We love balsamic vinegar. I often add it to fish, pork (although fig vinegar is one of my favorites with pork) or chicken. For an inexpensive vinegar, I like the small square bottle from Trader Joe's. At $3.95 a bottle, the flavor cannot be beat.

My favorite vinaigrette dressing was served tonight with chilled haricot verts (french string beans) and is also is delightful with a caprese salad.

3T Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 t Dijon Mustard
1/4 cup EVOO
salt & pepper to taste

Whisk vinegar and dijon until blended slowly pour and whisk olive oil until blended. Season to taste. Garlic or shallot could also be added, I'm allergic and choose to omit.

Sticky chicken.
This is so simple and oddly delicious.
Crush a garlic clove.
In a saucepan, add garlic and 3 tablespoons of balsamic, honey and soy sauce. Add the chicken cubes and simmer until sticky and cooked. Serve with rice or noodles. Takes about 5 minutes!

I just made a watermelon and feta salad last week. Super easy and super delicious. Cubed watermelon and feta, very, very thinly sliced red onions, chopped basil. Drizzle with balsamic. That's it.

Drizzle a tiny bit over fresh local strawberries. Yum!

/tricia

I've made this one many times:

BALSAMIC CHICKEN

3 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Flour for dredging
1/3 cup olive oil
2 large onions chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 lb. mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup black olives, pitted and halved
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. rosemary
10 parsley sprigs, leaves only, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Clean and DRY chicken. Dredge in flour and brown. As you brown each piece put it aside until all chicken is done. Put the onions and garlic in the skillet with a little more olive oil and lightly sauté the onions over a low heat and COVERED until onions are translucent. Do not brown onions and garlic. Add chicken broth, balsamic vinegar, olives, mushrooms, thyme, rosemary, parsley and salt and pepper. Cover and allow to cook over low heat for about 15 to 20 minutes until chicken is cooked and tender. Taste for seasonings. If pan is drying out as you cook add more balsamic vinegar and broth (equal amounts).

This one is T & T. My notes are at the bottom.

Balsamic Chicken on Spinach Salad with Warm Shallot Dressing
Based on recipe by Rachel Ray

4 3-oz. chicken breast cutlets, pounded thin
3 T balsamic vinegar, divided
1/2 c tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
Grill seasoning blend, or coarse salt and pepper
1 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 large shallot, minced
1-1/2 T Dijon mustard

Spinach Salad:

4 slices bacon, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1/2 pound fresh spinach leaves, trimmed and cleaned
1/2 c mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 c radishes, thinly sliced
4 scallions, thinly sliced on an angle
Preparation
Coat chicken with balsamic, 1-1/2 T olive oil, seasoning and rosemary and set aside.

In a skillet, add chopped bacon, brown over medium-high heat. With a slotted spoon, transfer cooked bacon bits to paper towels to drain.

Coarsely chop spinach leaves and place in a salad bowl. Top with radishes and scallions. Season salad with salt and pepper.

Wipe out the bacon pan and return to stove, turning heat back to medium-low. Add one tablespoon olive oil and lightly sauté mushrooms. Remove and add to spinach in bowl. Sauté shallots for three minutes. Remove from heat.

In a bowl, combine mustard and balsamic vinegar. Slowly stream in 4T olive oil while whisking the dressing to emulsify it. Add warm shallots and toss with spinach salad to coat evenly. Add cooked bacon and toss again.

Pre-heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook chicken breasts, four minutes on each side, in a single layer. Slice breasts on an angle on your cutting board once they are all out of the pan. Pile spinach salad on to dinner plates. Top each salad with sliced chicken breast.

This is my version of RachelâÂÂs recipe. It is really good! I used BS chicken breast, pounded thin and I lightly sautéed the mushrooms. Next time I will top with toasted almonds or pine nuts.

Linda

I grilled pork chops last night with a balsamic glaze, without which the chops would have been nothing. Found the recipe on the Weber site, if anyone is interested; they were extremely good and we had the leftovers tonight.

Here is a link that might be useful: Brined Pork Chops with Balsamic Glaze and Grilled Potato Fries

This is a recipe from Smitten Kitchen on line.
We could not believe how simple and delicious.
Grill on the outdoor grill bacon (I do not think it actually makes any difference in how it is cooked) until crisp. Extra thick if you can.
Use a very large platter and put a nice layer of all of the bacon.
pile arugula on top
drizzle a really good (the best you can afford) balsamic
serve.
We had been given an amazing bottle recently that is thick like syrup. I added cherry tomatoes on one side, sliced avocados on the other and some thinly sliced radishes on the other. The treat was putting a pile on your plate and these slices of bacon underneath all of it. The vinegar was so good that it stood on it's own with no oil.
Pretty too
H and GF asked why not crumble the bacon. That would make it a condiment. This way it is a main protein. Just very different.
I am going to add along side the same as I did and some sliced boiled eggs.

like many oils and vinegars, their are so many deceptive imposters out there. Added sugars and colorings. Often not even mentioned on the labels. Can be a very frustrating purchase.
That said, i do use it sparingly on occasion. A dot on bitter greens like kale. So nice on berries and melon like mentioned above.
My arugula has done well even in all this heat, though one variety bolted rather quickly. I've been making big platter salads like 'noodles'. Cold veggies, proscuitto, parm shavings. I usually have a mustard vinegrette on the side but a bit of balsamic dotting the plate and a swirl of good ev olive oil.
August is a very social month for us with friends and family visits. A revolving antipasto plate will be on the kitchen table at all times to keep them out of the kitchen, (they graze...all day)
Balsamic can be overpowering, but in moderation it does add such a nice flavor to so many things....i often resort to dumping cans and jars of marinated tid-bits to keep up! haha.