Chicken Parm

When Kevin and I first got married, I found this recipe for chicken parm in a Taste of Home cookbook. It was chicken, breaded with egg substitute and a combination of italian bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, and a few spices. It was baked in the oven until juices ran clear.. then you poured sauce over it and covered it in mozzarella cheese. I then put it over normal, very saucy spaghetti. I'm not going to lie, it was terrible. I never attempted chicken parm after that.

I now have this new found love for the Pioneer Woman. If you have never heard of her, she was a city girl who married a cowboy. This former sushi eater, heel wearer, vegetarian now runs a website and has her own cookbook. All of the food is very hearty, home cooked, Cracker Barrel style food. When I came across her website and started reading some of her recipes I had to buy her cookbook. I bought it on my kindle so instantly it was in my hands and with Kevin being on 12 hour shifts, I had the time to sit and read through it entirely. I'm so excited about all of the new recipes in it. It's food that we will eat. Rosalie and I are both pretty picky eaters. I like things very.. plain. Rosalie, well she doens't eat meat or pasta, so it feels like I make her the same things in day in and day out since half the time she won't eat what I've prepared for Kevin.

Anyways.. getting to my point. I came across this recipe for Chicken Parm and decided to try it once more. It knocked us of our feet. No only does it look like it was prepared by a professional, but it is sooo good. Rosalie even housed her food down, and she is not a pasta eater. I tweaked the recipe a bit since I didn't have the stuff to do homemade sauce and I didn't have fresh parmesan. Here's my tweaked version:

CHICKEN PARM

Ingredients:

Chicken Breasts

1/2 C of all purpose flour

salt and pepper (to taste)

1/2 C of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 tbls. butter

Jar of your favorite sauce (next time I will be attempting homemade sauce)

Parsley

Mozzarella Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

-If your chicken breasts are decently thick, hold them with a pair of tongs and slice them into 2 thinner pieces

-Wash the chicken thoroughly

-Place in a ziploc bag and beat with a meat tenderizer, or a rolling pin if you don't have a mallet.

-Combine flour and salt and pepper in a bowl.

-Place chicken in the flour mixture and completely coat it. Sit it aside on a plate.

-In the meantime, start boiling water for your noodles.

-In a skillet, heat the butter and oil.

-When the butter is completely melted and skillet's hot, carefully place the chicken in.

-Cook chicken until brown. The longer you cook it, the crispier the outer layer will get. I let mine get nice and crispy.

-When the chicken is completely browned on both sides, drain the juices.

-CAREFULLY pour in sauce. Make sure chicken is completely covered. If all of your breasts didn't fit in the skillet, be sure to save some sauce for the 2nd round.

-Sprinkle mozzarella on every piece of chicken. (The original recipe didn't call for this... but since I didn't have FRESH parmesan, I figured it would add a lil flare that the processed parmesan lacked)

-Using a spoon, sprinkle some parmesan on each piece of chicken. Totally up to you how much you want!

-Sprinkle parsley on top of every piece of chicken.

- Cover chicken and let cook for a few minutes or until cheese is completely melted.

-Spoon noodles onto each plate.

-From the chicken skillet, spoon about 1 big spoonful of sauce onto noodles and twirl it around so the noodles are LIGHTLY covered with sauce.

-Place one breast on top of each plate of noodles.

-Repeat steps if you still have some chicken that didn't make it into the skillet the first time around.

-Serve and enjoy!