A Healthy Twist on a Classic: Low Sodium Chicken Parmesan

After Wife Having Congestive Heart Failure 1 of the contributing factors was the high levels of sodium in out diet so this recipe has been made without adding salt and trying to get ingredients with the lowest amount of salt in them. #healthyfood #heart #hearthealth #lowsaltdiet #lowsodiumdiet #lowsodium

All right, welcome back folks. I’m John with Oki Value Outdoors. Today’s video is going to be a little bit different than uh what we’re used to doing. Um if anybody’s been following the page, they they have read that my wife Carrie went in for heart failure and uh was metaphited out to the hospital. Now she’s back home um recovering. We we had l we got lucky. Uh lots of prayers from a lot of the people out there sent to us really helped. So um the main cause of her heart failure we were told is uh she had massive amounts of fluid buildup and on her heart and in her lungs and that fluid was caused by excessive amounts of sodium. Um, so now our cooking of our videos is is going to take a significant change. We are going to use the least amount of sodium that we can in everything we prepare and we’re going to still try to make it to where it tastes good. So, what we got is everything has sodium in it. She’s on a a restricted diet, uh, which means I am too because I prepare the food. So the the we’re going to be it has to be between 1500 milligrams and 2300 milligrams, but we’re just going to shoot for 1500, which is actually 500 milligrams per meal, lunch, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So if we of course we don’t have no sodium in breakfast or lunch, then we can have a little bit more in supper. But anyway, I am I am going to make chicken parm tonight with uh no added sodium at all. Now, everything has sodium in it. So, I’m going to turn around and show you what we’re using and tell you um what exactly how much sodium it has naturally in the product. And then we’re going to put this video together. And I’m going to show you how I’m going to make it. We’re going to stay together. I’m going to taste it. And uh I’m going to be honest with you and if it doesn’t turn out and it doesn’t taste good, well then I’m going to tell you and we’re going to move on to something else and we’re going to continue this process until we can find items that taste good but are still heart healthy, low sodium. So I’m going to turn the camera around now. Okay, these are what we’re using. These are all our ingredients. So, what we got here is panko that we’re using right there. That has 55 mg of sodium. The flour has zero. The half and half that we’re going to use has 15. The chicken, the chicken breast right there has 45 milligrams of sodium. Eggs, the eggs, 62 milligrams of sodium per egg. Thank good. We’re only going to use a little bit. Um, the Parmesan cheese 55 mg. And mozzarella cheese is the biggie. It has 190 mg with the sauce, which I I already pre-made the sauce. With the sauce, this this entire meal should should come out to about 500 mg of sodium for the entire dish. And then we’ll try to break it down to see how much sodium is actually in each serving. But in the meantime, this is what we got. garlic powder, panko, oregano, black pepper, thyme, Italian seasoning, onion powder, Cajun twostep, boil booster, smashed garlic, olive oil, and then we’re going to be using a little bit of parsley um at at the end when we get it all uh plated up or uh get it all ready to go in the oven. So, here’s what we got. We got panko. And the reason I chose panko over breadcrumbs is because breadcrumbs have 200 mg of sodium in them. And panko only has 55. So, we decided to use a low sodium panko. And I added all the seasonings, which don’t have any uh sodium in them, and just mix it all in together. Now, our flour, our flour has zero sodium. And then everything in here has zero sodium. Um, we we got black pepper flour, Cajun twostep, no salt, and the boil booster, which is all seasoning with no, it has absolutely no salt in it. So, that is what we’re going to get. We’re going to get everything going together and then I’m going to I’m going to come back to you and we’re going to start getting this prepared. So, in the meantime, I’ll get back to you when I get everything ready to go. All right, folks. We’re going to get started at this. So, the very first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to open up this chicken and take the breast and then going to kind of square it up a little. Square it up. Do that and make it more uniform, I guess. Now, I’m going to I’m going to butterfly this, but I’m not going to cut all the way through. I’m just going to open it up. I’m going to try to make it so it’s nice and uniform. Okay, here we go. Now I am going to put it in a bag [Applause] and we are going to flatten it out. Make it nice and even. We want about an inch or so, I’m guessing. You don’t have to kill it. Flip it over. And I’m