There’s nothing like a home-cooked meal. With as crazy as my work schedule has been, that small luxury of cooking a great dinner has been hard to come by recently. But last night was different.

A rare night off had me planning for dinner since around lunchtime. Making my grocery list, since I was clearly out of stock of a few necessities. Who doesn’t have a constant supply of balsamic vinegar, am I right?

A quick browse through Pinterest and I found my meal. Dijon Chicken with Roasted Brussels Sprouts, inspired by these two recipes from Rachel Schultz and Kevin Is Cooking. Felt amazing to be back in the kitchen and might have possible found a go-to date night dinner in the mix.

Dijon Chicken with Roasted Balsamic Brussels Sprouts

Chicken Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/2 cup Dijon mustard ( I used Grey Poupon Country Dijon)

1/4 cup Maple Syrup

1 tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar

Small bunch of fresh rosemary (used about 5 twigs)

Salt and pepper

Brussels Sprouts Ingredients:

1lb Brussels Sprouts, halved

Olive oil (3-4 tablespoons)

Balsamic Vinegar, to taste

Honey (optional — I didn’t use, but would also be delicious)

Salt & pepper

To start, pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees. Luckily that is the recommended temp for both dishes. We’ll start with the mustard sauce first.

Grab a small bowl and combine the mustard (about half of the 8 oz. jar of Grey Poupon), maple syrup and red wine vinegar. Whisk together until mixed thoroughly.

Line a baking pan/dish with aluminum foil (for easy cleanup) and prep the chicken. You’ll want to season both sides  of each chicken breast with salt and pepper. I then lined out a bit of the mustard mixture to lay each breast on for cooking.

Lay each chicken breast evenly on the baking sheet/pan to cook. Once placed, pour or spoon out the mustard sauce over the chicken evenly until each piece is completely coated.

After the entire mixture is used, grab a few twigs of fresh rosemary to place between the chicken to season while baking.

Time to bake. The recommended was between 30-40 minutes, but since my chicken breasts were so thin, 30 minutes did the trick — I could have probably took them out at around 25 (were a little dry, but still delicious). With thicker pieces, you might have to cook the full 40. Keep an eye on your oven after 20 minutes or so. (Here’s a peak at our end result, but skip to the next step to start the veggies).

Once you pop the chicken into the oven, time to tackle the Brussels Sprouts.

To start, rinse the Brussels Sprouts and halve them (with any stems cut off if still left on). You’ll want to toss the sprouts in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper so they are coated thoroughly.

Line a baking pan (or dish like I used) with aluminum foil (yeah, easy clean up!) and then toss them into the oven for 20 minutes. My timing for this worked well, since I had about 20 to go on the chicken, so i doubled up — which I know is usually not recommended, but it worked.

After the 20 minutes (and once I took out the chicken) I left the Brussels Sprouts in for an additional 5 minutes to brown.

Here is a look at the chicken right out of the oven. As you can see, the excess sauce was a little burnt, but the chicken came out FANTASTIC. Might have even added something extra to the final dish. Super juicy and flavorful on the inside too.

Taking the Brussels Sprouts out of the oven, I tossed a few tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper to taste for the final dish. Honey was also offered as an addition to the balsamic vinegar (but since I didn’t have any in my arsenal, we did without).

 

Overall, this dish was great. Easy cleanup, full dinner, leftovers for lunch and most likely includes a lot of basic ingredients already in your pantry or fridge. Maybe it was so delicious because it was my first time getting down and dirty in the kitchen in awhile, but I will certainly be making it again.