Old School Chicken Parmesan — 'Cause it's Cold Out !

This was a meal from a couple of weeks ago — a cold, windy and rainy Friday night. A huge Italian, hearty, cheesey meal. The recipe is originally from Tyler Florence and Food 911 (a show I used to really like watching). I don’t even think I changed very much from the original recipe. Oh wait, I did use a cheese blend instead of fresh mozzarella, but just because I had the blend (mozzarella, provolone, fontina & Parmesan) and didn’t have any fresh mozzarella.

The olives were a great addition to the sauce and the two cloves of garlic in the original recipe mysteriously morphed into four cloves. I wonder how that happened?

Chicken Parmesan
This recipe is easily halved, which is what I did for jwa and I
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus 3 tbsp
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced (eh, you don’t have to halve this part!)
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted
1/2 bunch fresh basil leaves
2 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, drained and hand-crushed
Pinch sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts (about 11/2 pounds)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon water
1 cup dried bread crumbs
1 (8-ounce) ball fresh buffalo mozzarella, water drained (or about 2 cups shredded cheese — mozzarella, provolone and fontina all work well)
Freshly grated Parmesan
1 pound spaghetti pasta, cooked al dente (I used fresh wheat spaghetti from Pastaworks)

Coat a saute pan with olive oil and place over medium heat. When the oil gets hot, add the onions, garlic, and bay leaves; cook and stir for 5 minutes until fragrant and soft. Add the olives and some hand-torn basil.

Carefully add the tomatoes (nothing splashes like tomatoes), cook and stir until the liquid is cooked down and the sauce is thick, about 15 minutes; season with sugar, salt and pepper. Lower the heat, cover, and keep warm. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Get the ingredients together for the chicken so you have a little assembly line. Put the chicken breasts side by side on a cutting board and lay a piece of plastic wrap over them. Pound the chicken breasts with a flat meat mallet, until they are about 1/2-inch thick. Put the flour in a shallow platter and season with a fair amount of salt and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly. In a wide bowl, combine the eggs and water, beat until frothy. Put the bread crumbs on a plate, season with salt and pepper.

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high flame in a large oven-proof skillet. Lightly dredge both sides of the chicken cutlets in the seasoned flour, and then dip them in the egg wash to coat completely, letting the excess drip off, then dredge in the bread crumbs. When the oil is nice and hot, add the cutlets and fry for 4 minutes on each side until golden and crusty, turning once.

Ladle the tomato-olive sauce over the chicken and sprinkle with mozzarella, Parmesan, and basil.

Bake the Chicken Parmesan for 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly. Serve hot with spaghetti.

We had this with a side of sauteed broccoli. So easy to make. Heat a pan and add some olive oil and a bunch of garlic. Add some trimmed broccoli florets and saute until tender and a bit crispy. Add a little salt, pepper and maybe even some red pepper flakes. So good!