Chicken Parmigiana

These past couple of days I spent at home in San Antonio with my family celebrating Thanksgiving. Yesterday, after eating excellent food prepared by my mom for a couple of days, I decided to cook for her. She deserved a break in my humble opinion. Thanksgiving is a stressful holiday. Plus, I haven't cooked much this past month with the extensive traveling for residency interviews. So I was missing the kitchen a little in a sense. I picked out this recipe from the Pioneer Woman's website. I know this is the second recipe that I have made by her this month, but it was all I could think of to make at the last minute. Plus, I had ready access to the recipe on my iPhone at the grocery store.

Ingredients

• 4 whole (up To 6) Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, Trimmed And Pounded Flat
• ½ cups All-purpose Flour
• Salt And Pepper (to Taste)
• ½ cups Olive Oil
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 1 whole Medium Onion, Chopped
• 4 cloves Garlic, Minced
• ¾ cups Wine (white Or Red Is Fine)
• 3 cans (14.5 Oz.) Crushed Tomatoes
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• ¼ cubes Chopped Fresh Parsley
• 1 cup Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1 pound Thin Linguine

Instructions

1. Mix flour, salt, and pepper together on a large plate.
Dredge flattened chicken breasts in flour mixture. Set aside.

2. At this time, you can start a pot of water for your pasta. Cook linguine until al dente.

3. Heat olive oil and butter together in a large skillet over medium heat. When butter is melted and oil/butter mixture is hot, fry chicken breasts until nice and golden brown on each side, about 2 to 3 minutes per side.
Remove chicken breasts from the skillet and keep warm.

4. Without cleaning skillet, add onions and garlic and gently stir for 2 minutes. Pour in wine and scrape the bottom of the pan, getting all the flavorful bits off the bottom. Allow wine to cook down until reduced by half, about 2 minutes.
Pour in crushed tomatoes and stir to combine. Add sugar and more salt and pepper to taste. Allow to cook for 30 minutes. Toward the end of cooking time, add chopped parsley and give sauce a final stir.

5. Carefully lay chicken breasts on top of the sauce and completely cover them in grated Parmesan. Place lid on skillet and reduce heat to low. Allow to simmer until cheese is melted and chicken is thoroughly heated. Add more cheese to taste.

6. Place cooked noodles on a plate and cover with sauce. Place chicken breast on top and sprinkle with more parsley. Serve immediately.

From: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/10/chicken-parmigiana/

I served this dish with salad and bread. I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. My problems with this recipe start with the fact that the directions indicate to start the pasta in the second step. If I were to do this recipe over again, I would start the chicken and sauce earlier and then start the pasta while the sauce is cooking. Second, the chicken was good, but I feel like I could do better. The chicken needs to be breaded differently somehow to give it a crisper crust. I love the wine in the red sauce. It gives the sauce a nice little zing. I used left over cab. sav. from thanksgiving. The only change to the sauce was that I added basil...I thought it needed it.

Chicken Fricassee

I am spending time with my family this month on an away rotation. As a result, I probably will be cooking a lot. Here the supplies in the kitchen are more readily available and so is time. My rotation here is less time intensive. Awesome, right? : ) So my mom and I picked out this recipe yesterday from her Chicken Cooking Light Cookbook. The recipe sounds fancy and upscale. However, in reality it was super easy to make and more of a comfort food. Hope you enjoy Chicken Fricassee!!

Ingredients :
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon slat
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4 (8 ounce) bone-in chicken breast halves (skinned)
2 teaspoons butter
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup fat-free, less sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup dry white wine
2 cups julienne-cut carrot
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add chicken, toss well to coat. Remove chicken from bag; reserve flour mixture. Melt butter in a lare nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add chicken , breast side down; saute 5 minutes or until chicken browned. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm
2. Add onion, celery, and garlic to pan; saute 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in reserved flour mixture and cook 1 minute. Add broth and wine; bring to a boil. Add carrot. Return chicken to pan, breast sides up. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 25 minutes or until chicken is done. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve over rice, if desired. Yield 4 servings.

Calories: 265 (14% from fat)

Overall, I will definitely make this recipe again. It was delish! Super easy to make. There was more waiting involved with the recipe than actual labor. So if you are super hungry when you get home from work, this may not be the recipe for you because of the 25 minute simmer and wait step. However, if you have a little time, it is well worth the wait!

Pecan-Crusted Chicken with Mustard Sauce

I impulsively bought a Food & Wine Quick from Scratch Chicken Cookbook a couple of weeks ago that I saw while I was waiting in line at the grocery store. I felt a little guilty buying a book next to the bubble gum, but I reasoned the purchase as acceptable because I have TONS of chicken in my freezer that I don't know what to do with it all. After perusing the book the day I purchased it, I spotted this recipe and I have been dying to make it ever since. I finally had time today and went for it. I was even bold enough to have my neighbors come over for dinner to taste my experiment.


Ingredients
1 cup pecans
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Cayenne
1 egg
2 tablespoons water
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (~1 1/3 lbs in all)
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons grainy or Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon white-wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions
1) In a food processor, pulse the pecans with the cornstarch, thyme, paprika, 1 1/4 teaspoons salt, and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne until the nuts are chopped fine. Transfer the mixture into a medium bowl.
2) Whisk together the egg and the water in a small bowl. Dip each chicken breast into the egg mixture and then into the nut mixture.
3) In a large nonstick frying pan, heat the oil over moderate heat. Add the chicken to the pan and cook for 5 minutes. Turn and continue cooking until the chicken is golden brown and cooked through, 5 to 6 minutes longer.
4) Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, sugar, parsley, a pinch of cayenne, and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Serve the chicken with the mustard dipping sauce.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 10-11 minutes
Serves: 4

On a scale of 0 to 5, I give this chicken a 4.5. It was awesome. Period. I can't think of a way to make this recipe better in fact. To prepare for people coming over for dinner, I prepared the chicken coating and mustard dipping sauce several hours before dinner. So when the neighbors got here, all I had to do was place the chicken on the stove. The chicken took about 12 minutes to cook. (6 minutes on each side). It tasted moist and the nutty crust was delicious. The mustard dipping sauce complemented the chicken wonderfully. However, the chicken by no means needed the mustard dipping sauce. It was moist enough on its own to eat alone. The sauce was just an added bonus. I will definitely make this recipe again. It was easy, fast and delicious.