked Mini Meatballs
- Chicken and Quinoa in Mustard Sauce
- Chicken with Zucchini and Corn
More Favorites from Little Broken
One Pan Balsamic Chicken
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 45 mins
- Yield: 4-6 1x
- Category: Main
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
One-pan balsamic chicken is such a flavorful weeknight dinner. Made with simple ingredients and easy steps!
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 Tbsp. honey
- 2 Tbsp. oil, such as avocado or olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
- 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
Tomato Mozzarella
- 8 oz. grape tomatoes, halved
- 8 oz. fresh mozzarella balls (ciliegine or pearls)
- 2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh basil
Chicken
- 2 lb. boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, pounded to even thickness
- 2 Tbsp. avocado oil or other high-heat oil
- Kosher salt and fresh black pepper
Instructions
- In a bowl, whisk together the sauce ingredients. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, toss together the tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large oven-safe skillet. Season the chicken all over with salt and pepper, to taste. When the pan is hot and oil is shimmering, add the chicken to the skillet in a single layer. Cook for 1-2 minutes on each side or until lightly golden brown. Add the balsamic sauce mixture. It should quickly come to a simmer. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Immediately remove the pan from the heat and add the tomato mozzarella mixture over the chicken.
- Bake uncovered for 18-23 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked through. Internal temperature should register at 165F. Remove from the oven and rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
- Mozzarella: If using ciliegine mozzarella, also known as “cherry size” fresh mozzarella then cut it in half. If using “pearls” which are smaller size mozzarella balls, then no need to cut in half.
- Chicken: To pound the chicken, place the chicken between two pieces of plastic wrap or into a gallon size Ziploc bag, and using a mallet or rolling pin, pound the chicken to even thickness. Make sure not to skip this step. It helps the chicken cook evenly, tenderizes the meat, and results in moist meat.
- Original Recipe: This recipe was originally published on 9/28/17 and did not include balsamic vinegar. Instead, the recipe relied on a combination of ingredients that resembled the taste of balsamic vinegar. However, it ended up being too confusing to so many readers so we decided to rewrite the recipe to include balsamic vinegar. Here is the old version of the recipe: ¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce, 1/4 cup tomato sauce, 1/2 lemon, juiced (about 1 1/2 Tbsp.), 2 lbs. boneless, skinless, chicken breasts (pounded to even thickness), 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, 8 oz. grape tomatoes, halved, 8 oz. fresh mozzarella balls (ciliegine), 2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh basil, Kosher salt and fresh black pepper . In a medium bowl, combine the soy sauce, tomato sauce, and lemon juice. Add chicken tossing to coat in the marinade. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let marinate in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. While the chicken is marinating, toss together the tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Melt butter over high heat in a large oven-safe skillet. Remove the chicken from the marinade and add to the hot skillet. Cook for 1-2 minutes per side or until lightly golden brown, seasoning both sides of chicken with salt and pepper, to taste. Immediately, off heat, top the chicken with tomato mozzarella mixture and bake uncovered for 18-23 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked through. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: about 6 oz. chicken with sauce
- Calories: 380
- Sugar: 9.4 g
- Sodium: 530.2 mg
- Fat: 17.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 11.6 g
- Protein: 40.3 g
- Cholesterol: 93.5 mg
Hi! I'm Katya -- a former corporate paralegal turned full-time recipe developer and blogger behind Little Broken. Here you'll find family-friendly and seasonal recipes made from real ingredients.
I’m trying to find a non-cow dairy cheese to substitute for the mozzarella. is there a Sheep’s milk mozzarella anywhere?
You can simply try some goat cheese. It will definitely taste different but still give you a creamy component. I’m not sure if there’s a sheep’s milk mozzarella substitute.
Love this quick recipe! Very satisfying entree.
This was absolutely fantastic!! Thank you for sharing!!
So delicious 😋
I had all the ingredients and this was so easy to put together before going to work a 7am. It smelled wonderful cooking and tasted even better.
Reheated very nicely for workmates.
They all raved about this dish.
Totally making this easy dish often!
This dish turned out absolutely delicious! I used bocconcini balls since I did not have mozzarella
This is definitely going in our weekly rotation
So tasty, delicious and easy!
Too sweet for me. Next time I’ll reduce the honey.
So delicious!
I made this tonight. I did reduce the honey to 1 Tbsp and added zuchinni and mushrooms. We thought this dish was delicious. I will look at some of your other recipes as well. Thank you, this was great.
Made this tonight – amazing full of flavor and quick and easy
This was so delicious! I was so excited how it turned out, I forgot to take a picture. Thank you for the delicious recipe. I did not use grape tomatoes, I sliced up my fresh tomatoes from my garden and basil from my garden. 😍
This was so delicious! I made this tonight for dinner and I believe it’s one of my new favorites!
Also, so easy to make, great one pan dish😍
Delicious!!
Wonderful, flavourful dish!!!
Oh my…
We used chicken thighs and Burrata cheese (broken apart and dropped over chicken in the “rest-5 minutes phase” (because we didn’t have the Mozz balls). It was AMAZING. We absolutely loved it…
Very tasty and simple recipe. I used thinly sliced chicken breasts so I only baked for about 10 minutes. We loved the thin chicken but the sauce didn’t thicken up with the shorter bake time. I wouldn’t cook it longer, but would perhaps thicken the sauce a bit before placing in the oven. Maybe a bit of a cornstarch slurry in the pan. We also didn’t measure the cheese and tomatoes, just used all that we had so it was probably more cheese than called for, but I don’t regret that a bit. We will make this again for sure!
Yet another easy, absolutely delicious dinner. I’ve never used any recipe from Little Broken that we didn’t love. Thanks for sharing!
Made this in the stovetop as my oven is on the fritz. I slightly tweaked it to make it Bruschetta chicken pasta. I used diced Campari tomatoes because I needed to get rid of them. After cooking the chicken, add the sauce and simmer to reduce it and finish cooking the chicken. Cook your linguine to al dente and drain, set aside. In the pasta pot pour in the sauce but leave the chicken. Add the tomatoes, mozzarella pearls and basil to the sauce, cool slightly to soft the tomatoes and melt the cheese. Add the pasta back in and stir to combine. Then put the chicken on top and combine with the pasta and sauce. I sliced and placed the chicken on top of the pasta prior to serving then topped with a generous amount of fresh Parmesan cheese.
I absolutely loved this! I had leftovers and we ate them a couple days later. It was even better! Fresh cherry tomatoes and basil! Yum!