thinking I’m thinking this is looking pretty good the way this is right here. Let’s see what we got. Yeah. Yeah. See, that’s going to work out real beautiful. So, we got one done. Um, I’m going to uh I’m going to go ahead and get the rest of them done off camera, and I’ll come back to you once I get it all done, and we start getting them ready prepared. Okay. Okay, folks. I got them all done. There was a couple things I forgot um when I was doing the last thing. Uh first off, I forgot I forgot to put the Parmesan cheese in with the panko. But as you can see, we’re using grated Italian style number one ingredient, Parmesan cheese. And this has 55 milligrams of sodium. It is the lowest. Regular Parmesan cheese had over 200. So, we’re going to use this um how is it going to turn out? I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out. So, I’m going to add I’m just going to sprinkle a little bit in there. Well, that ought to do right there. that about that much. And then I am going to add a little bit of half and half, which has 15 mg. I’m just going to add a little splash in there. Um, I mean, you can make it any way you want to. Um, I I there’s so many different ways to make this. Um, I’m trying to do it the lowest sodium, but yet I’m still want it to taste pretty good. Now, these pieces that I cut off, I’m going to use that to test my fryer when we get ready to fry. So, going mix this up and I used half and half because milk has so it has like 160 70 mg of sodium. Buttermilk has 200. Um, so I decided that um I checked it and I didn’t have any sour cream. Otherwise, I’d have taken some sour cream and thinned it up with water and uh used that. So, I just used what what I half and half. So, we’re going to give it a shot. I don’t know how it’s going to turn out, but you’ll be here with me to see how it goes. So, that is done. We’re going to stir this up. Surely smells good. For sure. This does. Okay. So now I am going to take one. And I’m going to do it in the flour. Press it in. I know they say one hand in, one hand out. I got gloves, you know, and I got more gloves over here. I’ll change them. But we’re going to get a good coating on that. And we’re going to move this away. Move this over here. Let me I got to get a I got to get a plate or something to put them on. [Applause] So, I’ll just lay them on this pan when they’re done. Okay. Now, we’re going to dip it into the egg half and half mixture. Now, if you want to if you want to double these or whatever, you can. I’m not going to. Um, I’m just going to do it the way it is. I’m going go in here and press it in. [Applause] I mean, in reality, you see the sides of these cutlets. Carrie and I have uh for the last, you know, she was in the hospital for 5 days and uh so we were on hospital diet for 5 days. I I ate what she ate. Um you know, can’t support her to stick to everything if she doesn’t have any support. So, I ate what she ate. So, be honest with you, this one this one cutlet right here is probably going to be more than enough for the both of us. But, I’m going to do all three for presentation and then I’ll probably take take the other two and uh send them to my kids uh tomorrow. But anyway, you can see how that is all done. Now, we’re going to go on to the second one. Whoops. Got ahead of myself. We did a whoopsie there. It’s all right. It’ll be all right. Okay, we got the flour on. We’ll put it in here. This one will just be extra crispy. [Applause] which the kids won’t seem to mind. There’s the second one. and we won’t make that mistake again. So go into the flower and I want to let everybody know I appreciate I appreciate all the people subscribing and commenting and uh sharing the videos. The channel is growing. Um I I just I just was never never once did I expect that we would uh we’d have almost 100 subscribers, but we got almost 100 subscribers. So, and I really appreciate to all the people that are subscribed and watching. Okay. Joe [Applause] and get this done. on this last one. They turned out pretty nice. Okay, now we got them all ready to go. Okay, now I’m going to take my gloves off. Going move all this stuff out of the way. I don’t know if you all been watching, but uh I uh I redid I redid our little cooking area. Try to make it better for y’all so you can actually see what we were doing um a little bit better. Um we’re learning as we go. So, okay. Okay. All right, folks. So, now we’re going to get ready to fry. And uh I’m going to add a little bit of no salt butter, 0 mg of sodium. This is about a quarter of a stick. I’m going to put that in there. We got We got our flame going. I like you you can do it whatever all you know sometimes I’ve done it with just olive oil or regular oil. Um but the times that I’ve done it before and I add a little bit of butter in there. The butter just adds a little bit of richness. Um, and and what we’re trying to do is because we’re using very low sodium, uh, and now added sodium, we’re