Rosemary Chicken with Raspberry Glaze tastes very elegant and fruity. The same recipe can be made with turkey breast or pork tenderloin. The raspberry glaze is made with raspberry jam, balsamic vinegar shallots and rosemary and has a rich flavor without being overwhelming.
Often, when making a meat, chicken, fish with a really nice sauce, I am inclined to serve just that. Meat and sauce, nothing else. This is not etiquette, and often not satisfying enough for many, and in all fairness not always enough for me.
I come from a family of fast eaters and good eaters. You can almost serve me anything and I will give it a try. If I like something, I have to restrain myself from not eating too much. Allowing myself to just eat meat and sauce is a way to limit my intake. To avoid that I fall for the deliciousness and eat too much. With all the feelings of regret afterwards.
To eat less than a full meal and still feel full, you should take small bites and take you time to chew. This may also help you to enjoy the flavors to the fullest.
If I were to serve it with a side dish, it would be baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, a plain salad or a simple cooked veggie. Nothing to distract the flavors of the meat, nothing to distract my eye or taste buds from the main dish. Isn’t that what most restaurants do? In a steakhouse you’ll get a steak of some sort and that’s it. Just a plate with meat. If you want a side dish you need to order it separately. See my point?
So let’s focus on this Rosemary Chicken with Raspberry Glaze recipe. By the way, you can use this fruity sauce on turkey, and veal and pork equally well.
How to prepare the chicken
The chicken is rubbed with salt, pepper and rosemary and then cooked in a skillet. Roughly 5 minutes on each side or more until done. I prefer however to slightly under-cook the chicken and then keep it warm in aluminum foil placed in the oven on the ‘warm’ setting, so it continues to cook without drying out.
I am using this technique after a number of attempts; I know how important it is to not eat under-cooked chicken, but I also know how unpleasant it is to eat dry over-cooked chicken. Unfortunately, the cooking time depends on the thickness of the chicken breast. So my rule of thumb is to cook a chicken breast, max. 5 min. per side and then let is ‘cook’ in the oven for another 5-10 minutes, wrapped in aluminum foil. It is resting, while cooking, at least that’s my philosophy. To be on the safe side, use a cooking thermometer to check the temperature of the thickest part of the chicken breast. It should read around 160-170 degrees F.
Brining
Another technique I use, to avoid dry chicken meat, is brining. I used to use the overnight brining, soaking the chicken breast in water and salt. Recently I tried brining the chicken for about 15 minutes in warm water. A technique I learned from Gimme Some Oven; and it works equally well. Thank you Ali, you just made my brining less time consuming.
The raspberry glaze
Rather simple to make. Chop the shallot and saute it in some oil. Add the chicken (rubbed and all) and cook the chicken. Transfer the chicken to a plate and keep warm. Add raspberry jam, and balsamic vinegar to the skillet and allow jam to become liquify. Add salt and pepper to taste.
To plate the Rosemary Chicken with Raspberry Glaze you can do 2 things; keep the chicken breast as is and pour the sauce over it or slice it thinly, keep ‘together’ and then pour the sauce over the slices. Decorate with a few fresh raspberries and ENJOY!
Rosemary Chicken with Raspberry Glaze
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup kosher salt
- 2 8 ounces chicken breasts
- salt and pepper
- 1.5 teaspoons rosemary
- 1 shallot
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/3 cup raspberry jam
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 3 ounces raspberries fresh
Instructions
- Brine your chicken breast, by submerging the meat in a quart of warm water with 1/4 cup of kosher salt. Allow to soak for approx. 15 minutes. Remove, rinse and pat dry.
- Clean and chop the shallot fine. Season the chicken breast with salt, pepper and rosemary.
- Heat the oil in a skillet and add the onion. Saute for a few minutes. Add the chicken to the skillet.
- Saute on each side for about 5 minutes or until done.
- Remove chicken from skillet and wrap in aluminum foil to keep warm.
- Add raspberry jam, and balsamic vinegar to skillet. Dissolve the brown bits from the pan into the sauce and slowly heat the sauce until jam is liquid. and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Slice chicken or serve chicken breast as is. Place chicken on plate with and spoon raspberry glaze over chicken. Decorate with fresh raspberries.
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