Chicken Parmigana

Chicken Parmigiana is one of those meals that Dave loves to order at a restaurant but I had never attempted at home.  I always felt like it was something super involved AND I kind of hate raw chicken.  Hate it.  But, I felt ambitious one day and decided to try out this recipe.

It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be and turned out just as good (if not better than) what we'd order at a restaurant.

Here's what you'll need...

- Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (4-6 of them)

- flour

- salt and papper

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

- 1 medium onion, chopped

- 4 cloves minced garlic

- 3/4 cups wine

- 3 cans (14.5 oz) crushed tomatoes

- 2 tablespoons sugar

- chopped fresh parsley

- 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

- 1 pound linguine

Step 1 - Pound the chicken breasts until they are about 1/4" thick.  I put mine in a ziplock bag and pounded them with a rolling pin because I honestly don't know if I've ever had a meat mallet. 

Step 2 - Heat the olive oil and butter together in a large skillet over medium heat.   Meanwhile, mix 1/2 cup flour with salt and pepper in a baking dish.  Sprinkle the chicken with some salt and pepper and then dredge the chicken breasts in the flour mixture, pop them in the hot oil/butter mixture and brown them on each side, about 2-3 minutes per side.  

This is the point where I felt like the recipe kind of went awry... my chicken seemed like it was taking FOREVER and so I ended up cutting each breast into quarters and it cooked through much better and I didn't fear giving my family salmonella :)

Step 3 - Without cleaning the skillet, add the chopped onion and garlic and stir for about 2 minutes until they're clear and smelling delicious.  Add in the wine (I used red) and scrape the bottom of the pan to get all the good little bits off the bottom of the pan.  Let it cook for a couple of minutes or until the wine has reduced by about half.  (The wine definitely gave the sauce a "wine-y" taste but nothing so strong or flavorful that it bothered my kids.  If you don't have wine on hand or would prefer something else I bet you could use chicken broth no problem!)

Step 4 - Pour in the cans of crushed tomatoes (I used 2 large cans instead of the 3 smaller ones) and stir.  Top it off with the sugar as well as a bit of salt and pepper and allow it to cook for 30 minutes.  Throw in some chopped parsley and cook for a couple more minutes... I tossed in a bit of grated parmesan as well.

Step 5 - Lay the chicken breast pieces on top of the sauce and cover them in the freshly grated Parmessan.  Put a lid on your skillet, reduce the heat to low and allow it all to simmer until the cheese is melted and the chicken is heated through.  

I used my giant skillet that doesn't have a lid so I just threw some foil on top.

Scoop out a piece of chicken and a whole bunch of sauce and place it on top of a big ol' pile of freshly cooked linguine.  Top it with some more fresh parsley and serve HOT!

This was gobbled up by my entire family and was a definite yes for the "make again" list :)

If you get a chance to try this out I'd love to hear what you think!  Happy Thursday, friends!