My Boyfriend Dated A Chef

Let me start off by saying…”I don’t like chicken parm.” When thinking about what to eat for dinner, this is never on the menu. I don’t like the generic sauce and fried food taste. There are soooo many better options out there, why waste the calories on blah? And then, on a request, I found and adapted this recipe. My thoughts on chicken parm are now changed forever! Enjoy.

Serves 4. Recipe adapted from Food Network.

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus 3 tablespoons
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
1/2 bunch fresh basil leaves
1 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, drained and hand-crushed
Pinch sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts (about 1 pound)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon water
1 cup dried Italian bread crumbs
1 (8-ounce) ball fresh buffalo mozzarella, water drained
Freshly grated Parmesan
1/2 lb angel hair pasta, cooked al dente

DIRECTIONS:
Coat a saute pan with olive oil and place over medium heat. When the oil gets hazy, add the onions, garlic, and bay leaves; cook and stir for 5 minutes until fragrant and soft. Add the olives and some hand-torn basil. Carefully add the tomatoes. Cook and stir until the liquid is cooked down and the sauce is thick, about 15 minutes; season with sugar, salt and pepper. Lower the heat, cover, and keep warm.

Preheat the oven to 450°F.

Prepare an assembly line of your chicken ingredients. Put the chicken breasts side by side on a cutting board and lay a piece of plastic wrap over them. Pound the chicken breasts with a flat meat mallet, until they are about 1/2-inch thick. Mine 2 chicken breasts were enormous at this point so, I cut them in half. Put the flour in a shallow platter and season with a fair amount of salt and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly. In another shallow platter, combine the eggs and water, beat until frothy. Put the bread crumbs on a plate.

Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil over medium-high flame in a large oven-proof skillet. Lightly dredge both sides of the chicken cutlets in the seasoned flour, and then dip them in the egg wash to coat completely, letting the excess drip off, then dredge in the bread crumbs. When the oil is nice and hot, add the cutlets and fry for 4 minutes on each side until golden and crusty, turning once.

Ladle about half of the tomato sauce over the chicken and sprinkle with mozzarella, Parmesan, and basil. Bake the Chicken Parmesan for 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly. Serve hot with angel hair pasta. Ladle remaining sauce over pasta.

Basmati rice is a long grain rice with a delicate flavor. It is light, fluffy and free flowing, rather than clumpy and sticky like the crap gathering dust in my cupboard.  It is the perfect rice for the asian and indian dishes that I will be sharing.

The reason for the basic side dish start is because I bought basmati rice in a burlap bag and no directions were attached. It took me a few tries to perfect the cooking of it and so I’m sharing.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup Basmati Rice
1 teapoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon lime juice

PREPARATION:
Wash the rice thoroughly with your hands. Basmati has so much starch clinging to its grains. 

Bring water, oil and lime juice to a boil.

Add rice, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Do not stir, uncover or disturb rice until it is finished.