Food & Drink

Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray

Olive oil, for frying
1 1/2 pounds chicken breast tenders
Salt and pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, beaten with 1/4 cup water
Breading:
2 cups Italian style bread crumbs
1 cup shredded Parmesan
6 sprigs or stems fresh thyme leaves, stripped and chopped, 2 to 3 tablespoons
6 sprigs fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped, 3 tablespoons
2 handfuls chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Chicken Parmigiano, recipe follows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place a nonstick cookie sheet in oven with a tin foil liner.
Heat 1/2-inch oil in a large nonstick skillet or frying pan over medium to medium high heat.
Season chicken tenders with salt and pepper. Wash hands. Place flour in a shallow dish. Beat eggs with water in a second dish along side the flour. In a third dish, combine the breading ingredients. Coat chicken in flour, then egg, then bread and cheese mixture. To keep your hands clean, ask for plastic gloves at the butcher counter. To ease your clean up, try using disposable tin pie tins for the flour, egg and bread crumbs.
Cook chicken until deeply golden on each side, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to cookie sheet in preheated oven and finish off for another 5 minutes cooking time. Cook chicken 5 or 6 tenders at a time in a single layer, adding additional oil if necessary. If the chicken begins to brown too quickly lower heat slightly. Serve chicken hot or cold with green salad or, complete as a Parmigiano.

Simple Tomato Sauce for Chicken Parmigiano:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small white onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (14 ounce) can chunky style crushed tomatoes
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 cup chicken broth or stock
A handful fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces
Coarse salt
1 1/2 cups shredded provolone
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 pound spaghetti, cooked to al dente

Set water on to boil for pasta and prepare according to package directions for al dente. Before coating chicken, add oil, onions and garlic to a saucepan to cook medium low heat. Stir occasionally for 10 minutes while you are working on the chicken. Add both cans of tomatoes and a cup of chicken broth and bring sauce to a bubble. Reduce heat to a simmer until ready to serve. Stir in torn basil and season sauce with salt, to your taste.
Place a little of the sauce on the chicken tenders, top with the shredded provolone and Parmigiano. Place in oven or broiler to melt the cheese and then serve. Coat the hot, cooked pasta lightly with sauce then serve.
Enjoy!

I cannot in good faith say that I made any "modifications" to this recipe, but I will surely admit that what I made was a bit different. Allow me to explain.

The recipe calls for:
Thyme, I accidentally bought Tarragon (I was on the phone in the store, sorry). So that was omitted.
Rosemary, I think this is much to overpowering of a flavor. This was omitted.
Parsley, bought it. Too lazy to add it. Omitted.
Garlic, completely forgot. Omitted.

Everything else I did followed the recipe to the letter. Well, the top portion, anyway. I did not opt for the conversion to chicken parm. I did employ some Marinara sauce on the side for dipping, however.

My only recommendation for future use of this recipe is to add slightly to your egg mixture and then double your chicken. I had an overwhelming excess of my breading that I would have liked to use if I'd had the time tonight, but I was under a small time constraint. Good recipe. This is one I will hang on to.