trying to get as much flavor as we possibly can. And I believe that the butter this time will add some flavor. Now, I know you all are thinking, well, you’re on a a heart healthy diet and you’re not supposed to be having butter and all that. No, they they did they did a a picture of her heart. They stuck a tube in there and they looked at everything. She is perfectly healthy with no with no artery blockage or nothing. It was caused by fluid, high blood pressure and fluid on her heart. So she the doctor told her other than sodium, she could pretty much eat what she wants. But we it’s the sodium that raised the blood pressure that caused her heart uh for all this fluid to build up on her. she was in when she was in the hospital she lost I want to say I don’t have the exact number but I want to say around 60 some pounds 67 lbs something like that of water weight in 5 days. So anyway okay we got the butter melted now we’re going to use olive oil. I’m going to pour I don’t know This pan is I wanted enough to get enough oil to where um we don’t we have enough in the center. So even amount of oil. This table isn’t real level. So, I don’t know, about a quarter of a bottle, I guess. And this is a 500ml bottle, 16.9. So, we’ll call I’m going to call that good. Um, now those pieces of chicken that we cut off, um, we want this oil to get pretty hot. Um, I don’t know the exact temperature that we want. Um, so I am going to use I’m going to use a piece of this chicken and it’ll let me know. Yeah. See, that’s that right there. That’s That’s just about ready. And I’ll I’ll cook up these pieces that I trimmed off. We got some neighborhood cats that come come around around supper time every night. Outside cats, they’re strays or whatever. And I like to I like to throw some a little bit of food out there for them. You know, not their fault that somebody’s owner wasn’t responsible with their cat and then all of a sudden we got kittens. Not their fault. So, I’m just going to uh I’ll fry this up for the cats outside. My cat that I have, kitten, she is uh she’s finicky. She won’t eat this. Even though she she was a stray that we adopted 10 years ago, she’s been with us since she was a little fluffball. Anyway, that is looking like it’s looking like we’re just about there. Okay. Now, I’m going to I’m going to cook these uh one at a time. I’m going to do the first one first that I did. This is the one that we’re going to have for supper. I’ll put that in there. We’re going to let that go. I’m only going to cook one of them on camera for y’all. Um, I’ll stop it, but I want you to at least see the cooking process. Like I said, I didn’t have a temperature on the oil. Um, I just got it hot and so I don’t have a time on them. We’re not trying to cook them all the way through. We’re just trying to get them to where they’re golden brown. They’ll finish cooking the rest of in way in the oven. So, Get me a little spoon over here. I could use this. No, that’s metal. I don’t want to use that. A little spool. Well, that ain’t doing no good. That just melted. Well, we’ll just continue on what we’re doing anyway. [Applause] I forgot to grab a spoon, a plastic spoon. We’re going to flip it over. Oh, yeah. That’s looking pretty good right there. So, this one is just about done. We’ll let that go for a couple of minutes. Okay. So, should be just about there. Um, I need to get me a plate. Don’t have one right here. Okay, sorry. I got me a plate. We’re going to take this off. It’s got a nice crust on it. Oh, yeah. That’s really nice. I’m going turn this down. So, I want to show you what we’re going to do. Um, I’m going to turn the camera over here a little bit. What I’m going to do right here is I made I made this this meat sauce yesterday. I made it and I made it from tomatoes. Cooked the tomatoes down. Cooked the tomatoes down and then when it was ready, added all the spices and everything. Uh, no added sodium. Um, by cooking the tomatoes down, I knew that I only had the only sodium is in it, which was in naturally in the tomatoes. And then, of course, whatever was in the hamburger. I know that you don’t usually use meat sauce for chicken parm, but we made spaghetti and we made too much. So, we’re going to use it. So, it can only add flavor. So, we’re just going to put a little bit here. Like this. Layered it on the bottom. Spread it out. It’s got peppers and onions and garlic and it’s got all kinds of flavor. The sauce is actually I was really super impressed um by making it straight from tomatoes how well it turned out um and how much flavor it had. Okay. So, we got a little layer on the bottom. Now, I’m going to add the chicken in there. And it looks like it looks like we’re going to have enough in there for one pan. And then we’re going to have to put the second one on the top. But anyway, I’ll get back to you. I’m going to get the rest of these fried up and then we’ll get it put back together. And when I’m putting it