Chicken or Eggplant Parmesan

 

Ingredients:

•  Olive oil
•  4 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts (about 11/2 pounds) OR peeled eggplant sliced into about 1/4 – 1/2 inch disks
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
•  2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 cup dried bread crumbs
• 1 (8-ounce) fresh buffalo mozzarella (regular mozzarella works too- buffalo is creamier)
•  Freshly grated Parmesan
• 1 pound spaghetti pasta, cooked al dente
•  Jar of your favorite marinara sauce (or homemade)

Directions:

                  1.       Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

2.       Get the ingredients together for the chicken so you have a little assembly line.

For chicken only-  Put the chicken breasts side by side on a cutting board and lay a piece of plastic wrap over them. Pound the chicken breasts with a flat meat mallet, until they are about 1/2-inch thick.

3.       Put the flour in a shallow platter and season with a fair amount of salt and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly. In a wide bowl, combine the eggs and water, beat until frothy. Put the bread crumbs on a plate, season with salt and pepper.

4.       Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high flame in a large oven-proof skillet. Lightly dredge both sides of the chicken or eggplant cutlets in the seasoned flour, and then dip them in the egg wash to coat completely, letting the excess drip off, then dredge in the bread crumbs. When the oil is nice and hot, add the cutlets and fry for 4 minutes on each side until golden and crusty, turning once.

5.       Poor some sauce into a baking dish to lightly cover the bottom.  Place fried cutlets in the dish. 

6.       Ladle some sauce over the chicken or eggplant and sprinkle with mozzarella, Parmesan, and basil.  

For eggplant only-  Put another cutlet on top of the cutlet that you just topped.  Repeat the above step.  Do this again as many times as you’d like!  The highest I have gone is three layers. 

7.       Bake the Chicken or Eggplant Parmesan for 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly. Serve hot with spaghetti.

*You can also sneak more veggies into this dish by adding layers of spinach to the eggplant version...not sure how it would work for the chicken version.

~Recipe via Stephanie M.