Mother’s Day Chicken Parmigiana

Ingredients

  • Six boneless, skinless chicken breasts cutlets
  • Italian-style seasoned breadcrumbs
  • All-purpose flour
  • 6 eggs
  • Sea salt and fresh ground pepper
  • Olive oil
  • Grapeseed oil
  • GO-TO Tomato sauce
  • One mozzarella cheese ball (about 340 grams), sliced into ¼ inch thick slices, yielding six large slices plus extra smaller slices
  • Grated parmesan cheese

I made this dish for my mother-in-law a couple of years ago and it is now a mainstay in our house. The chicken can be prepared several hours in advance and refrigerated, just bring the dish to room temperature before baking. I use organic, antibiotic free range chicken cutlets for this recipe. Grapeseed oil has a higher smoke point than olive oil, but less flavour, so I mix the two together when browning the chicken breasts.

Preparation

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes

Step One

  1. Beat the eggs in a medium size bowl, big enough to dip your chicken in. Add several pinches of salt and fresh ground pepper.
  2. Prepare an assembly line of three dinner plates. Cover one with flour seasoned with salt and pepper, the second with breadcrumbs, and leave the third empty.
  3. Dredge chicken breasts one at a time in flour, then dip in the egg wash, then dredge in the breadcrumbs (TIP: use tongs to dip chicken in the egg wash and the breadcrumbs). Place breasts on the empty plate.

Step Two

  1. In a large non-stick skillet over a medium-high flame, heat a mixture of two parts grapeseed oil to one part olive oil (about six tablespoons in total) until it shimmers slightly.
  2. Add the breasts, two or three at a time depending on the size of your skillet. Brown the breasts about two minutes per side. Remove from skillet to a plate covered in paper towel. Repeat until all breasts have been fried. NOTE: you will likely need to add some more olive oil, depending on the number of batches being cooked and adjust your heat to avoid burning the oil and any sediments in the pan.
  3. Arrange breasts in a large glass baking dish so they do not overlap.
  4. Place mozzarella on each breast until you have used up all your cheese (about 1.5 slices per breast).
  5. Cover each breast with a generous amount of GO-TO Tomato Sauce, about two ladles each.
  6. Sprinkle each breast with some grated parmesan cheese.

At this point, you can cover and refrigerate the dish, or proceed directly to baking.

Baking

  1. Heat oven to 350°F
  2. Place the (uncovered) baking dish on the middle rack and bake for 25 minutes
  3. Serve immediately with my GO-TO Fingerling Potatoes (allow 20 minutes prep) and steamed broccoli florets