Food for the Soul

Chicken Parmigiana

We've made this one for years. It's a good standby. Most people like it. And if you don't want chicken you could do veggie alternative with, say, aubergine. The quantity below is generous for 4 people.

Ingredients

Olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 clove garlic crushed
2 tins chopped tomatoes (with nothing added, ie. no herbs, spices, salt)
2 courgettes (zuchinni) sliced
75-150g mozarella (real mozarella in brine, not the hard plastic stuff), sliced
50-75g parmesan grated from a block (not the horrible pre-grated stuff)
4 chicken breasts
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried basil
Salt to taste (I find 1 teaspoon per tin of tomatoes a good guide for anything)
Ground pepper to taste

To coat chicken breasts:
1 beaten egg
75g wholemeal flour
50-75g grated parmesan

Method

Put the onions in some oil and soften them gently till the they are translucent and soft. This can take about 20 minutes.

Coat the chicken breasts by dipping in egg and then in the mix of flour and parmesan. Leave to the side while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. This lets the coating bind better to the chicken.

Add the garlic once the onions are soft. (Garlic cooks much quicker than the onions and easily burns to the bottom of the frying pan if put in too early.)

Now add the tinned tomatoes, courgette, basil, oregano, salt, pepper. Keep the heat low allowing everything to get hot.

Heat a separate frying pan with olive oil. Brown the chicken breasts until golden, but not cooked.

Take a flat baking dish and put the chicken breasts on the bottom. Lay slices of mozarella on top of the breasts. Finally pour over the tomato sauce mixture to cover the chicken. Cover with foil or a lid and put in a medium oven (180°C) for about 20-25 minutes. After this take the lid or foil off, sprinkle over the remaining parmesan and cook in the oven for a further 20-25 minutes.

Tips

We like to serve this with some plain boiled rice.

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