Everything I Know About Making Chicken Parmesan
Hello, and welcome back to the blog. I took a hiatus to focus on moving house and preparing to get married, yay! I will miss the kitchen that the following photos were taken in, but I am so glad to have a tiny commute and be closer to family and friends!
But, you didn't click on this entry to learn about that, you clicked on this entry to learn everything I know about making chicken parmesan, as the title creatively suggests. This dish is without a doubt my "showstopper", complete with homemade marinara and freshly made pasta. This is what I make for people when I want them to think I am a baddie in the kitchen. As usual, we will cut the crap and dive right into recipe. Skip past the recipe to read my notes and suggestions about making this dish, and to learn something new.
Approximate time needed: 1 hour
Servings: 4 (or more: just get more chicken)
Ingredients:
2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Your favorite marinara sauce
Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Low-moisture mozzarella or your favorite melty cheese
1 can of bread crumbs (panko or regular will both work just fine)
Flour
3 large eggs
1 lemon
dried italian herb blend (oregano, rosemary, thyme, basil)
Salt
Pepper
1 bottle of canola oil or other neutral frying oil (at least 1.5 cups)
1/2 lb dry linguine (optional)
1.
Get out your chicken breast and carefully slice
them in half so that you have thinner cutlets. Or, you could just buy thin-cut
chicken breasts at the store. I’m not the food police.
2.
Lay them out on a cutting board or another clean/flat
surface, and cover with plastic wrap. Flatten and pound them out with your
meat-pounding tool of choice to about a quarter of an inch. You could use a
meat tenderizer, the back of a chef’s knife, a big wooden spoon, or a frying
pan; this is not a recipe that you should run to the store to get a new gadget
for. The tool you use does not matter. What DOES matter is that all of the
cutlets end up the same thinness. The frying part goes quickly, and we do not
want to burn our breading because a thicker part of the chicken required a long
fry time to thoroughly cook.
3.
Pat your flattened chicken dry with paper towel
or a cloth, sprinkle with some salt and pepper, cover them and refrigerate until
ready to bread.
4.
Heat your pasta sauce on the stove in a saucepan
over low heat. While I recommend a simple homemade sauce that can be ready in a
few minutes, I will not alert the authorities if you want to conserve time and
energy by using the jarred stuff.
5.
Now, we will focus on our breading situation.
While plain bread crumbs will get the job done, we can make our breading even
better by adding complexity to an otherwise bland ingredient. I like to add
lemon zest, finely grated fresh parmigiano-reggiano cheese, and dried Italian herbs
to my crumbs. Most grocery stores also sell pre-seasoned “Italian” bread crumbs
if you are looking to streamline the process, but I really recommend at least
trying the cheese if you have the time. Oh, and check out the recipe debrief
below to learn about the D-R-A-M-A surrounding parmesan cheese.
6.
I like to make a little station for my breading.
I put three of the same prep dishes all in a row and I will fill one with
flour, one with some beaten eggs, and one with bread crumbs, followed by a
cookie sheet or cooling rack to stick my breaded chicken on. It just makes the
process go a little smoother to have everything lined up and ready to go.
7.
Once you have your workspace for breading ready
to go, it’s time to start heating your frying oil while we bread the chicken. Get
out a pan or pot suitable for frying the cutlets: please see my recipe
debrief below for a full explanation on selecting the right cooking vessel and
metal type for the right type of frying. Because the food we are frying is
so thin, it’s fine to use a shallow frying pan to panfry instead of a deep pot
to deep fry. The advantage to this? We will waste less oil ($$$), and the clean-up
is so much less of a pain in the neck. I typically use a stainless steel frying
pan with about 1.5 cm of canola oil in the bottom. Warm the oil up to
approximately 350 degrees Fahrenheit. If you don’t have a food thermometer, put
a little bit of breading crumbs or a wooden chopstick in your oil and assess
for frying bubbles. If your crumb is bubbling up, the oil should be hot enough
to fry your chicken.
8.
Uncover your chicken breasts and dredge: put
them in the flour dish and toss until completely covered. Shake off the excess.
Next, dunk the floured chicken breast in your beaten egg. Now is a great time
to designate a “dry” hand and a “wet” hand, or else you will start having
breaded fingers. Alternatively, if you’re more civilized than me, you could use
a fork or tongs to deal with the eggy chicken. Lastly, stick the chicken in
your bread crumb mixture. I like to sprinkle a bit of crumbs on top and gently
press the entire piece into the bread crumbs, and then toss until they
adequately coat the cutlet. Are you a breading fanatic? You can re-dunk the
breaded chicken in egg, and hit it with another coat of bread crumbs if you
desire.
9.
Preheat your broiler (500 degrees F) and start
boiling a pot of salted water if you plan to serve pasta (I prefer linguine for
this recipe). Continue cooking your pasta while frying the chicken and continuing
the rest of the process.