together, I’ll come back to you in a few minutes. Okay, we got them cooked up now. Now for the next step. We’re going to we’re going to lightly sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese on top. And then we’re going to take this one and I guess we’re just going to kind of overlap it in there like that. We’ll sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese on there. Okay. Now, I don’t like my chicken parmesan smothered in sauce. So, what I’m going to do is just I’m just going to put a little bit, you know, just a little bit on there. kind of like that. Just kind of dab it around. And of course, we’re going to have the part that is underneath that one won’t have any on it. So, we’re just gonna do a little bit. We still got a lot of sauce left. I guess I got to freeze it so we can have spaghetti another day or whatever. But there we go. We got it all got it all covered up. I got the oven preheating to the 350. Now, I got to go get the highest sodium content item of this whole dish. Okay, so we got mozzarella cheese and this mozzarella cheese has 190 mg per one4 cup. So I literally measured one4 cup and this is all that’s going on this because of the high sodium content of this cheese. So, I may not even use it all. I may not need it all, but we’re just going to lightly put it on there. Cheese is one of our favorite items. We just we just really really like cheese. So, um had no idea how much sodium was in cheese. So, it’s really hard to cut back without it. But, okay. So, I used Okay. about an eighth of a cup. So half half of 190 is 80 mg of sodium with the cheese on there. So we still we’re still doing pretty good. I’m aiming for this each serving to have about 500 mg of sodium is what we I’ve guesstimated they should have. So that one cutlet should have 500 mg of sodium in the entire cutlet. And then when we cut it in half, each one of us should have about 250 mg of sodium. So that’s where we’re going to go. Now I’m going to take it and I’m going to put it in the oven. It’s going to cook for about 30 to 40 minutes. And I’ll come back to you and when I pull it out and it’s done. All right, folks. It’s been in the oven for about 30 minutes. Okay. And we’re getting ready to make a plate. I brought out everything I needed to get it. So, there was a certain one. Now, we’re gonna have it over spaghetti. This is wheat spaghetti that has zero sodium. We put unsalted butter to lubricate it up a little bit. So, here I’m going to I’m going to try to pull I don’t have my gloves no more, but we’re the ones eating this. So, I’m going to put this on a plate. Oh, wow. I just pulled all the cheese off of that one. That’s all right. I don’t think the kids will mind. But anyway, I got a knife. See, I like see how only part of it has the sauce on it. So that I that’s the kind of way I like it. And then we’re going to take it. We got a half a cutlet there and half a cutlet right here. And I’m going to give you all a bite. Okay. Okay, the absence of salt definitely shows up. I’m not saying that it’s bad, but you got to get used to the no salt portion of it. I’m going to take another bite cuz I want to get a part and see. with some pasta. No, I can get used to this. It’s a It’s a change. It is a change from having to go from having something that had a lot of sodium to a very low sodium. But it it is good. Um, that’s all I’m going to say. And that’s what we’re gonna have for supper. And uh I hope you like the video. And if you did, please hit the like button, hit the subscribe button, hit leave me a comment if you think I should have done something differently or if you had an idea how we can make this without salt. I’d appreciate any help I can get from y’all. So until the next one, peace. We’re out. All right, folks. I’m going to give you a little update on the video. Uh, we made the chicken parmesan. Okay. I wasn’t real impressed. It It just the low sodium version just didn’t taste real. I mean, it tasted good. It just was missing some salt. So, I put it in the refrigerator and was like, I just could have scrapped the idea. But, we pulled the leftovers out and uh out of the refrigerator after they sat for a day and then we warmed them back up for supper for leftovers for supper. And I’m gonna tell you what, after sitting in the refrigerator for one day, the the sauces and everything got married into the chicken and it was extremely good. Um, I was about ready to scrap the idea. But so now, if you’re going to make a low sodium dish and you plan on eating it that same night, you might get the same reaction because your body is so used to soap. But if you put it in the refrigerator and you just let it sit and let all the flavors get married together and then warm it back up, oh my, it it was amazing last night. Um, so I it was so amazing that I wanted to do an update on that video. Thank you and you all have a great day and like, subscribe, um, and check out some of our other videos.