Light Chicken Parmesan

Like Britta, I attempt one major dish at the beginning of the week and eat off of it for the following few days. This week I tried a recipe from my America's Test Kitchen cookbook (this one here, it's fantastic) that I've been meaning to try out for a while. I love chicken parmesan but am intimidated by it as it's usually fried and I'm scared of that much boiling oil. This version is a light one, as in it's baked and probably takes other steps to make it healthier.

Ingredients for said recipe, I just used jarred spaghetti sauce as I didn't want to make my own. I also didn't use any mozzarella as I didn't want to buy it just for this recipe and I didn't really feel like having it.

First things first, panko crumbs were notoriously hard to find here in Columbia, but I did find them. Then noticed they were almost four bucks. So instead I bought a loaf of cheap french bread and enjoyed that for a while. Once it got a bit stale I used it to make fresh breadcrumbs. It's pretty easy if you have a food processor. Bread goes in, food processor turns on, breadcrumbs come out.

Then I used a bit of olive oil and toasted the breadcrumbs in a skillet. They got really crunchy and I knew it was going to be delicious. I let them cool and then I added the parmesan.

Then I got my chicken breading station set up: seasoned flour, egg wash, toasty breadcrumbs. The recipe serves 6 and I didn't want that much so I cut it down to four chicken cutlets (cutlet = 1 chicken breast sliced in half to make two thinner pieces).

I breaded my chicken and put it on a broiler pan. It would have been nice to just use a wire rack set into a rimmed baking pan but my wire rack is oversized and I had no pans that it would fit into. The point is to allow air circulation so the bottoms of your chicken gets crispy and not soggy. The broiler pan was an adequate substitute.

After 20 minutes in the oven, the chicken got crispy and brown. The browning was facilitated by a quick spray of Pam before the chicken went into the oven.

At this point it's customary to spoon a little tomato sauce on each cutlet and add some mozzarella and put it back in the oven to melt. I didn't, I couldn't do that to this crispy goodness.

Instead I just served it up plain next to some sauced spaghetti. Delish.

Verdict? This recipe is good. Like take a bite and literally say, "Um...good!" As for the baking substitute for frying? All I can say is: audible crunch. The process wasn't too difficult, it was relatively quick (you could probably be done in an hour, start to finish), and it resulted in a rather impressive dish. This recipe is a tasty, tasty keeper. Once again, that Christopher Kimball is a wizard.


Light Chicken Parmesan

1 1/2 cups panko or 2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 ounce Parmesan, grated (1/2 cup), plus extra for serving
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and pepper
3 egg whites
1 tablespoon water
6 thin, boneless chicken breast cutlets
2 cups tomato sauce, warmed
3 ounces reduced-fat mozzarella, shredded (3/4 cup)
1 tablespoon minced fresh basil

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat the oven to 475 degrees. Combine breadcrumbs and oil in 12-inch skillet and toast over medium heat, stirring often, until golden, about 10 minutes. Spread the breadcrumbs in a shallow dish and cool slightly; when cool, stir in the Parmesan.

In a second shallow dish, combine the flour, garlic powder, 1 tablespoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper together. In third shallow dish, whisk the egg whites and water together.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil, place a wire rack on top, and spray the rack with vegetable oil spray. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Lightly dredge the cutlets in the flour, shaking off the excess, then dip into the egg whites, and finally coat with the breadcrumbs. Press on the breadcrumbs to make sure they adhere. Lay the chicken on the wire rack.

Spray the tops of the chicken with vegetable oil spray. Bake until the meat is no longer pink in the center and feels firm when pressed with a finger, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the oven. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the sauce onto the center of each cutlet and top the sauce with 2 tablespoons of the mozzarella. Return the chicken to the oven and continue to bake until the cheese has melted, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with the basil and serve, passing the remaining sauce and extra Parmesan separately.