Chicken Parmesan

adapted from Bobby Flay

The beauty of crusted chicken without the health detriments that come with deep fried food!!! This meal is amazing…and ironic since the beau and I are in the process of becoming vegan. More on that next week. For now, let’s enjoy this beauty.

It comes from Bobby Flay so you know it’s going to be good, and you can make it super spicy if you’d like to.

You’ll need:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup all purpose flour, seasoned with salt & pepper

2-3 eggs, beaten with 2 T water

2 cups of panko bread crumbs (I used the Italian seasoning flavor)

1 cup of olive oil or vegetable oil

1 small ball of fresh mozzarella

Freshly grated Parmesan to taste

Fresh basil leaves

For the sauce:

1 medium white onion

3 cloves of garlic

1 large can of tomato puree

1 large can of crushed tomatoes

1 small can of tomato paste

Salt, pepper, & Italian seasoning

Ok, so here’s a meal beau and I recently had with some friends. It was great for entertaining, but word to the wise: start this well before company comes if you’re all hungry. Now it’s time to prepare the garlic. On your own, this garlic smashing business would take forever. Thankfully beau’s dad introduced me to this wonderful thing called a garlic press. I highly recommend it.

Once you’ve got your garlic ready, smash it to make a paste.

Finely chop your onions, and put both in your sauce pot to soften. Once soft, add the puree, crushed tomatoes, paste, and 1 cup of water. Bring it to a boil, and then season to taste. Reduce the heat, and let it simmer until slightly thickened – about 30 minutes.

Oven on at 400 degrees. If your Parmesan is not pre-shredded, shred now. And slice the mozzarella.

I wanted pasta on the side (and the sauce recipe makes a ton, so don’t worry!) and I was in the mood for angel hair. I started the water boiling for that and prepared the chicken and three dipping bowls.

Pound the chicken out so they are thin. (Good to get out aggression.)

Season both sides with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in a large sauté pan (or two if you want to cook all four pieces at once) over high heat until the oil is almost smoking. Meanwhile, dredge each breast in the flour and tap or gently shake off the extra.

Dip in egg mixture, again gently shaking the extra off.

Lastly, dredge both sides generously in the bread crumbs.

Add the chicken to the pan and cook about 2 minutes per side.

Place the chicken in a baking pan and top each breast with some tomato sauce…(look at the steam, mmmm! Good shot, Hon.)

a piece of the mozzarella…

and a tablespoon of the Parmesan. Bake in the oven until the chicken is cooked through, and the cheese is melted – about 5-7 minutes. This method of searing the outside and baking the inside leads to moist chicken.

I put the extra Parmesan on the pasta for fun, (ok, really, to make it extra cheesy) and then topped it with sauce (to make the cheese melt of course!)

Add some garlic bread and EAT!

Chicken A'lagont

Today’s recipe is one near and dear to my heart. This is the homey, feels good in your mouth and tummy type of recipe. The type of meal where you pick at the pan even after you’re full just because it tastes so amazing! Is it fancy? Nope. Is it a lot of work? Nope! Sounds basically like the perfect meal, right? Basically.

It brings me back to childhood because my mom made this often as I was growing up. In a big family, you have casseroles often because dinner just makes more sense that way.

Chicken A’lagont. I tried looking up how to spell a’lagont, since that's what Mom always called it, but couldn’t find it anywhere. So I’ve concluded she made the word up. And in her sense of wry humor tried to make it sound like "elegant chicken," even though I have yet to find a “elegant” casserole.

You’ll need:

Either a whole chicken or about 6 chicken breasts

A bag of Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned Stuffing (Trust me, this is the brand Mom used & you won’t want another)

1 can of Cream of Celery Soup (I used 98% Fat Free)

Either 8 oz Sour Cream or 8oz plain Greek Yogurt

Salt & Pepper

For Stuffing:

6 T butter

Onion, chopped (optional)

Celery, chopped (optional)

Alright, so if you’re using a whole chicken, bake it, then once it has cooled, cut it to bite sized pieces. This gives the chicken a great flavor. Or, if you have less time, use chicken breasts, cut them up, and boil them. Save the water. Just trust me.

While the chicken is cooking, cook the stuffing according to the directions on the back of the package. Easy, right?

You just sauté the onions and celery (or one or neither) in the melting butter, add the stuffing and some water and stir, baby, stir! If you’re boiling the chicken, use the water to flavor up the stuffing. As you’re mixing it all together, make sure you leave it a little crunchy. You don’t want it to be totally soft.

Place the prepared chicken in a medium sized mixing bowl and add the soup, salt, pepper, and sour cream or yogurt.

Alright, healthy tip time. I’m on a very disciplined work out routine right now, so I’m very conscious of everything I eat. Not in a guilty sort of way, but in a I-don’t-want-to-ruin-what-I’m-doing sort of way. So, in order to have the comforts of one of my childhood favorites (and because my sweet beau requested it,) I got creative. I used the nearly fat free version of the soup, which cuts out a ton of fat, and I substituted the Greek yogurt for sour cream which not only cuts out all that fat, but skyrockets the protein count. So now, the only “bad” part of this meal is the stuffing on top, and (yay!) it’s not that bad. For all of you who are curious, I’ve also used the yogurt as a sub for mayo and it worked beautifully!

Alright, so you’ve got your chicken mixture. Layer it into an oven safe casserole dish, and spoon the stuffing on top of it.

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, or until the top looks crispy. Warning: this dish will make you crave Thanksgiving associated food.

It’s so good! And for all you calorie freaks out there: