Easy Chicken Parmigiana

You may think that making anything you have to cook twice would be complicated, and I can't blame you for that. I mean, just look up "Chicken parmigiana" on the interwebs; you'll immediately get 10 recipes that have 20 ingredients and take 90 minutes to make. Who has time for that?!

So here is my easy, quick and down-right delicious recipe for chicken parm. Rad Boyfriend called it the best chicken parm he'd ever eaten, including in fancy restaurants. Clearly he doesn't have an Italian grandmother, but I didn't mention that to him. Instead I said, "I know, isn't it really good?!" I'm so modest.

Step One: 

Beat the meat. You heard me. Procure 4-6 large chicken breasts, wash them, trim the fat, and put them in a plastic bag or under plastic wrap. Then beat the hell out of them with a mallet. (It's fun, trust me.) I suggest doing this atop a wooden cutting board as opposed to a plastic one. Then cut the cutlets down to a more manageable size. Thin chicken is the key to a flavorful dish, so don't skimp on the beating!

Step Two:

Get a small bowl and three large plates. (I prefer paper plates, as I hate doing dishes.) Coat the bottom of the first plate with a mixture of flour, salt and pepper. In the bowl, beat two eggs with a bit of water; this is called an egg wash. In the second paper plate, mix together some seasoned breadcrumbs, chopped fresh parsley, and a generous amount of finely grated Parmesan cheese. DO NOT SKIP THE PARMESAN! This is the secret ingredient. Remember the title of the dish we're making!

Step Three: 
Dip each chicken breast into the flour, then the egg wash, then the breadcrumb and Parmesan mixture. Set aside on the third plate.

Step Four: 

Pour a generous amount of olive oil into a large frying pan. Heat until hot, then throw in about a tablespoon of butter. Trust me, this makes the chicken golden and crispy. Place the chicken in the pan and throw some salt and pepper on top. Cook for 3-4 minutes and repeat on other side. Remove from pan and set aside.

Here's where I reveal a dirty little secret about my favorite salty seasoning. I do love me some Lawry's, but this here holds a special place in my heart:

My family has been cooking with Vegeta since I was born, despite the fact that (GASP!) it's chock full of MSG. Yup, you heard me: I eat MSG. And since I've been eating it since I was a wee lass, it's probably shaved several years off my life. (Extra points if you know what's going on here.)

Step Five: 

Moving on...

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
• Bring a big pot of water to boil for spaghetti. (Did I mention we're eating pasta with this meal? We're eating pasta.) 
• Chop some fresh basil. 
• Open a jar of tomato sauce. (Making your own is not that hard, but the goal here is quick and easy. My favorite jarred sauce is Trader Joe's Tomato Basil.) 
• Either in a bowl or right in the jar, mix the fresh basil into the sauce. Trust me, basil makes the dish so much more flavorful.

Step Six:
Pour enough tomato sauce to coat the bottom of a glass baking dish, up to 1/2 inch of sauce. Leave enough sauce for pasta. Put one (and ONLY one) layer of chicken on top of the sauce. Cut big, thick slices of fresh mozzarella and lay them on top of the chicken.

Step Seven:
Put the dish in the oven on 350 for 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melty and the sauce is bubbling. Remove and serve over spaghetti.

Suggestions for side dishes: garlic bread and salad.

Mangia!

