Balsamic Grilled Chicken and Goat Cheese

BALSAMIC GRILLED CHICKEN AND GOAT CHEESE

For most of the summer, I had been marinating chicken in soy sauce with some other stuff, or mustard with some other stuff, or mustard and soy sauce, and then throwing it in the grill pan or under the broiler.  And it all worked okay…

 Until suddenly, I was completely bored and had to do something different with chicken.

But it still needed to be easy and relatively painless to prepare.  I pawed through my cabinet, looking for something to give the chicken some life, and hit upon the balsamic vinegar, which has this amazing ability to be both sharp and almost syrupy.  (There is a restaurant in New Jersey that has the most incredible chicken containing, among other things, balsamic vinegar, and my uncle -- who flatly refuses to eat chicken in any form -- loves this dish.  The recipe for the dish is a big secret, and I've never been able to figure out what else their incredible chicken contains, which is a constant source of frustration.  But I digress.)   I also decided that I wanted to use goat cheese, since goat cheese and balsamic vinegar are pretty much the peanut butter and jelly of the salad world.

In a bid to get some extra flavor into the chicken, I whisked some of the goat cheese into the marinade for the chicken, which wound up being one of the smarter decisions I've made in recent memory.  The goat cheese melts right into the marinade, and actually makes the chicken really tender and slightly tangy, all in a very good way.   I also threw in some garlic, maple syrup, and lots of black pepper.  I'm of the opinion that black pepper is never a bad thing, but even if you're not a huge fan of black pepper, put a little more than usual into the marinade, because it plays really well with the other flavors in this dish.  It might not be the most revelatory salad you've ever tasted, but it's pretty addictive.  Of course, you can put whatever you want into the salad, but please don’t omit the goat cheese – either from the salad or the chicken.

BALSAMIC GRILLED CHICKEN AND GOAT CHEESE

1 ½ pounds chicken breasts or thighs

For the marinade: 

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

1 Tbs maple syrup

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup olive oil

2 tsp goat cheese

salt

generous amount of ground pepper

For the salad:

2 bunches arugula

1 small disk goat cheese (minus the spoonful for the marinade.  I like to use pepper crusted goat cheese)

1 roasted pepper, torn into strips (You can used jarred in a pinch)

1 small cucumber, cut into disks

Whisk together all of the ingredients of the marinade.  Reserve half, and toss the other half into a plastic ziplock bag with the chicken.  Marinate for a few hours, or overnight.

When you are ready to eat, toss together the arugula, roasted pepper, cucumber and goat cheese with the rest of the marinade.

Broil the chicken under the broiler, or grill it in a grill pan, until it is just cooked through.  Slice and serve atop the salad.

Serves two with leftovers.