If you go to Davis Square in Somerville, you will find the Boston Burger Company located between the two Davis Square T stations. Some one to two restaurants ago, in that very spot, was an Italian restaurant that served linguini in a balsamic sauce with sauteed chicken and mushrooms. I adored that dish tremendously and tried to make it at home, but I had limited success. If I tried using chicken stock or gelatinized chicken drippings, it muddied the balsamic flavor. I made balsamic reductions but they still didn't impart enough balsamic flavor. I gave up the dish for several years.
After the experiment a few weeks back where I got wine flavor into pasta, I have been playing with my pasta considerably more. Tonight I realized I could use the technique there and combine it with a balsamic reduction, which had previously been my closest to success. I had the chicken, I had the mushrooms, I had the pasta, and I could make the reduction. This was a three pot dish, something I normally try to avoid.
Equipment:
cutting board and sharp knife, for cutting mushrooms and possibly other items and finally the chicken
One good 3-4 quart sauce-pot
One medium-size frying pan
One small frying pan
Two large cooking spoons
One metal spatula
One regular-sized bowl
Ingredients:
One 8-10 oz. container of mushrooms - even white button mushrooms are OK in this
about 1 lb boneless chicken - I use breasts but thighs are fine too
2/3 lb. dry pasta - any shape you want, but I used a short twirly pasta for this dish
balsamic vinegar
sherry, preferably dry
extra virgin olive oil
salt
other spices to taste
Put your small frying pan on the back burner of your stove, and turn it to medium high. Add about 3/4 of a cup of balsamic vinegar and a splash or two of sherry. As soon as it starts to bubble, turn down the heat to medium low and let it continue to simmer. Check it occasionally. If it starts to get too thick, ass either a glug of balsamic vinegar or a glug of sherry. This is where you can add some spices. Keep it light on black pepper, if you use it at all, and stick with less pungent flavors like garlic powder or a little paprika. If you want basil in this dish, get fresh basil leaves and toss them in this at about the same time you drain your pasta.
Wash your mushrooms, remove the stems, and slice them up. If you want to use a little shallot with the mushrooms, cut that up too. Put the mushrooms (and shallot) off to one side and cut up the chicken. Try to keep each side of the chicken to about 1.5" as a maximum. Smaller is fine. Just do your best to have a uniform size.
Next, fill your pot with water and put it on high heat.
While waiting for the water to boil, take your medium frying pan, put it on the stove, and turn the heat to medium high. After about a minute, test the pan with a mushroom. If it sizzles, put in as many mushrooms as you can while keeping them to a single layer in the pan. If you need to do this in more than one fry, that is fine. Cook them until they are nicely (and gently) browned, then decamp to your bowl. If you have shallot, put it in with whichever batch of sliced mushroom is going last.
Your water should be boiling now. Put your pasta in the water and set the timer for about 2 minutes short of the recommended cooking time.
Go back to the medium frying pan and cook your chicken pieces, again one layer at a time, but don't crowd your chicken too much. A few millimeters between pieces is fine. If it takes multiple times in your frying pan, again, so be it.
When the timer goes off for your pasta, drain is well. Return your pot to the stove, on medium high, and add about 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar. Put your pasta back in the pot and cook for two more minutes, stirring constantly or nearly so. Add in your chicken, your mushrooms, and your balsamic reduction. Mix well and serve.
Since I had a bone-in chicken breast with the skin still on instead of already-deboned, already-skinned chicken, I took off the skin and fat from my chicken, cutting it up into small pieces no more than 1.5" on the long side. I rendered it in the frying pan on medium heat for part of the time that the pasta cooked, until it was all nicely browned and much of the fat had rendered out. I took out the remaining solids and added them into my pasta dish. It is much like adding bacon bits to a dish - and if you like bacon and have good bacon but no chicken skin, feel free to brown a slice and crumble it up on your finished dish.
I made what I thought would be enough for my wife and me to have dinner and put away a couple of luncheon-sized containers of leftovers. I had two servings, my wife one, and our roommate the rest.
Yeah, I get to make this one again.
I still miss the little Italian place that was there before Boston Burger Company, but now I can finally make the dish they made that I adored, at home.
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