Good for your soul

This is a new recipe my daughter found on line that I have been making a lot these past couple years. I never thought I’d make something like this, but it turns out so good every time. This past time, I added making homemade pasta! I learned how to do that through a cooking class – Ill post about that another time!

You start by pounding the chicken. I took 4 chicken breast (they were pretty large, so I cut each into thirds). I put a freezer ziplock baggie on top of it and used a glass to pound it. I will have to by a tenderizer sometime, but this actually worked great! So, you pound the chicken and then you season both sides with salt and pepper.

Next you dust the chicken breast on both sides with flour. I used a sifter to do this.

I use pie dishes for the next step. It calls for 2 eggs, but I like to used liquid eggs, like Egg Beaters. Pour that into one pie dish. In the other pie dish mix 2 cups panko bread crumbs with 1 cup grated parmesan. Grated works best – I tried shredded but I felt like you could not taste the parm as well, and I love the taste of the parm. You take each piece of chicken and dip into the eggs, coating both sides, then into the bread crumb mixture, again coating both sides and you do this twice with each piece of chicken so they are very well coated.

After you have completed these steps for all the chicken, allow the chicken to set for 20 minutes.

Heat an inch of oil in a fry pan and put the chicken in, allowing for it to cook on each side for about 2 minutes. You can tell the oil is hot enough when you sprinkle a few drops of water and it bubbles. You want the chicken to look golden brown on both sides. I did purchase and use a splatter guard for my cooktop when I’m using oil like this – it can splatter a bit!

When chicken is all cooked in fry pan, put back onto a cooking sheet and pour 1/3 cup tomato sauce on each piece, put about 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella on each piece on top of the sauce. Sprinkle with fresh basil, then top each piece with one slice provolone cheese. Sprinkle parm on top of that – shredded parm works great for this step, but you could also use grated. Put in oven at 450 for about 20 minutes. Temp of chicken should reach 165.

My family likes all three sauces- red, white and pesto – and some even like all three at once! Doesn’t that pasta looks wonderful? I can’t believe we made it and it was so easy! I’ll post about that soon! Enjoy!