Monday was a bit of an unsettled day here in Central PA - overcast and muggy, with heavy thunderstorms that rolled in right about the time I started cooking dinner. It got me craving comfort food, which for me involves breaded chicken, cheese and tomato sauce.
Now, growing up, my mom always served Chicken Parmesan over white rice. I grew to love it that way - I would stir the tomato sauce and extra cheesy bits into the salty, buttery rice and it wsa heaven on a plate. Scott, on the other hand, has always eaten chicken parmesan over pasta, which I suppose makes sense as it is an Italian dish. I gave him the option on Monday night, and he went with the pasta - which is interesting, considering that Scott could live on a diet of white rice alone, if given the opportunity (as long as he had a few sticks of butter and a salt shaker to go with it).
Chicken Parmigiano with Homemade Tomato Sauce*
*Not sure if my sauce actually qualifies as homemade, since I used canned tomatoes. But for me, anything not Ragu is homemade.
For sauce:
1 can petite diced tomatoes (I used RedPack Diced Tomatoes with Sweet Onion)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 lb thinly sliced chicken cutlets
1/2 cup of flour
1 egg, beaten
1 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese or 3 large bocconcini mozzarella balls
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
1. Preheat oven to 375. Make sauce - in a small saucepan, saute the garlic in olive oil until fragrant but not browned. Add the basil and quickly saute in the oil so it's infused with garlic and basil. Add the tomatoes and stir in the balsamic vinegar. Cover, and let simmer on low.
2. While sauce is simmering, prepare chicken. Set up a breading station with three shallow bowls or plates: one containing the flour, the second containing the beaten egg, the third containing a mixture of breadcrumbs and about half of the shredded parmesan. You can also add some seasoning to the third bowl - I added white pepper and a little bit of crushed red pepper.
3. For each chicken cutlet, coat it in the flour, dip it in the egg, and coat with bread crumbs.
4. In a large saute pan, heat a coating of olive oil on medium-high heat. Add the chicken in batches, if necessary - when oil is good and hot, place the cutlets in the pan and let them stay put until the bottom is nicely browned, and then flip over.
5. Back to the sauce - I like to crush the tomatoes with a fork after it has simmered, to reduce the chunkiness. Pour a little bit of sauce on the bottom of a baking dish, and top with the chicken cutlets. Pour the remaining sauce equally over the top of the cutlets, and top with the shredded mozzarella and the remaining shredded parmesan.
6. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until cheese is bubbly. You can also crank up the broiler at the last minute or two to get the cheese nice and brown and caramely.
I served this with some angel-hair pasta. A good trick for pasta that you're serving alongside or under something else - when you take it off the heat and have it in the colander to drain, melt a tablespoon of butter in the pot where you boiled the pasta. Saute a minced clove of garlic in the butter, and then add pasta back to the pot, tossing to coat it in the butter/garlic mixture. Toss in a couple of tablespoons of parmesan cheese and toss, giving the pasta a garlicky, cheese, buttery flavor.
This was delish! The chicken had a nice crunchy coating, and the tomato sauce was sweet and chunky. I would have rather used fresh mozzarella for the top, but we were out and the shredded worked just fine. Serve this with a simple tossed salad - baby greens tossed with your favorite vinaigrette and topped with blue cheese crumbles. A beautiful weeknight meal!
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