BB: Parmesan Chicken

This week's Barefoot Bloggers challenge was Parmesan Chicken chosen by Megan of My Baking Adventures. We made this meal at a normal hour on Sunday, much better than the Pasta and Pesto which we made at midnight! This chicken is really simple but has great flavor. We found cooking it slowly over medium/low heat kept it from getting too browned. And as a bonus, our year and a half son has been gobbling it up, and he's not a huge chicken guy!

Recipe Courtesy of Ina Garten the Barefoot Contessa (serves six):

4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 extra-large eggs
1 tablespoon water
1 1/4 cups seasoned dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving
Unsalted butter
Good olive oil
Salad greens for 6, washed and spun dry
1 recipe Lemon Vinaigrette, recipe follows (we halved the vinaigrette)

Pound the chicken breasts until they are 1/4-inch thick. You can use either a meat mallet or a rolling pin. (We used a meat mallet)

Combine the flour, salt, and pepper on a dinner plate (we used glass pie plates). On a second plate, beat the eggs with 1 tablespoon of water. On a third plate, combine the bread crumbs and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan. Coat the chicken breasts on both sides with the flour mixture, then dip both sides into the egg mixture and dredge both sides in the bread-crumb mixture, pressing lightly.

Heat 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute pan and cook 2 or 3 chicken breasts on medium-low heat for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until cooked through. Add more butter and oil and cook the rest of the chicken breasts. (We used 2 pans to speed up the cooking process and using the medium-low heat really kept them nice and golden. We also wiped the pans out between batches just to remove some of the really dark bits).

Toss the salad greens with lemon vinaigrette. Place a mound of salad on each hot chicken breast. Serve with extra grated Parmesan.

Lemon Vinaigrette:

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons) 1/2 cup good olive oil 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

We served ours with a side of sauteed zucchini, yellow squash and onion. This was a great meal and will definitely make it again. In fact we have so much we're eating the left overs several nights this week. One night we turned the chicken into baked chicken parm and served it with spaghetti and a quick homemade sauce..yum! No picture of my four pawed sou-chef tonight. He slept through the whole process on his bed only to get up when we opened the dishwasher...a dog loves nasty food smells!