This strawberry and balsamic chicken with a herb crust is just delicious! The warm fruitiness of the balsamic vinegar is just perfect with the fresh, juicy, sweet strawberries!

For my latest Wimbledon-inspired recipe, I wanted to use strawberries in a different way to usual, so I decided to use them in a savoury dish. After all, while it’s becoming more common, it’s still pretty unusual to see it outside of restaurants!

I love strawberries and balsamic vinegar, so decided on that combination as the star of the dish. After all, the acidity of the vinegar perfectly complements the sweetness of the strawberries to form a thick, luscious sauce for the chicken! Needless to say, it worked perfectly and tasted just stunning – especially with the “fancy” herb crust on the chicken!

Fruit in savoury dishes has always been a love of mine – especially when it’s perfectly ripe and sweet! This strawberry balsamic chicken in particular is a new favourite since it’s a great way to use up strawberries in the Summer once they’re already a little past their prime!

I originally made this dish for Time & Leisure magazine for my food news page of the month as I’m lucky enough to be the food writer for the Wimbledon, Wandsworth, Putney & Barnes issue! It’s a great honour and I do love doing it – writing about food in any form is a great love of mine!

Anyway, back to the chicken! The herb crust goes perfectly with the strawberry balsamic sauce as strawberries are delicious with mint, oregano and thyme – and so is the balsamic vinegar! Really, it’s a match made in heaven!

What do I need to make this herb crusted chicken?

You don’t need anything unusual here! That’s the really great part – you probably already have all of the ingredients! Somehow this dish is seen as fancy when really it works just as well for clearing out the last of your fresh berries, mint and the last of a bottle of balsamic vinegar!

Sew White Strawberry and balsamic vinegar herb crust chicken 1

You’ll need:

Strawberries – these can be over-ripe if you have some that are past their best! Try not to use under-ripe ones, but ripe or over-ripe berries work well here. This id because you need the berries to be sweet enough to balance the acidity of the vinegar.
Balsamic vinegar – if you can get proper balsamic vinegar from Modena then that’s always ideal, but I appreciate that that’s often much more expensive, so even cheap supermarket’s own-brand works well in this case!
Water to dilute the vinegar and help prevent it from burning
Sugar to add sweetness beyond what’s already in the strawberries. Just regular, granulated sugar is best here – don’t go too fancy and attempt using brown sugar or anything since that might be a little bit gross! Just a little bit!
Some fresh mint leaves. Regular spearmint or peppermint both work well here – really any fresh mint works well. If you don’t have a plant then I highly recommend getting one as they’re infamously hard to kill! Otherwise, you can usually buy small packs from the supermarket which are plenty big enough for this recipe.
Chicken breasts. Try to use medium ones as small chicken breasts will cook faster and so may be overcooked sooner, but no matter which size you have it’s worth getting a meat thermometer to make sure they’re always perfectly cooked without overcooking them “just to be safe”!
Dried oregano and thyme to sprinkle over the chicken and form a delicious, flavourful crust

And that’s all! Nothing weird, wonderful or outlandish – just good, proper ingredients for a good, proper meal!

How do I make this strawberry balsamic chicken?

The method for this is super simple – just 5 steps! Trust me, when I say that this recipe is easy, I really do mean it!

Slice the strawberries and add to a saucepan along with balsamic vinegar, water and mint.
Leave on low heat for 10-15 minutes or until strawberries have softened and the liquid has thickened.
While the strawberries cook, heat up a little oil in a non-stick frying pan.
Sprinkle the chicken breasts with the dried herbs and cook on medium heat to form a delicious crust.
Once the chicken is cooked all the way through, slice it into strips and drizzle the hot strawberry sauce over the top.

See? Simple!

How should I serve this strawberry herb chicken?

I typically serve this recipe with brown rice, other grains like quinoa or pasta and some veggies. I really like veg on the side – asparagus, spinach and broccoli, to be specific!

They don’t all match the sauce quite as well as the chicken, but they’re delicious even without it and it’s always worth including plenty of veg in your meals anyway!

You could also serve it with minted peas, which would complement the mint in the strawberry sauce amazingly well! It’s one of my new favourite (unusual) combinations!