Thursday, February 12, 2009

Chicken Parmesan for Dummies

Ok, maybe not exactly “for Dummies”. After all, this is not the noxious little piece of rolled up chicken you find in the freezer section at the local Walmart. But still, it is a recipe that anyone can make; hearty, and satisfying, too.
I’ve posted pictures of my Chicken Parm before, but was informed yesterday that I never posted the recipe. SO, here goes!

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, pounded thin
1 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs
½ cup milk
2 cups Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
Oil for frying
½ jar of your favorite pasta sauce
1 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

First, trim all fat or questionable bits from the chicken. One at a time, put them in a Ziploc bag (zipped almost all the way closed, leaving some room for pressure and air to escape) and pound them with a meat mallet or heavy skillet until about 1/2 inch thin.
When all four are pounded out, put them all back in the Ziploc bag and add the flour. Toss them around in the bag until they have a nice light coating of flour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Crack the two eggs into a pie plate (or other shallow dish) and whisk in the milk until it is all worked in. Put the breadcrumbs into another pie plate. Pour enough oil into a large skillet to cover the bottom of the pan, but don’t overdo it, you don’t want the chicken swimming in oil, you can always add more if you need to. Make sure you either have a pan big enough to hold all the chicken without crowding the pan, or work in batches, 2 breasts at a time. Heat the pan over a medium high heat.
Once the oil is hot, pull one chicken breast out of the bag, shaking off an excess flour, dip it in the egg wash, then coat thoroughly in the breadcrumbs. Place the breaded chicken carefully in the hot oil. Repeat with remaining pieces of chicken. Fry until golden on the bottom and then turn. Fry on second side until equally gorgeous. You want to chicken cooked through, but if you are paranoid about that kind of thing, like I am sometimes, go ahead and stick a knife in it to check for pinkness. A tiny bit of pink in the middle is okay at this point, because it is going to cook more in the oven.
Once the chicken is nice and lovely golden brown, remove from the heat. Mop up any excess oil left in the pan with a paper towel. Pour ½ jar of your favorite pasta sauce over the chicken, then top with the shredded mozzarella.
Put a lid on the pan (if you have one that fits, if not, you can use foil, or just leave it open, but watch so the cheese doesn’t crisp up on you) and put it in the over for about 5 minutes, or until it looks like this:
Traditionally, this would be served over some kind of long pasta, like fettuccine, but my hubs likes it just like this with a big chunk of garlic bread.

**Disclaimer: if I had my way, this would actually involve a light sauce from scratch and more robust cheeses, but as you all know by now, cooking for the hubs does limit my creativity somewhat.
Enjoy, everyone!

1 comment:

Tom W. said...

Thank you very very much!