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!

Margherita Pizza

I couldn't think of a better way to start this blog than a double date with the beau and our friends who live six states away. Yay for video chatting and making the same meal & eating it together! So the food? Margherita Pizza! Yum!

This was actually the first time I've ever worked with "real pizza dough" and it changed my mind about making homemade pizzas - it's easy, fast, and totally worth it to get exactly what you want and make it as healthy (or not) as you want!

I gathered 16 oz. of pizza dough, 3/4 cup of ricotta cheese, 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese, one tomato, 7 leaves of fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil, and sea salt.

Note: The fresh basil makes it! DO NOT MAKE THIS PIZZA WITHOUT FRESH BASIL. I mean, I guess if you want it to be lame....ok, just kidding. Also, you could add some fresh garlic if you dig that, but I didn't have any. And play around with the measurements. I don't believe in being "precise" in cooking.

I turned the oven to 350 degrees and oiled up the good ol' pizza stone. (If you don't have a pizza stone, a flat edge baking sheet works, too.)

Threw the dough around a little just to feel like I was really making pizza, then rounded it out over the stone, flattening it out with a miniature rolling pin.

While the dough was rising...ok, I made that up. Ahem. In the meantime, I sliced and chopped the tomato, and cut the basil into ribbons. Put them together in a bowl and add some olive oil until it looks good to you. Note: If the basil does not soak in oil for a few minutes, it will smoke upon entry to the oven and turn to ash. Not the taste we're going for.

While that trio of goodness is soaking, I added the three cheeses to the dough, starting with an even layer of ricotta (in lieu of sauce), followed by mozzarella, and parmesan.

Add the tomato mixture evenly across the top, brush the crust with a little oil, and sprinkle the whole thing with a tiny bit of oil and a little sea salt. You can use regular salt but supposedly sea salt is better for you - and it tastes amazing!

Normally, I leave things in the oven until they just "look right" but for all of you out there who need numbers, I think it was in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the edges were golden kissed.

Mmmmmm!!! Enjoy!