ANOTHER WINNER FROM THE CONTESSA: PARMESAN CHICKEN

I've been giving short shrift to my newest Ina Garten cookbook, Barefoot Contessa Family Style, so I set out to remedy that by preparing her parmesan chicken. I've prepared chicken like this before, but Ina's recipe called for sauteeing the chicken in a combination of butter and olive oil. I'm generally too focused on reducing fat to do this, but I made an exception this time and I believe that improved the taste greatly.




With this simple chicken, I made stuffed artichokes using my own recipe this time. The recipe on the side of the can, while tasty, produced a dryer stuffing. Mine was more like the stuffing I make for Thanksgiving.


Serves 6
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 extra large eggs
1 1/4 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
unsalted butter
olive oil



Pound the chicken breasts until they are 1/4 inch thick. I place them between sheets of waxed paper and use a meat mallet.



Combine the flour, salt, and pepper on one plate. Beat the eggs with 1 tbs water in a shallow bowl. Combine the bread crumbs and the Parmesan cheese on another plate.



Coat the chicken breasts on both sides with the flour mixture, then dip both sides in the egg mixture, and then dredge both sides in the bread crumb mixture, pressing lightly.



Heat 1 tbs butter and 1 tbs olive oil in a large saute pan and cook the chicken breasts, 2 or 3 at a time, on medium low heat for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until cooked through. Add more butter and olive oil for the second batch.



Plan to serve these almost immediately since they will become dry if you hold them in a warming oven.



I will be happy to share my artichoke recipe, but only if you leave a comment. (What a cheap trick to get comments, lol).