Chicken Parmigiana

[koshergrl]

It was amazing.

Chicken breasts:
Clean them by trimming all fat and anything else off, put them in a bowl with a good amount of salt and cover with cold water, let them sit a bit.

Put the water on to boil for pasta, get your marinara straightened out, shred some cheese...mozzarella or cheddar, or parmesan, whatever. I actually didn't have any mozzarella or parmesan today so used cheddar and it turned out really good.

Pour the water off your chicken, and then slice the breasts in half, dividing the thickness. I had a breast that was bigger than many turkey breasts I've seen, I have no idea what sort of chicken produced it, I was able to cut that thing in half a couple of times and still had good cutlets.

Season your chicken with salt, pepper, garlic.

Flour them, then egg wash, then bread crumbs (or flour, egg wash, more flour, both ways work). It is important to completely coat them in the egg before putting back in the breading.

Set the breaded cutlets aside for a while, put in your pasta (please salt the water) check the marinara, and heat your skillet with a good half inch or so of oil in it.

When the oil is hot, cook the chicken 3 pieces at a time, just brown them on each side, a couple or three minutes per side is enough. Then put the pieces in a baking dish that has a little oil on the bottom, olive oil is nice. Don'to layer them, I actually ended up using two pans because if you layer them, they will get kind of soggy which doesn't bother me any, I love breading in all its forms, but for appearances, it's nice to keep them separated. There are two schools on how to finish...you can put a little grated cheese on the patties directly, then just a single spoonful of marinara over that, or you can put the marinara on and then the cheese. Or you could probably do cheese, marinara and more cheese, if you are so inclined. The only thing that really matters is that you don't drown the patties in marinara, just a spoonful on each, there should still be plenty of chicken showing around the circle of marinara.

Pop it into a 350 oven for about 15 minutes.

Serve over pasta, I put the rest of the marinara on the side instead of mixing it all up in the spaghetti first, so people could choose their own poison.

Yeah. It's good.
This guy has it down:

 

[Kat]

Looks yummy!

 

[koshergrl]

Looks yummy!

omg couldn't stop eating it.

My oldest son and his family are living with me now. HIs better half has been cooking supper but I cooked for them tonight. Sometimes something just turns out right, and people are appreciative. They were hungry, PARTICULARLY my son, and I think it was probably a long day for his better half, she seemed a little defeated tonight. Mama to the rescue, it was good and there was a lot of it.

 

[koshergrl]

And we had some sort of chopped salad kit salad with it...cabbage, lettuce, carrots, I don't know what all in the green part...chopped quite small...and bacon bits, sesame seeds, and some sort of dressing...sounds weird but there's none left. It was kind of like a deluxe cole slaw.

 

[Kat]

Will you come and cook for me???? You make the most delicious sounding meals!

 

[Iceweasel]

I will have to try that. The Costco breasts Iately have been the blandest chicken I've ever had. Chinese?

I do a similar thing but one or the other. Breading, olive oil, lemon juice, then in the skillet or oven. I have been soaking them in Terriaki sauce for SOME kind of flavor.

 

[koshergrl]

Slicing them in half, or in this case, thirds, really helps them as far as texture goes. I even used hte back of the knife and gave some of them a few whacks.I get grossed out by the texture of chicken breasts anymore, there's something about it that isn't like meat.

 

[Fueri]

Sounds delish.

This is one of the wife's faves, mostly because I do the cooking.

So, yeah, pretty good deal for her.

I do it a bit differently and start with tenders, pre-brine them lightly with salt to hold moisture in, bread them, flash fry them in olive oil that I've sautéed some serious garlic and onion in to impart that flavor, then cheese em up and throw them in the oven, pull em and coat them in my sauce, and sit a side of pasta next to it with same sauce.

When I do it with full breasts I do pound them to a consistent thickness and slice them up, as you describe. Otherwise they end up the size of a dinnerplate.

But, yeah, Chicken parm you taste so good...lol....

 

[eagle1462010]

Damn you..............Now I'm Hungry.

 

[Fueri]

Another good thing about chx parm is it pars well with just about any wine, if you're a wino.

Merlot, pinot noir work well. Chianti, sangiovese are good. Some people even drink cabernet or a chardonnay with it.

Or none of the above.

This dish is a real crowd pleaser. This thread has me thinking we haven't had this in a while.....