Chicken Parmesan

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Chicken parm is one of those meals that EVERYONE has tasted, but it feels so inaccessible that fewer people have ever tried to make. And I get it! There are so many elements: golden, breaded chicken cutlet with a bubbly cheese crust, beautifully developed tomato sauce, and some sort of pasta to match! I promise, this is totally doable.

So when we talk recipes, we're really talking 2 things (plus boiling some pasta according to the directions): a beautiful, rich red sauce, and a crispy chicken cutlet. I try to do both with minimal effort, but I've realized that MY minimal effort is not everyone's, so here are my KEY tips:

1. Even if you use a store-bought sauce, season it to your preference!! My favorite ways to do this are adding pasta water (usually 1/4 cup) to the jar as it heats. This adds starch to thicken and is better than simply heating on the stovetop. I also use the Flatiron Pepper Sweet Heat flakes because I can't get enough gentle heat. It's designed to go with Italian flavors, so it's great here.

2. Cutlets can be made ahead and refrigerated or frozen to make your life easier. If you freeze them on wax or parchment paper on a cookie sheet, you can easily cut the paper to place between cutlets and freeze in a bag. When I reheat, I simply place in a cast iron pan with cheese on top and bake at 350 until cheese is melted (~10 minutes) and then broil until brown. Make sure whatever pan you us is OVEN SAFE or transfer to a baking sheet to melt your cheese (I speak from experience, oof!).

3. Fresh cheese makes all the difference. I often use shredded mozzarella in addition to fresh in my lasagna, but with these cutlets, you truly need that extra melty, fresh goodness. So while cutlets and sauce are places to cut corners, PLEASE don't do it on cheese. I am 100% aware I may be a cheese sauce, but my firmly held belief is that cheese is magic, so just go with me here.

   
   

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Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 recipe pasta sauce (no meat)

• 2 chicken breasts, trimmed (each breast produced 2 servings)

• ½ cup flour

• 2 egg yolks

• 1 cup bread crumbs

• 1 tsp garlic powder

• Salt and pepper

• Zest from ½ lemon

• 1 tsp oregano

• 1 ball fresh mozzarella, sliced

• Grated parmesan cheese

• Pasta of your choice (I prefer linguine)

Instructions

1. Before we dive in, let me start by saying I don’t like pounding my cutlets. I know, I’m the worst! But I find the texture odd and it takes a lot of work, plus would make this difficult to prep with toddlers and dogs in the house. If you want to pound your cutlets instead, feel free, but remember to adjust heat and cook time to accommodate the thinner meat.

2. In order to get our cutlets thin(ish) without pounding, I slide the in half along the entire breast. Using a very sharp knife, hold the blade parallel to the cutting service. Starting at the thick part of the breast, slice halfway down the piece of chicken, adjusting as you reach the thinner part. Your pieces will not end up exactly equal, but do your best to keep the thickness somewhat uniform between both pieces. This is also a good time to boil your pasta water.

3. Lay out 3 shallow dishes. In the first, put your flour with a small amount of salt and pepper. In the second, whisk the 2 egg yolks and a splash of water with a fork (a little thinner is better than thicker, IMO). In the third, put your seasoned bread crumbs (note: you CAN use the pre-seasoned Italian bread crumbs. I tend to season plain crumbs because I can use the plain ones in other recipes as well). Lay out wax or parchment paper large enough for each of the breaded cutlets.

4. For the breading step, designate one “dry” hand and one “wet” hand to keep things as tidy as possible. I also use food prep gloves and a fork for each dish to help fully coat at each step. Using your dry hand, coat each cutlet in the flour, shaking off excess. Place the cutlet in the egg, switching to your wet hand and again coating the whole cutlet in the egg mixture. Allow to drip back into the dish before transferring to the bread crumb dish. Again with your dry hand, fully coat in bread crumbs and place on the prepared paper. Repeat these steps for each cutlet.

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

6. Heat a large (oven-safe) skillet over medium/high heat and add enough olive oil for a thin layer over the whole pan. If your cutlets have been resting for a while, you may notice that they seem a bit damp. If so, coat them again in the breadcrumbs to ensure we get a nice, crispy crust. Place in your heated pan, being careful not to crowd your meat – if you don’t have enough space, we can brown the meat in batches. Prep a rack with parchment paper for the cooked cutlets if needed. Your pasta should also go into the boiling water around this time. Be sure to reserve ~1 cup of the starchy cooking water.

7. Brown each cutlet for ~1-2 minutes per side, or until browned but not burnt. When the side is down, it should slide around easily when you gently shake the pan.

8. Now we’ll get to the best part: cheese! There are a couple ways to assemble the cutlets for the oven. First, my preference, is NO SAUCE to keep the cutlets crispy. This is controversial, apparently, so sauce can be included either under the cutlets in the bottom of the pan so the cheese melts directly onto the chicken, or spooned onto the cutlet before the mozzarella. Do whatever speaks to you! For this step, you can crowd the cutlets a bit so long as each one has enough space for the cheese. Place 1 layer of sliced mozzarella onto each cutlet, then top with grated parmesan, filling in the spaces between slices AND on top of the mozzarella.

9. Cook in the oven for ~5 minutes to allow the cheese to melt a bit, then broil, watching carefully until the cheese browns and bubbles, but doesn’t burn. Remove pan from the oven and get the rest of the elements ready.

10. By this point, you should have your pasta cooked. I usually try to time it to be done while the chicken is in the oven so I’m not trying to do too many things at once. When you drain the pasta, reserve some of that beautifully starchy pasta water, but if you forget (like I do embarassingly often), some warm regular water or chicken stock will do. Your pasta sauce has probably thickened up nicely by now, and we want to loosen it just a bit before serving. Pour a small amount of the pasta water into your sauce, stirring to assess the consistency. Once it feels how you want, cook for another 1-2 minutes. You can either add a small amount of olive oil to your pasta to prevent it from sticking, rinse with cool water, or take your chances if your timing is good enough!

11. I prefer to layer my elements on the plate, spooning sauce on top of the pasta instead of mixing it all together. On top of that, I sprinkle more parmesan, and then layer the chicken cutlet. Serve with garlic bread for an extra carb-y evening!