Breaded Chicken & Mozzarella with Basil

It's Michael Symon week!

I just bought Michael Symon's cookbook, 5 in 5; 5 Fresh Ingredients + 5 Minutes = 120 Fantastic Dinners and posted my first recipe from the book the other day.  Chicken Amandine was a quick, easy, and a totally flavorful dish!  

So today I decided to make my second recipe.  Breaded Chicken & Mozzarella with Basil.  This one comes from the section titled Between Bread.  I love my sandwiches, and if it's a hot sandwich I'm in heaven!  This one is a take on chicken Parmesan.  How great is that?

Again the ingredients are minimal, and pack a flavor punch.  I'm in love with this book because for the second time I had all the ingredients on hand, with one exception.  So I stopped by the store for some fresh hoagie rolls. Done and ready to cook!

Michael doesn't disappoint with the recipe.  The dish is easy to make.  Again you will be done in about 15-20 minutes with prep and all.  The end result is a wonderfully tasty sandwich.  Perfect for a weeknight meal with a salad on the side.

I will say that Michael really likes chicken thighs for flavor.  Me, not so much.  So I have been substituting chicken breasts (always pounded thin as he recommends) and have found them to work perfectly!  Use what piece calls to you most. 

Hope you enjoy this, and stay tuned for another Michael Symon recipe coming up!

Breaded Chicken & Mozzarella with Basil

serves 4

1/2 c all purpose flour
Kosher salt and black pepper
3 large eggs
2 c plain dry bread crumbs
2 c freshly grated Parmesan cheese
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/4" thickness (he used chicken thighs)
1/2 c olive oil
1 c fresh shredded mozzarella cheese
4 hoagie rolls, split and toasted
1/2 c torn fresh basil leaves

Put the flour in a shallow bowl and season with salt and pepper.  Put the eggs in another shallow bowl and beat them lightly.  In a third shallow bowl, combine the bread crumbs and Parmesan and season well with salt and pepper.  

Put a large skillet over medium high heat.

Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper.  Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour, coating each side well.  Shake of the excess.  Dip the chicken into the beaten eggs, allowing excess to drip off.  Finally coat the chicken in the bread crumbs.

Pour the oil into the pan.  Add all 4 pieces of chicken and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes.  Flip and cook until the other side is browned and the chicken is almost cooked through, about 2 minutes.  Top each piece with mozzarella, cover, and cook until the cheese is melted, about 1 minute.

Put the chicken on the buns, top with basil and serve.

Chicken Amandine

 

I'm so excited to bring you this recipe today!

The reason being is that I got a new cookbook...woohoo!

On a whim I picked up a copy of Michael Symon's 5 in 5:  5 Fresh Ingredients + 5 Minutes = 120 Fantastic Dinners.  Of course I'm familiar with his cooking from the Food Network however, I've really come to like his style watching him on The Chew.  I mean, who can resist that laugh?  He has such a great sense of humor, and breaks down cooking so that the home cook can easily prepare delicious fresh meals.

I was so excited to get his book and try out his dishes.  I eagerly thumbed through it picking my first dish, Chicken Amandine.  A quick yet scrumptious dish great during the week but elegant enough for company.  

Plus...I had every ingredient on hand.  Love that!

This dish blew me away...

I had no idea it was this easy to make something so elegant and that tastes so darn good.  It just goes to show you that you don't need a lot of fancy ingredients...you just need a few that pack a lot of flavor.  

One trick to this dish is that you need to pound the chicken to 1/4" thickness as he says in order to cook this quickly.  Otherwise you will add on quite a bit of cooking time in order to fully cook a thicker chicken breast.

Here's what Michael says about this dish in his book:  "This elegant and classic dish looks and tastes like it's more difficult and time-consuming to prepare than it really is.  What makes this so appealing are the buttery, crunchy, toasty almonds.  Browning the almonds in butter really gives the nuts and the entire dish incredible depth and richness".  

So true.  

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we did.  Stay tuned for another Michael Symon's 5 in 5 dish coming this week.


Chicken Amandine

slightly adapted from Michael Symon's 5 in 5:  5 Fresh Ingredients + 5 Minutes = 120 Fantastic Dinners

serves 4

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, pounded to 1/4' thickness (he uses skin on breasts)
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
3 T olive oil
2 T unsalted butter
1/2 c sliced almonds
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
1/4 c roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

Put a large skillet over medium-high heat.

Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper.  Add the olive oil to the preheated pan.  Arrange all 4 pieces of chicken in the pan and cook until golden brown about 3 minutes.  Flip and cook 1 minute.  

Reduce the heat to medium and add the butter and almonds and cook until they begin to brown about 30 seconds.  Add 1/2 cup of water, the orange zest and juice and cook until slightly reduced about 30 seconds.  Taste and adjust the seasoning adding salt and pepper as needed.  

Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the parsley and serve. 

Ravioli Florentine

Happy Weekend!

MGG and I were fortunate enough to get a head start on our weekend, so we decided to go and have some fun!  So we were off to the races.  The horse races that is.  Oh the memories of going to the races with my mom and dad are still fresh.  Both my parents loved going to the races and passed their love on to me.

I hadn't been to the races in quite some time and this was MGG's first time ever.  Sometimes it's just hard to fit things in to your daily life that you find exciting.  So it was great to go again, and to share his first time watching the ponies.

We went to Santa Anita Race Track, purchased box seats right in front of the finish line, and ate a wonderful lunch at the Clubhouse.  So far so good.  MGG was having a great time.  The real excitement began when the races started and MGG was winning almost every race.  How did he do that?  Beginners luck I guess!  So after a full day of races we were tired and ready to go home.

Once home we found ourselves happy, tired, and hungry.  So I decided to satisfy our appetite by making a quick pasta dish.  You can have this one on the table in under 30 minutes.  The best part is this is a one pot meal as well.  I'm just loving those, and the clean up is a breeze!

This pasta dish is full of good things.  Spinach, mushrooms, garlic, tomatoes make for a hearty yet tasty sauce to which you cook the ravioli in.  Using frozen spinach makes the dish quick.  I also used a new item I found in the store.  It's a sun dried tomato pesto.  Not the green kind, but a deep red pesto.  A perfect addition to the sauce, giving it more depth.  For the ravioli you could use fresh or frozen.  I chose a fresh ravioli made of chicken and spinach.  Make sure to use your favorite flavor.  It all comes together easy and everyone will flip over it!

So, sleepy, full, and satisfied we ended our day.  A great way to start the weekend!

Ravioli Florentine

Serves 4-6

3 T olive oil
1 (8oz) package fresh mushrooms, sliced
¾ c onion, finely diced
1 T garlic, minced
1 (16 oz) pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained well
2 c water
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning
1 (8.1 oz) jar sun-dried tomato pesto
1 (25oz) family size pkg ravioli – any variety

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Add mushrooms, onion and garlic. Cook for 8-10 minutes stirring frequently until mushrooms are tender. Stir in spinach, water, tomatoes, and pesto. Stir to combine. Cook 5 minutes.

Reduce heat to medium and add ravioli. Try and push ravioli under the liquid if possible. Cover with a lid and cook 8-10 minutes until soft and fully cooked. Serve.

adapted from Good Cents Cooking Magazine