Chicken Parmesan

Crispy, cheesy chicken parm. If it’s not already one of your favorite foods, it will be after you try this version! Recipe as follows:

Ingredients:

For the Tomato Sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped (50 g)
4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped (20 g)
1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
1 tsp dried oregano
Pinch crushed red pepper flakes
2 TB double concentrated tomato paste
2 (28 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes (794 g)
1 small bunch basil
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
Sugar, if needed

For the Chicken:
2 chicken breasts (400 g)
½ cup flour (65 g)
Kosher salt and black pepper
2 eggs
½ cup panko breadcrumbs (28 g)
½ cup Italian breadcrumbs (60 g)
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese (25 g)
2 garlic cloves, grated (10 g)
1 lemon, zested
½ cup olive oil (113 g)
8 ounces whole milk mozzarella, thinly sliced (225g)

For Serving:
1 pound (454 g) spaghetti
Parmesan cheese
Basil

Directions:

For the Tomato Sauce:
1. In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, add the olive oil and onion. Cook for 4-5 minutes, or until the onions turn translucent in the middle and lightly golden brown along the edges. Add the garlic cloves, season with a pinch of salt, then cook for 1-2 minutes, or until the edges of the garlic just begin to turn light brown. Add the crushed red pepper flakes, fennel seed and oregano and cook for 30 seconds, or until fragrant. Add the tomato paste and stir to combine. Cook, stirring frequently, for 2-3 minutes, or until the tomato paste has darkened in color.
2. Add the whole peeled tomatoes, crushing them with your hands as you add them to the pot, and stir to combine. Add the basil, then season with salt and pepper and sugar, if the sauce is too acidic. Reduce the heat to low and cover. Simmer for 1 hour, or until the flavors have married.

For the Chicken:
1. Preheat the oven to broil.
2. Place the chicken breasts on a cutting board. Using a boning knife, or other thin flexible knife, slice the breasts in half horizontally.
3. Add each chicken breast to the middle of a large piece of plastic wrap and pull the bottom part of the plastic wrap over the chicken to cover it. Using a meat mallet or a sturdy pot, pound the chicken out to ⅓ inch thick. Repeat with the remaining chicken until all have been pounded thin. Set aside.
4. Add the flour to a wide, shallow bowl and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
5. In a second wide, shallow bowl, add the eggs and a pinch of salt. Whisk until the eggs are homogeneous then set aside.
6. In a third wide, shallow bowl, add the panko, Italian breadcrumbs, cheese, garlic, and lemon zest together. Whisk to combine and set aside.
7. Add the olive oil to a large, deep skillet over medium heat. Prepare two sheet trays with wire racks and set aside.
8. Working with one chicken piece at a time, add the chicken to the flour and coat both sides. Shake off any excess, then transfer to the eggs. Coat in the eggs, allowing any excess to drip off, then move it to the breadcrumb mixture. Press firmly to adhere the breadcrumbs to the chicken, then transfer to one of the racked sheet trays. Repeat with remaining chicken.
9. Once the oil is shimmering, slowly add 2 chicken breasts to the pan. Gently shake the pan to prevent the chicken breasts from sticking to the bottom. Cook for 4-5 minutes, or until the chicken is deeply golden brown. Flip and repeat on the other side.
10. Transfer to the other racked sheet tray and season with salt. Repeat with remaining chicken.
11. Once all the chicken is cooked, spoon several tablespoons of sauce over each chicken breast. Top each with mozzarella cheese and broil for 2-4 minutes, or until the mozzarella is melted and has browned in a few spots.
12. Remove from the oven and serve with spaghetti, additional sauce, cheese and basil.

