Oven Baked Breaded Chicken

The other night Rob requested I make my homemade breaded chicken with sauce, cheese and pasta. It is basically chicken parm, but not quite. The thing I like about making it... is that it is SO easy and you can make it look so fancy! Here is how you make the chicken:

Ingredients:


1 lb of boneless, skinless, chicken cutlets
1 Package of bread crumbs (I use italian style panko bread crumbs) (Ian's Original Panko Breadcrumb, 9-Ounces (Pack of 12) )
2-3 Eggs
1/8 cup (or so) of cold water
2 Tb melted butter
Pepper
Dried minced garlic (McCormick Minced Garlic 3-Ounce Unit (Pack of 6) )
Lawry's seasoning salt (Lawrys Seasoning Salt, 16 -Ounce Bottles (Pack of 6) )

Process:


First, preheat oven to 350.  Then, rinse the chicken and leave it to dry. Get out 2 medium sized bowls. In one bowl add eggs and water, slightly whisk until lots of the big egg chunks are well mixed. In the second bowl, add bread crumbs (not the whole package! Maybe half) and add some extra spices to them; dried garlic, pepper and lawry's seasoning salt, mix well. Now, go back to the chicken and pat it dry with a paper towel. Take the chicken piece by piece, and dip one piece into the egg wash then dip it in the bread crumb bowl and make sure the piece of chicken is completely covered in bread crumbs. Once each piece is covered place them in a single layer in a glass baking pan. Sprinkle a small amount of extra bread crumbs on each piece of chicken and pat them down, then drizzle a little bit of melted butter on each piece of chicken. NOTE: The chicken should not be covered in butter, just a small sprinkle on each piece. Once that is complete, place the chicken in the oven for about 30 minutes (give or take). Then, after 30 minutes remove it and et it sit for 5 minutes. Viola! Your delicious chicken in complete!!

Plating:


Now, if you want to make your chicken with sauce and pasta and cheese--- and you want it to look pretty... First, take a plate and put a small serving of pasta on it, put a little sauce of the pasta and a little cheese. Then, take one piece of chicken and place it on on top of the sauce and pasta, place a piece of provolone cheese on top of the chicken and cover the chicken with sauce. Then, top off the plate by sprinkling some freshly grated cheese on. It will look lovely and taste even better!!

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Hope everyone enjoys this! You can obviously pair the chicken with whatever sides or dishes you are in the mood for but I just happen to make it with pasta, sauce and cheese... so I thought I would share that with you! As always, any thoughts.. critiques, suggestions or other ideas... feel free to let me know!

Homemade Fresh Salsa

I have obviously not written in awhile... not because I have not been cooking, but because I have been a little too lazy to post.  Over the next few days I am going to post about the meals/side dishes I have cooked over the past month or so starting with one of my favorites, my homemade fresh salsa!

Ingredients:

1 Package of cocktail tomatoes (10 oz.) (NOTE-- you can use cherry tomatoes too, if you use cherry tomatoes, use a whole package)
1/3 of a Red Onion (that is an approximation... go with what seems like enough onion for you... I like a lot!)
3 Cloves of fresh minced garlic (again, that is an approximation)
Lime -- The juice from 1/2 a lime
Cilantro -- About 1/3 of a bunch (sold at Whole Foods)
Dash of Salt (Morton Iodized Table Salt - 4lb. box)
Dash of Pepper (NoMU Just Pepper Black Pepper Grinder, 2.1-Ounce Grinders (Pack of 4))

Process:

Literally, all you need to do is dice up all of the ingredients. Mix them together, add salt and pepper, mix again. Done!

You can eat it right away or if you can let it set for a few hours and then eat, it is all preference. The most important thing is that you dice the ingredients so you get nice chunks of fresh cut veggies; the color scheme is beautiful. If you used a food processor to dice the ingredients it is just not the same, although it is easier... it is worth taking the time to cut all the veggies yourself.

Enjoy!