Monday, June 1, 2009

New and Improv'd: Parmesan-crusted chicken

Today, I went a little crazy. I went off book. I improvised! I had a surprisingly delicious chicken dish at T.G.I. Fridays a few weeks back; the chicken breast was basted with caesar dressing, then covered with shredded parmesan. I decided to try to replicate this dish at home, but since Sean hates both caesar dressing AND cheese, I wanted to make a plain old breaded piece for him. That meant I needed bread crumbs.

Coincidentally (or perhaps not at all), I had bought a loaf of French bread to make a strata that I never made. So I decided to make my own bread crumbs. Who am I? Two months ago, I didn't make my own sandwiches!

I dried the French Bread in the oven for about 15 minutes, then blended, then added grated parmesan, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt and black pepper. 

I dredged Sean's chicken breast in egg, then dipped it in bread crumbs. I basted mine in Trader Joe's caesar dressing, then dipped in the bread crumbs with shredded parmesan. Then I sauteed both pieces in the skillet for about 14 minutes, turning once. And guess what?

It was great! I paired mine with a tomato and mozzarella salad with WAYYYYY too much balsamic vinegar, but it still tasted delicious. The parmesan and caesar added a lot of flavor (and a lot of fat!), but it was worth it. Sean, for his part, loved his breaded chicken as well. 

Tomorrow I'm making tuna steaks which will be huge because I have NEVER. COOKED. FISH. Craziness. I'm ALSO making cupcakes (out of the box. Let's not get ahead of ourselves), another first. Get pumped!

1 comment:

Amanda said...

I'm impressed with your meat-handling skills. I still have not tackled fish. I'm too scared! :)