Friday, February 26, 2010

A New Dinner Success!

Tonight I tried a new spin on one of our favorite dishes and I'm kicking myself for not taking a photo. It turned out SO good and it even looked pretty on a plate.

One of our favorite stand bys is sauteed chicken breasts with a side of parmesan pasta and broccoli. It's so easy to make, which is a huge reason why we like it. But tonight our water was taking FOREVER to boil so I started flipping through my 'Joy Of Cooking' book out of boredom and came across a new recipe to try. Usually I just brown the chicken in a little olive oil with garlic salt, pepper and italian seasoning, but I found a recipe for pan fried chicken that sounded easy enough. I've never had much luck with pan frying in the past, but it just sounded so good, I had to try again. So here's the recipe for anyone who does not know how to pan fry, like me.

Trim the fat off of 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
Place between wax paper and pound them with a mallet. (I used a rolling pin.")

Mix together on a shallow bowl or plate:
-1 cup dried bread crumbs (I didn't have any so I used the last of our seasoned croutons and some Rice Krispies and crushed them all together. I think the extra seasoning on the croutons is what made everything so yummy.)
-1/4 cup parmesan cheese
-salt, pepper, garlic salt

Wisk together 1 egg and a splash of water and put into a shallow bowl.

Coat the chicken in some flour, then dip it in the egg, then coat it with the bread crumb mixture.

Heat 1/3 cup olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook 2-3 minutes on each side. (It took me more like 6-7 minutes on each side. I think I had the pieces thicker than I should have.) Then set on a paper towel to drain.

For the pasta, dump it in once the water is boiling. At the same time, add some pieces of broccoli. The broccoli floats on the top of the water so you can separate it if you like, but I just dump everything together into a bowl once the pasta is cooked. Then add a healthy does of olive oil, garlic salt, pepper and parmesan cheese. Toss it all together and serve.

The chicken turned out perfectly browned with a crispy, yummy coating. And I am always a fan of simple pasta with a little olive oil and parmesan. It was a dinner success!

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