Tomato Paste Challenge!

Another challenge this week, and boy did it take me a while to figure out what I wanted to make.  Tomato paste is kind of a borderline ingredient...it is really hard to be a "star" of the dish without making it into a pasta sauce of some kind, which was way too easy.  Tomatoes are also very abundant in Mexican dishes, but it still kind of felt like a cop-out.  I also wanted to incorporate another ingredient we've had on hand for a while, but haven't used at all yet, and that is Black Cherry Balsamic Vinegar.  We got it in Prescott, AZ from this amazing store of flavored olive oils and balsamic vinegars.  We got this one but haven't had a good recipe to use it with, so I wanted to use that too (see Steve, TWO ingredients!)  Here's the bottle:

So after thinking about it a while, I searched online for a balsamic vinegar BBQ sauce recipe and found a pretty easy one to follow.  It had great reviews and one common suggestion so I adapted that as well, while using our balsamic vinegar.  Most BBQ recipes call for ketchup, but since I had tomato paste to use this time, I tweaked the BBQ sauce recipe to use that instead of ketchup.  I'm sure this will be just as tasty with regular balsamic as well, so you don't have to go buy special balsamic vinegar just for this. 

It would have been easy to just make some BBQ chicken with some side dishes to go with it, but we eat a lot of salads so it can get a little repetative with the same old same old and I wanted to create a new salad for us, using different ingredients and dressing.  So along with the balsamic vinegar BBQ sauce, I also made a homemade balsamic vinaigrette using the Black Cherry Balsamic as well to tie into the flavor in the BBQ sauce.  So here it is, a Black Cherry Balsamic Vinegar BBQ Chicken Salad!

BBQ Sauce Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup tomato paste
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce
• 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

BBQ Sauce Directions:

 

1. Prepare grill if using charcoal. 
2. If using boullion for chicken broth, make boullion first in a medium sauce pan.  Add tomato paste and whisk to combine until smooth.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well to combine.  Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat and allow to gently simmer until reduced and consistency of BBQ sauce, about 30 minutes. 
4. Brush BBQ sauce on to chicken, and cook on grill.

My wonderful hubby, my Grill Master! :-)

Mmmmm....looks so good already!!

Balsamic Vinaigrette Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 3 tsp dark brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 3/4 cup olive oil

Balamic Vinaigrette Directions:

1. Combine balsamic, sugar, garlic, salt and pepper.  I used an immersion blender to thoroughly combine all ingredients. 
2. Slowly add olive oil and whisk to combine.  You can also combine in a closed jar and shake ingredients together. 

Prepare the salad now.  I used the following ingredients for the salad, but feel free to use whatever you want.  I used:

Tucson Herb infused olive oil, with Ciabatta bread in the background

• baby spinach
• bean sprouts
• sliced red onion
• sliced white mushrooms
• sliced tomatoes
• clementine pieces
• crumbled goat cheese

After the salad is prepared, pour balsamic vinaigrette over top.  Slice BBQ chicken and place on top.  We also added some grilled pieces of Ciabatta bread as a side in place of croutons.  We brushed some olive oil infused with tuscan herbs on the bread before grilling it.  It is also from the place in AZ.  And here is the final product!  Very tasty indeed! :-)

Reflections:
I think this turned out really well....I especially liked the BBQ sauce.  The flavored balsamic definitely added a twist to the flavor without being overpowering.  We have extra BBQ sauce and will grill up some more chicken with it later this week just to eat as BBQ chicken.  I think the dressing was okay....maybe because I'm used to store bought too much or something, but it took me a while to like it.  Maybe I didn't combine it quite right.  To me it wasn't as fabulous as the BBQ sauce, but it was still pretty good and definitely tied in nicely with the BBQ sauce to complete the salad.  My hubby gave it a 4 on creativity, for not using it in an italian style, and a 5 for taste.  He thought all the flavors worked really well together, including the BBQ sauce, vinaigrette, and salad ingredients like the clementines and goat cheese.  He really liked the BBQ sauce too. And he's my grill master so the chicken came out perfectly on the grill! Thank you babe for helping this week! :-) 

So that's it, give it a try, let me know if you like it.  A couple things you can do to make it easier is to use whatever balsamic you want....it doesn't have to be a special flavor.  You can also use 3/4 cup ketchup for the BBQ sauce instead of tomato paste and chicken broth.  Enjoy and bon appetit!