Orange Grilled Chicken w/ a Sweet Balsamic Reduction

A simple, yet terribly satisfying recipe! All you need is 5 ingredients. That's right, you heard me correctly, FIVE! I'm just going to jump right in.




Ingredients:


1 chicken breast
1 small white or yellow onion
1 orange
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tbs honey
olive oil for brushing
salt and pepper


Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Pound the chicken breast out to about 1/2 inch thickness*. Lightly oil the breast, and add salt and pepper. Grill chicken until cooked through and the juices run clear. Set aside.


While chicken is grilling, zest the orange (you'll only need about 1/2 tsp of zest). Whisk together the vinegar and the honey in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat. Let the mixture simmer until reduced by about half. Remove from heat and stir in the zest.


Slice and peel both the orange and the onion. You should have about five 1/2 inch pieces of orange, and five slightly thinner slices of onion. Grill them together until the onions have begun to soften and there are visible grill marks on both sides.


First plate the onions, then the chicken, and surround by your orange slices. Drizzle it all with your balsamic reduction, and enjoy!



Seriously, super tasty! And, as we always strive to do, was very inexpensive. Here's my breakdown...

Chicken: $1.50
Onion: $0.50
Orange: $0.70
Everything else I always have on hand, but if I had to guess I'd say I used about $2.00 worth of vinegar, olive oil, honey, salt, and pepper.


The total: $4.70


And it's so healthy too! Grilled Chicken? A+! Onion? A+! Orange? Sure, it's got natural sugars but you can't knock your fruits, so A! If I had to guess, I'd say this recipe sits right around 200 calories, if not fewer.


Try it out -- it's totally worth it!

Leftovers!

Let's be honest -- you can't always eat in. There will always be times that you'll be with people or will make plans to go out. It's a natural part of being young and fantastic, and you shouldn't feel bad about it!

But if we're being honest, we all know what a hit eating out takes on our bank accounts.

A little tip: Don't be afraid of leftovers.

You don't always finish everything on your plate, but how often do you let them just clear it away from you? "Oh, that won't reheat well" or "I don't think it will keep"... All common justifications for watching the remainder of your meal, that you paid good money for, go off into the great Unknown.

Well, Get Creative!

Just because it's what you ate at one meal doesn't mean it has to stay the same at the next one!

For example, a couple of nights ago some friends and I were having a lazy night in. We decided to get take-out, and I ordered the Baked Ziti.

In all honesty, it wasn't that good. And I was ready, after eating about half, to just throw it out. But thinking of how much money I had just paid made me really bitter, so I kept it just to spite itself. I was going to eat it!

Two nights later I remembered it was in my fridge. The thought of microwaving it just made my heart sad. I mean, it was barely mediocre the first time around!

So instead, I changed course and made a quick visit to my friends at the food emporium to pick up a few ingredients: garlic, chicken, and asparagus.

When I got home, I broke out my skillet, threw some olive oil in it, and got to work!

First I chopped up the chicken, and seasoned them with salt, pepper, and a little dried oregano. Then into the pan they went until browned all around and thoroughly cooked. I set the chicken aside, and into the same pan went my asparagus. I also added a small pat of butter here, just to richen it up a bit. But you can always leave that part out. When the asparagus was about halfway there (about 4 minutes in) I added my minced garlic and a small palm full of crushed red pepper flakes. I let those go a minute or two, and then dumped the leftover noodles on top. They only needed to reheat, so I gave them a few minutes, then stirred the chicken back in.

This was my result.

And can I just say -- by FAR more delicious then it was when I got it from the restaurant! And not to mention cheaper: Chicken - $1.50, Asparagus - $2.99. Can't beat that from a second round, eh?

**If you want to make this and just skip the bad take-out part of the story, just buy a small box of noodles and a can of tomato sauce. Boil the noodles, and add them with the sauce at the same point I did above! Should get you pretty much exactly what I had.**