Easy Chicken Parmigiana

There are very few days that the food channel is not on here. Not only do I view this channel I listen to it in the background turning my attention to the television only when something peeks my interest. I get a lot of ideas simply by listening. A couple of days ago it seemed like the theme of several of the cooking shows was pairing Parmesan with chicken so I though why not? then I started playing with that idea and how I could do it. This is the dish I came up with.

Just Baked

I wanted to create a warm, comforting meal using boneless skinless chicken breasts and Parmesan cheese so I went shopping in my pantry. The choices from my pantry were homemade shake & bake,  roasted tomato sauce  and a package of spagettini. I chose dried parsley from my herb collection; fresh Parmesan cheese, cream cheese, sour cream and milk from the refrigerator; and 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts from the freezer. I now had what I thought was the makings for a good meal.

Method: I poured about 1½ cup of the homemade coating mixing into a shallow dish then shredded about ¼ c of Parmesan cheese into the mixture and stirred well before coating the chicken. I placed the coated chicken on a Silpat® lined baking sheet then sprinkled with an extra ¼ c of shredded Parmesan cheese. The chicken was baked at 180ºC (350ºF) until the outside was golden and crispy with inside juices running clear.

Easy Chicken Parmigina

While the chicken was cooking I cooked the pasta to al dente and drained. Then I stirred in 4 oz of cream cheese, 2 tbsp roasted garlic, 2 tbsp sour cream and just enough milk to make the sauce creamy.
I warmed the roasted tomato sauce so was ready to plate when the chicken was cooked.

I placed a chicken breast on a bead of the spaghettini then topped with roasted tomato sauce and garnished with dried parsley. This made for a lovely presentation that tantalized the taste buds just from sight. The meal did not disappoint. Using fresh grated parmesan this way really pumps up the flavour without adding a lot of fat while at the same time the cheese adds a nice crispiness to the coating. The easy sauce on the pasta mixed well with the roasted tomato sauce but the roasted garlic flavour was a little lost. Next time I will use a butter sauce instead of a cheese sauce to let the roasted garlic shine a bit and accent the Parmesan chicken. Chopped fresh green onions, parsley or chives would be a nice substitute for the dried parsley.

This is a dish that really has a lot of potential so it will be one I tinker with until I get just the right effect. In the mean time we will be enjoying the attempts that aren't quite just there yet :)