Easy Chicken Parmigiana Recipe
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Servings 4
4-6 chicken breasts
2 eggs
2 tbsp. water
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
1/4 grated Parmesan cheese (plus extra for topping)
2 sprigs fresh parsley
6 leaves fresh basil
1 jar tomato sauce (extra if you like lots of sauce on your pasta)
4-6 slices of fresh mozzarella cheese
salt and pepper
Olive oil for frying
1 tbsp butter
1 lb spaghetti (or less, depending on how much pasta you want)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Wash the chicken breasts and trim the fat.
3. Place 2 at a time in a plastic bag or under plastic wrap. Beat with kitchen mallet until thin, or each breast is about double in width/length. Cut to desired size.
4. Place the flour in flat plate, mix with salt and pepper. Beat eggs and water until frothy in bowl. Mix seasoned breadcrumbs, fresh parsley and Parmesan cheese together in separate plate.
5. Dip chicken breasts first in flour, then egg, then breadcrumb/Parmesan cheese mixture. Set aside.
6. Bring a large pot of water to boil for spaghetti.
7. Coat frying pan with generous amount of olive oil and heat. Once hot, add butter. 
8. Fry chicken 3-4 minutes on one side, sprinkle with salt and pepper before turning over. Repeat on other side. 
9. Chop the basil. Either in a bowl or in the jar, mix the basil into the sauce. 
10. Coat 11x17 (or smaller, whatever fits 6 large breasts) glass baking dish with 1/2 inch of tomato sauce. Leave extra sauce for pasta.
11. Place chicken on sauce.
12. Place one heaping slice of mozzarella cheese on each chicken breast. 
13. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 or until cheese is melted and bubbly. 
14. Cook spaghetti to desired consistency. 
15. Remove chicken from oven and serve over spaghetti. Pour extra sauce and cheese on dish as desired. 

Enjoy! 

The most amazing stuffed mushrooms ever

One of my favorite cooking activities is to perfect a recipe that I've tried making several times, but can't get quite right. [See: every attempt at garlic bread I've ever made, ever.]

My most recent project was stuffed mushrooms. I tried a recipe from one of my favorite cooking blogs and it came out just.... blah. The flavor was off, it tasted bland, and I wasn't impressed. I tried it again over Christmas, this time with my own variations, and holy wow... those suckers were freaking fantastic! I made them again for a family get-together at home of Rad Boyfriend's Dad and they were ever better than last time. I impressed even myself, which is pretty difficult to do. Here's the recipe, if anyone is interested in the most fantastic stuffed mushrooms ever. Note: it looks long and complicated, but it's not. I just like giving detailed directions =)  

Goat Cheese and Bacon Stuffed Mushrooms 

24 oz. (3 packages) white mushrooms 

10 oz. goat cheese 

2-3 oz.cream cheese
(or 12 oz. goat cheese and no cream cheese) 

2-3 oz. Parmesan cheese, plus extra for topping 

1 egg 

3/4 lb. bacon, diced

2 large shallots, finely diced  

3 cloves of garlic, finely minced or zested 

3 tbsp. of finely chopped fresh parsley 

olive oil to grease the baking sheets

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Remove the egg and all of the cheeses from the fridge and let sit for 20-30 minutes. 
2. Rinse the mushrooms and pat them dry. Remove the stems and set them aside. Carve out the inside of the mushrooms with a butter knife to make room for the stuffing. Discard the insides. Finely chop about 2/3 of the mushrooms stems and set aside. Discard the rest.
3. Stack 3 slices of bacon at a time and trim the fat. Cut the bacon into small pieces. Repeat until all of the bacon is chopped. Set aside. 
4. Finely dice the shallots and set aside.
5. Cook the bacon in an un-greased frying pan until it just starts to turn brown. Don't let it get too crispy, as the texture won't meld with the rest of the stuffing. 
6. Remove the bacon from the frying pan using a slotted spoon, leaving the grease in the pan. 
7. Throw the shallots in the bacon grease and cook on medium-high for about 3 minutes, or until they start to turn clear. Add the chopped mushroom stems and stir until the mushrooms start to soften and turn brown. 
8. Zest 3 gloves of garlic into the frying pan and stir for 1-2 minutes, until the garlic is soft. (You can also finely dice the garlic instead of zesting it.) 
9. Empty the entire contents of the frying pan into a medium-sized bowl, grease and all. Stir in the softened goat cheese, cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, and egg. Add the bacon and stir. *If the mixture is too salty for your taste, add some more goat cheese or cream cheese to cut the salt.
10. Add the parsley at the very end and stir. 
11. Generously fill each mushroom top with a tablespoon.*There will likely be some leftover stuffing. The amount left over will depend on how deep you carve out the mushrooms. You can fill as many mushrooms as you have with the leftover stuffing, or fill one giant Portobello mushroom with the remainder. 
12. Grease 2 baking sheets with olive oil. 
13. Place the stuffed mushrooms on the greased baking sheets and generously sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top. 
14. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes, or until the desired consistency of the Parmesan cheese topping is reached. Some people like it to be crispy, other like it melty. For crispy tops, turn the broiler on for 2-3 minutes or until the tops are brown.
    *Another way to achieve a little crispiness is to add panko breadcrumbs to the stuffing mixture. I would recommend about 1/2 cup. Follow the rest of the recipe as written, then make sure to turn the broiler on for 2-3 minutes for a crispy top.

