Home › chicken › First Night Chicken

First Night Chicken

Recently I realized Monroe and I had a tradition that we didn't even know we had. It's probably a "tradition" because it's easy, never fail chicken on top of a yummy fresh salad. This was the first meal I cooked for Monroe after we were married, and then almost 4 years later it was the first real meal I cooked in our new house.

I use this chicken recipe for lots of different meals; in fact it originally is a Parmesan Chicken recipe. As we enter Spring, the produce is wonderful and there is just something about a crisp fresh salad with warm chicken on top that taste like Spring. This is an easy and healthy weeknight meal, but it is also really pretty and would be great for a ladies' dinner party. When making it for just us, I put the chicken on top of the salad; however when serving for guest it is beautiful to plate chicken with salad on top and sprinkle with fresh berries and a balsamic vinaigrette.

Try this chicken, and it is sure to become a staple in your home as well.

Ingredients

4-6 boneless chicken breast
1 cup all purpose flour
2 extra-large eggs
1 tablespoon water
1 1/4 cup seasoned and dry bread crumbs (I uses Progresso Italian Style Bread Crumbs)
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon good olive oil
fresh ground black pepper and kosher salt to taste

Instructions

Pound the chicken breast until they are 1/4 inch think. I place the chicken between 2 pieces of parchment paper and use a rolling pin to pound to desired thickness. Most of the time I cheat on this step and buy already thin sliced chicken breast from Whole Foods. Salt and pepper each side of chicken to taste.
Have 3 seperate plates or breading pans. (I have these from Williams Sonoma, and they are awesome) In first pan put 1 cup of flour. In the second pan, beat 2 eggs with 1 Tablespoon water. In the third pan, combine the bread crumbs with the fresh Parmesan cheese.
Coat the chicken on both sides with the flour, then dip each side into egg mixture and finally dredge each side of chicken in bread-crumb mixture pressing lightly to make sure all area is covered.
In a large sauté pan, heat 1 Tablespoon of butter and 1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil. (Adding these at the same time will keep from burning) Cook 2 breasts at a time about 2-3 mins on each side, until cooked through. Repeat the butter and oil steps until you have all your chicken cooked.

For the your salad use whatever veggies you like. This week we had fresh butter lettuce mixed with spring greens, green bell pepper, avocado, red onion and some artichocke hearts. We topped it off with our favorite salad dressing and a few croutons.