Follow Nick’s Kitchen:
https://www.youtube.com/@NickDiGiovanni
https://www.youtube.com/@chef
https://www.instagram.com/nickskitchen
https://www.facebook.com/nickskitchens
https://www.nickskitchen.com

Chicken parm. Cue the [Music] music. First up, tomato sauce. I’ll start by chopping up one yellow onion. Obviously, you can be lazy if you want and use jarred sauce, but if I’m going to make chicken parm, I’m going to do it right. Dice it all up with whatever method you prefer until it looks something like this. Then, move it off to the side. And we’ll move on to our garlic. This you’ll want finely minced. I know, I know your fingers are going to smell bad, but it’s going to taste so much better than using pre-minced garlic. You’ll have to trust me on this one. Just thank me later. I also like to chop up my fennel seeds. These give that incredible anis licorice flavor, but if you don’t chop them up, they can be a little bit too big and crunchy. To begin cooking the sauce, we’ll add a splash of olive oil to a heavy bottomed pot and toss in our onions. Hit that right away with a sprinkle of salt and then stir for about 3 to 5 minutes until softened. We’re not looking for these to get golden brown. Instead, we want them nice and translucent. Once that’s softened, I’ll add in some dried oregano, our crushed fennel seeds, all of that minced garlic, and a little pinch of crushed red pepper flakes. And I’ll continue to stir this over medium, constantly scraping down the sides of the pan for another 1 to 2 minutes. Make sure you’re constantly stirring this entire time because the garlic can burn really easily. Next up, I’ll add in my tomato paste, which I’ll stir around for about 2 to three more minutes until I get a nice almost brownish, robust color. While that continues to toast, I’ll open up two cans of peeled tomatoes. This mixture is ready when it looks something like this. It’ll start to smell almost kind of nutty. And in go my tomatoes. Fill up those cans with water and swish them all around so you get all of that nice tomato flavor. Then dump that in as well. And for a moment now, this is where I like to turn down the heat and get in there with my hands. I like to call this the Italian grandma method where you really just squeeze everything apart. And what this will do is give your sauce all different kinds of textures as opposed to using pre-crushed tomatoes. As you squeeze it all apart, it’ll make different sized chunks of tomato. And there’s something really fun and special about just getting in there with your hands and being so dedicated to the process of making this sauce. Once you feel like everything’s been broken into small enough chunks, you can continue to move on. Season this up with a bit more salt, some fresh cracked pepper, a little pinch of sugar, depending on how acidic your tomatoes are. And finally, layer a few sprigs of fresh basil over the top, which will drop in all their flavor as this sauce cooks. And that’s it. Just cover up your sauce and move this off to the side to simmer until you’re ready for it. While our sauce is going, we’ll prepare our chicken. You’ll want to take your chicken breast and then very carefully place your hand on the top with your fingers pointed up, keep them away from the knife, and then slice right through the center to cut it perfectly in half. I find it’s best and easiest if you use the thinnest knife that you have. That way, it just seems to slide through the chicken much easier. But as long as you’re careful and confident with it, that’s what matters. If you slice properly, all your chicken should end up looking like this. Next, open up a Ziploc bag or spread out some plastic wrap and fill it with your chicken. Depending on the size of the bag, you should be able to fit about two of these chicken breasts. Now, grab really anything in your kitchen with a heavy bottom like this. And give your chicken a couple nice whacks. Reminds me of when I was spanked as a kid. As you whack it, you’re looking for the chicken to get nice and even and become about a/ third of an inch thick. You don’t want it too thin, but you also don’t want it too thick. I’ll do the same thing with my other chicken. And then we are ready to bread. To prepare our dredging station, I will lay out three plates. And into the first one, I’m going to add some flour, which I will season up with some salt and fresh cracked pepper. Then into the second one, I’ll crack two eggs, as well as a pinch of salt and whisk that up until everything is evenly combined. And in the last one, I’ll do two types of breadrumbs. First, some seasoned breadrumbs, and second, some of these crispier panko breadrumbs along with some Parmesan cheese, some very finely minced or grated garlic, and then a generous amount of lemon zest. It gives excellent flavor to the breading of these chicken cutlets. Just like with the eggs, make sure the dried dredges are evenly and fully mixed with that garlic and lemon zest combination. This one’s going to smell really good. Set up your workstation however it makes sense so that you can start with the flour, then go to the egg, then go to the breadcrumbs. And finally, over to a baking sheet lined with a wire rack. For the dredge, first we’ll go flour, making sure