I was reminded that I haven't been posting on this blog in a long time (okay, 2 years) and that I should start again (thank you Justin). With that said, I present Chicken Parmesan. It was sort of a request. I think the actual request was for chicken fingers but I consider that more of a summery meal and not some hearty for winter so I decided that I would make chicken parmesan instead.
I started things the night before when I made the sauce. The sauce is one that was listed in Americas Test Kitchen magazine for a Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza (which is worth making by the way, it was great). Its a really simple sauce consisting of onions, garlic, canned tomatoes, olive oil, basil, and a few extra basics. I was really amazed to the amount of flavor so such basic ingredients. After making the pizza I decided that this was my replacement for jarred pasta sauce. So when I decided to make chicken parmesan I went with this. This evening I just reheated the sauce from the day before. I wonder how well this sauce would freeze. I could see myself making a big batch of it and then freezing in smaller portions and using as needed.........
So today I flattened some chicken and breaded it using a basic flour, egg, breading method. For the breading I used some fresh garlic croutons that I ground in the food processor with some parmesan cheese. Once all the chicken was breaded I fried the pieces in some oil and then put them on a baking sheet in a heated oven. When all the chicken was in the oven, I ladled some sauce on each piece and put a piece of mozzarella cheese on top and let them sit in the oven a bit longer. This allowed the cheese to melt nicely.
To finish the meal I cooked off some spaghetti and made a simple salad with a balsamic vinaigrette (which is super easy to do, some day I will post my thoughts on vinaigrettes). And the picture above is what the final plate looked like. If there are any questions or requests for specifics on any portion of the dish, please comment.
