Making a simple pan sauce may sound intimidating, but with a few simple steps you will feel like a pro serving up my Honey Mustard Chicken with White Wine Pan Sauce.
This post is dedicated to one of my readers, Carey, who requested this recipe after winning a set of my bento box lunches (pictured above). I hadn’t originally planned to blog this recipe, but thankfully I pretty much always snap a few pictures while cooking, so I do have a few photos to go along with the recipe 😉
So let’s get started….
Begin by making the marinade. Combine the olive oil, honey, Dijon, salt pepper, cayenne and apple cider vinegar and blend with a traditional blender or an immersion blender, like this one that I have and LOVE (affiliate link). The resulting marinade should be a pale brown color.
Pour into a large ziploc bag along with 2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 5-6 breasts). Marinate for 2 hours or up to 24 hours.
When ready to cook, remove chicken breasts from the bag, making sure to save the extra marinade. Heat some olive oil a large sauté pan over medium high heat and add in the chicken breasts.
Sear breasts on each side and then place on a baking sheet and bake in preheated 350 oven for 20 minutes or until cooked through.
Next, keeping the heat on, deglaze the pan by adding in 1/3-1/2 cup white wine. To deglaze basically means scrape up all of the brown bits from the bottom of the pan that are choked full of flavor. It looks all burnt and weird, right? Don’t worry, that’s actually a really good thing! As for the wine preference I used Chardonnay, but if can’t or don’t want to use wine, go ahead and use chicken broth.
Next add in the leftover marinade from the chicken. Stir in with a whisk and bring up to a rapid boil (you should see bubbles). Whisk for at least 1 minute on high heat to make sure to thoroughly cook the marinade.
Ta-da! You just made a simple pan sauce – give me an internet high five! Your sauce will look pale brown at first and then deepen to a darker brown color as it cools. I had a little extra leftover in my fridge and snapped a picture – it almost looks like molasses.
You’re almost ready to eat – the best part 🙂 Remove the chicken breasts from the oven, transfer to a serving platter and pour your beautiful pan sauce over them to serve. I didn’t get a picture of a platter of chicken, but here it is in Carey’s bento boxes – she also got quinoa and asparagus YUM!
This chicken also tastes great with roasted red skin potatoes and Brussels sprouts. Or you could try my hubby’s favorite version in sandwich form – on a sourdough roll with melted sharp cheddar. However you choose to eat it, I certainly hope you try out my recipe and enjoy it!
Carey, thank you so much for your continued support of my blog. I hope you are loving your bento boxes and that you will soon add this chicken to your repertoire of recipes – Happy Cooking!
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