Fit Together: Chicken Parm

You can't grow up Italian and then marry an Italian, with a VERY Italian family without knowing how to cook up a few dishes. I think this is the dish that finally proved to Marc that yes...I do indeed cook more than burnt eggos.

Ingredients

Chicken Breasts or Fillets - 2 lbs

3 Eggs

Lots of Bread Crumbs

Olive Oil

Tomato Sauce

Garlic Powder

Onion Powder

Oregano

Cheese

Steps:

1. Thaw chicken if frozen

2. Once thawed cut away any excess fat

3. Put chicken to side

4. Crack open 3 eggs into a medium sized mixing bowl and whip with fork

5. Put breadcrumbs into a separate bowl and add a light covering of spices (garlic, onion and oregano). Mix.

6. Dip individual pieces of chicken into eggs "bath"

7. Move chicken to breadcrumbs and coat

8. Put chicken on separate plate

9. Rinse and repeat with all pieces of chicken

10. In a large non-stick frying pan add olive oil to coat bottom

11. Heat oil over medium-high heat

12. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

13. Gently fry chicken (attempt not to burn, but still cook)

14. Place chicken pieces onto a paper towel covered plate.

15. Cook all pieces of chicken

16. Turn off stove burner

17. Cover bottom of oven safe cooking dish with tomato sauce

18. Layer chicken into cooking dish until bottom is covered (if you need to stack or cut to fit - that's ok)

19. Liberally add sauce to cover chicken

20. Bake chicken for 30 minutes, uncovered on the center rake

21. After 30 minutes remove chicken from oven and add cheese over the top

22. Bake for an addition 5-10 minutes.

23. Remove and let cool for 5 minutes

Notes (because there are always things to say that don't quite go in the recipe)

1. Ingredients:
*Cheese is up to you. We use a 6 cheese blend available from the grocery store. Marc adds grated Grana Padano - an Italian cheese we received at our wedding. For more info: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/food/2008/09/12/2008-09-12_know_your_italian_cheeses_grana_padano_v.html

*Tomato Sauce - since we are crazy busy during the week, we use store bought sauce. We like to make our own tomato sauce, but it is truly an all day process. This time we used a tomato, garlic, onion sauce. Next time it might be peppers and garlic. Play around - find your favorite.

*Bread crumbs - normally I use Vigo Italian Style breadcrumbs, but I didn't have much this time, so I substituted with Panko breadcrumbs (thanks roomies!). Panko is a Japanese style bread crumb that is significantly lighter. We both preferred it with Panko - it was crisper, lighter, and all around yummy.

*Chicken - we use fillets because Marc likes the chicken super thin and I got tired of beating it with a meat tenderizer. Chicken breasts work equally as well. When using thicker pieces of meat be sure to lower the temperature for the oil to make sure you can still cook through the chicken without burning the outside.

2. Method

*After breading the chicken allow it to sit for a few minutes. This allows the breadcrumbs and excess egg to dry a bit and you won't lose as much breading when maneuvering it.

*If you want a bit of extra crunch - double bread the chicken. Allow it to dry after the first egg bath, and then do it again. You may need more eggs and breadcrumbs.

Pictures!