10. By now, your oil should be ready to fry these bad boys up, but always double check the temperature lest you desire soggy, oily, un-crunchy, sad chicken parm. Find some tongs and a cooling rack if you haven’t already, and keep them nearby for pulling your fried chicken out. Finally, it is the most exciting moment! Gently lay one cutlet in your hot oil, and listen to that awesome sizzle. Plan for about 2-3 minutes per side, maximum. Keep a close watch on the breading and if it starts to burn, flip your chicken to the raw side. If you adequately pounded and flattened the chicken breast, there should be little risk for raw chicken when the process is all said and done. Continue this step, one at a time, until all of your chicken is fried.
11. Next, we need to transform the chicken into chicken parm. Place your chicken on a cooling rack, and stick the cooling rack on a cookie sheet. Top the chicken with your cheese(s) of choice. When I’m going all-out, I like a combination of fontina cheese and low-moisture mozzarella. Provolone is also pretty awesome for this recipe. Whichever you decide, just make sure that the cheese is a low-moisture cheese. Fresh mozzarella is delicious, but it is far too watery for this recipe. You will turn your golden, crunchy chicken into a total sogfest.
12.
Broil until the cheese is melty, approximately 2
minutes.
13. Spoon your warmed marinara onto the chicken, and finally hit it with a healthy sprinkling of freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano.
14.
Plate it up with your pasta!
So, let's talk about this dish.
The first thing's first: ingredients.
I like this recipe because none of the ingredients are crazy, but the result can still be as fancy as you want it to be. Panko or regular bread crumbs? It honestly doesn't matter! Use what you already have, or select the one that will have the texture you're looking for. I think that regular bread crumbs are the advantage for this recipe. Their sandy texture holds up a little bit better against the dense cheese and sauce, but I honestly just use whatever is in my pantry at the time. Panko will lend a flakier texture and may be at risk for becoming soggier with poor technique. If I remember correctly, the pictured result was a mix of both crumbs because I wanted to use up the last bit of one can.
So what's up with the cheeses in the recipe?
Parmigiano-Reggiano. That's REAL parmesan cheese. The pre-grated kind in the can will not do for this recipe. You might be wondering what the difference is. The former is going to melt better and will have a complex flavor. The former has a poor texture and actually isn't even "real" parmesan. Parmigiano-Reggiano is the classic type of this cheese-- it is produced only in a specific region of italy. You can pick it out in a lineup easily by looking at the rind, which is imprinted with the words "Parmigiano Reggiano". It is forbidden to sell non-authentic cheese with this rind, or label it as Parmesano-Reggiano. It can't even be labeled as such if the authentic cheese is pre-grated or shredded outside of Italy! All the knock-offs may only call themselves "parmesan" cheese instead. Grate your parm with a microplane for the ultimate fine texture. I like to grate my cheese for the purpose of my breading while the cheese is still cold, and I let it warm to room them for serving so that I get the prettier, curlier shreds.
Frying food can actually be super dangerous. Whether you are deep frying or doing a shallow fry like I talked about in this post, never fill your cooking vessel to the brim-- leave plenty of space for the splash zone. Use increased caution if you are cooking on a gas stove. And always, always, ALWAYS know exactly where your nearest fire extinguisher is. Start heating your oil while the pan is still cool to prevent the oil from rapidly reaching its smoking point. Oil fires are terrifying, and I literally almost burnt my house down one of the first times I cooked with a cast iron skillet... and I wasn't even trying anything.
Oh, and while on the topic of smoke points: always be sure to think critically about your oil selection for a given recipe. Olive oil is delicious, has its own health benefits, and would fit into today's cuisine, but it is so pricey and has a very low smoke point, meaning you will ruin your oil and spend a ton of unnecessary money in the process. Canola and vegetable oil are neutral-tasting and a cost-friendly options that have a higher smoke point, but their oxidative properties mean that they will quickly go rancid after use, and their source of omega 6's make them some of the unhealthiest options available. Peanut, avocado and regular sesame oil are awesome high smoke point oils for frying, but could cost an arm and a leg.
Scared of hot oil bubbling and popping at you? Consider a splatter guard if you really enjoy making fried foods!
My chicken came out soggy!
It is possible that your oil was not hot enough. My best suggestion after the chicken already laid in the oil is to blot it as dry as you can with paper towels and finish the process by baking/broiling in the oven, and be sure to use a cooling rack to promote airflow and prevent any steam trapping. Another way to prevent sogginess is by melting the cheese on the chicken before adding sauce-- the cheese provides a little bit of a barrier between watery sauce and crispy breading. If your first piece came out amazing and the subsequent ones became soggy, ensure you are allowing your oil to come back up to the appropriate temperature before continuing to fry.
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