that the entire piece of chicken is fully coated. And then shake off any excess and bring it over to the egg. Same thing again. Make sure it’s fully coated by all that egg. Drip off all that excess. And then move it over to the breadcrumbs. Here, I like to sort of pull the breadcrumbs from the outside and fill it over the top of the chicken before then grabbing it and flipping it once over and then sort of press the breadcrumbs into it. This really helps to make sure that everything sticks and that you get an ultra crispy and craggly chicken. And finally, I’ll lay it out on my baking sheet. Repeat this process with the rest of your chicken, going first into the flour, pressing to get it fully coated, then into the egg. You should only need one flip in the egg. It’ll coat itself very quickly. And finally into the breadrumbs. With these, it’s extra important that you press down just a bit to really get that chicken nice and fully coated. Once again, onto the baking sheet. Your kitchen doesn’t have to become a crazy mess when you make something like chicken parm. It’ll probably get a little bit messy, but if you make a neat, organized workstation like this, then it’s a pretty quick and easy cleanup. To fry the chicken, you’ll want to add a nice layer of oil to a heavy bottomed pot. I’d say enough oil that it’ll go about halfway up the chicken when you place it in. It is very important that you have enough oil or your chicken will not fry properly. When it’s just lightly starting to smoke or starting to shimmer, go ahead and place down that chicken. Do not overcrowd your pan or it will not fry correctly. I’m going to do two at a time. You can see how it’s going just about exactly halfway up my chicken, which means this is the perfect amount of oil. And if it’s not stuck to the bottom, give it a small shake to make sure that oil really gets all up under those nooks and crannies. I’m keeping a very close eye on it. You see this dedication? Be creative in the kitchen. Get in there. Make sure nothing’s burning. Use whatever method you want. Doesn’t matter. I don’t care. Good food is good food. The chicken’s not going to know you’re putting a phone light on it. I’m going to cook these for about 4 to 5 minutes per side, constantly moving them around so nothing sits in the same place for too long at about medium heat. And when they’re ready to flip, they should look like that. That’s it. I quit. I’ve done everything I want in life with this. Look at the toasted lemon zest on there. I can smell the toasted garlic. Once they’re beautiful and crispy and golden brown like this, take them off the heat and let them rest while you cook the rest of your chicken. Once all your chicken is done, add them to your tray to rest. to cook our spaghetti. I’ll add lots of salt to my pasta water. And once it’s boiling, in goes our pasta. Give it a quick mix to make sure everything is separated and fully submerged. And then we can come back to our chicken to prep it for broiling. All that’s left to do for our chicken is take some low moisture mozzarella. And then you have a choice. You can either grate it or slice it. And I prefer to slice it into nice thin strips like this. I think it gives the chicken parm a better look and texture. But ultimately, it doesn’t really matter what you do as long as you don’t use pre-shredded mozzarella cheese, which is not going to melt the right way. Now that I’ve sliced my cheese, to build my chicken parm, I’m going to set this tray off to the side. Then bring in my tomato sauce, as well as one of these oven safe metal sizzle platters. You can also just use a baking sheet. Now, down goes one of my pieces of chicken. Then, I’ll layer on some of that tomato sauce, making sure not to put too much. I don’t really want too much of this falling over the sides. And last, but not least, I’ll layer down some of the cheese. This is where you can really put as much or as little cheese as you want. And don’t forget a nice shaving of Parmesan cheese all across the top. I like to especially add some on the edges where you’re going to get those really toasty and crispy salty bits. By now, our pasta should be done. So, I’ll go ahead and strain this. And it’s important for me to note that I like to do this before I put the chicken parm in the oven because the second that comes out from the broiler, you should already be eating it. Chicken parm is not a dish that you want to let sit. Toss that pasta into a bowl along with a light drizzle of olive oil as well as a tiny dusting of Parmesan cheese just for the flavor. And once you give that a quick mix, it’s time to cook your chicken one last time. This now will go into the oven at a high broil until it looks golden brown and bubbly. That looks so good. Watch and listen. To finish this off, I’ll take my plate, add on a bunch of my fresh pasta because I really just feel like you shouldn’t be serving chicken parm without pasta. And then on goes a little layer of Parmesan cheese. One last drizzle of olive oil. A light layer of that tomato sauce. Just enough to coat the top of the pasta and the bottom of the chicken parm. And last but not least, I’ll add on my chicken parm with a bit of fresh basil because why not? Chicken parm. This kitchen smells amazing.