Enjoy! 

Taters and tenderloin and cranberry sauce, oh yum

It's no secret that I love to cook. I'm always on the prowl for new and delicious recipes. It helps that my friend E just started a cooking blog, so  stealing ideas from her has become exponentially easier. Not that she minds sharing... in fact she just forwarded me a recipe for some mouthwatering twice-baked potatoes that inspired me to write this post. (Thanks, E!) 

Twice baked potatoes are a new concept to me. My  mom was a health nut when I was younger (and still is) so we rarely ate anything as delicious as potatoes with sour cream and cheese. So as you can imagine, when I started cooking on my own, there was a whole new world of delicious and bad-for-you foods to try. Including this one. Which I think I might have to make this evening. Recipe can be found here. Both E and I suggest putting bacon in said taters. It will only make it more delicious and bad for you.

I recently took an interest in learning how to make pork tenderloin. I remember my mom making it when I was little and how delicious and juicy it was. So one night a few months ago I did it. And Internets, I dare say, it was AMAZING. Hands down the best meal I've ever prepared. I used Ree Drummond's recipe from her fabulous website, The Pioneer Woman and she absolutely nailed it. (If you read my blog regularly, you'll find that I use her recipes quite often.)

The cranberry sauce, however, was a spin on a Cranberry and Caramelized Onion recipe that I found on Oprah's website. I used it mostly as a template for my own creation (below).

As a side dish to that pork tenderloin, I made Pioneer Woman's smashed potatoes. But since I already talked at y'all about taters, I'll save those for another post =)

Happy Cooking!!

Twice Baked Potatoes: click here.
Pork Tenderloin: click here.
Smashed Potatoes: click here.
Oprah's Cranberry and Caramelized Onion Sauce: click here.

Danielle's Cranberry and Caramelized Onion Sauce: 

Ingredients: 

1 can jellied cranberry sauce 

2 1/2 shallots finely chopped, or 1 white or yellow onion finely chopped

1 cup chicken broth 

2 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons honey, or as desired 

white wine to taste (optional) 

salt and pepper to taste 

Directions: 

In a medium-sized skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add finely chopped shallots or onions and cook until they just start to get brown. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add 1/2 of the chicken broth and a few splashes of wine (optional) for taste. Let simmer on low until liquid reduces by about half. Add cranberry sauce and stir until hot. Add remaining chicken broth and wine as desired. Simmer until desired consistency is reached. (Some people like their cranberry sauce thick, some like it thinner.) Add honey to taste. (Again, some people like it sweet, others like it more on the bitter side.)

Tip: the more chicken broth and/or wine you add, the more flavor it will have. If you want thick, flavorful sauce, use the full amount of broth and let the sauce simmer down until it becomes thick. If you like your sauce thinner, take it off the heat earlier. If you don't want a sauce that's too salty, add the remaining chicken broth to the cranberries in small increments until the desired taste is reached.

Enjoy!