Tyler Taught Me

Sundays are my day to get in the kitchen and make my dinner for the week. I still haven't mastered cooking for one so I usually have leftovers for lunch and sometimes even dinner. I usually plan out meals while I'm grocery shopping to limit my spending...this doesn't always work, but for this instance it was very helpful. Once I decided that I wanted to make Chicken Parmesan, I purchased my chicken breast, can or carton of tomatoes (I make my own sauce), mozzarella cheese and pasta.

I've always stuck to my own recipe for the chicken parm, but I wanted to try something different and less fatty. My old recipe included me coating the chicken cutlet in mozzarella and a batter of some sort then frying it...Let's just say that it's DELICIOUS! But I am not a youngster anymore, I can't eat fried chicken AND cheese together anymore...well I can, I just won't lol. You'll see from the title that I went to a Pro for this recipe and I can definitely say, I wasn't mad. Tyler, Florence that is, might be one of my favorite chefs to watch on TV and he's really nice in person AND he helped me through a coconut cake fiasco (I'm not a baker). So I knew that this recipe would be on point. I changed it up to add a little of my own flair, but I stuck with his recipe for the most part...but I did chop some Parmesan and mix it into the breadcrumb mixture.

Chicken Parmesan

Ingredients
Tyler's Sauce
* 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus 3 tablespoons
* 1 medium onion, chopped
* 2 garlic cloves, minced
* 2 bay leaves
* 1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted
* 1/2 bunch fresh basil leaves
* 2 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, drained and hand-crushed
* Pinch sugar
* Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

The Chicken
* 4 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts (about 11/2 pounds)
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
* 1 tablespoon water
* 1 cup dried bread crumbs (I ran out so I mixed with Panko)
* Freshly grated Parmesan
* 1 pound spaghetti pasta, cooked al dente - (I used linguine)

Directions
1. Coat a saute pan with olive oil and place over medium heat. When the oil gets hazy, add the onions, garlic, and bay leaves; cook and stir for 5 minutes until fragrant and soft. Add the olives and some hand-torn basil. Carefully add the tomatoes (nothing splashes like tomatoes), cook and stir until the liquid is cooked down and the sauce is thick, about 15 minutes; season with sugar, salt and pepper. Lower the heat, cover, and keep warm.

2. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

3. Create an assembly line, with flour, egg bath and breadcrumbs.

4. Put the chicken breasts side by side on a cutting board and lay a piece of plastic wrap over them. Pound the chicken breasts with a flat meat mallet, until they are about 1/2-inch thick.

5. Put the flour in a shallow platter and season with a fair amount of salt and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly. In a wide bowl, combine the eggs and water, beat until frothy. Put the bread crumbs on a plate, season with salt and pepper.

6. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high flame in a large oven-proof skillet.

7. Lightly dredge both sides of the chicken cutlets in the seasoned flour, and then dip them in the egg wash to coat completely, letting the excess drip off, then dredge in the bread crumbs. When the oil is nice and hot, add the cutlets and fry for 4 minutes on each side until golden and crusty, turning once.

8. Ladle the tomato-olive sauce over the chicken and sprinkle with mozzarella, Parmesan, and basil. Bake the Chicken Parmesan for 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly. Serve hot with spaghetti.