Balsamic Asparagus Chicken

Balsamic Asparagus Chicken

For all you mushroom haters, don't worry, you can make the sauce without the mushrooms and it will still be delicious. I heart mushrooms lots and lots, so I loaded extra mushrooms on my plate, as you can tell in the photo above. ;)

BALSAMIC ASPARAGUS CHICKEN
Chicken Marinade:
4-5 chicken breasts
3/4 cups balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup of olive oil (or cooking oil)
2 tsp. brown sugar
Sauce:
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
2 cups fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1 can beef broth (about 2 cups)
1 Tbsp butter
Pepper to taste
Topping:
12 asparagus spears
Provolone cheese slices (4-5)
Mozzarella cheese slices (4-5)

Directions:
Combine marinade ingredients and pour in bag with chicken breasts. Refrigerate for about 2 hours. About 20 minutes before chicken is done marinating, heat oil in a large skillet. Add mushrooms and saute for a couple minutes. Add remaining sauce ingredients, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer for about 30 minutes or until sauce thickens and reduces to about 1/4 of its original volume. (When it is done, the sauce should be dark brown in color).
While sauce is simmering, place chicken in a lightly greased glass dish and bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes (or until chicken is cooked through). While chicken is baking, prepare the asparagus. Bring a saucepan, filled about half-way with salted water, to a boil. Toss in asparagus and boil for about 4 minutes. Quickly remove the asparagus and drop in an ice-water bath. Remove the chicken from the oven (when it's finished) and layer one slice of provolone cheese, a few asparagus spears, then once slice mozzarella cheese on each piece of chicken. Set the oven to broil and broil for about 3 minutes or until cheese is melted and starts to brown a little. Right before serving, spoon some of the sauce over each piece of chicken.

Now here are my alterations to the recipes:
I didn't have enough balsamic vinegar. I bought one of the smaller great value bottles of the vinegar. I was 1/2 cups short for the sauce. I left it as is with being 1/2 cup short and it was still delicious. So, if you're a little short on the balsamic vinegar, don't sweat. Or, if you are worried about it, you can add extra beef broth.
Also, I only bought mozzarella cheese. I didn't buy the provolone cheese. You can substitute the provolone for an extra slice of mozzarella, or just completely leave the extra cheese out and just do the 1 slice of mozzarella on top. On the bigger piece of chicken I did 2 slices of mozzarella, on the smaller pieces of chicken, I only did 1 slice of mozzarella.

It's yum-o!