Recipe of the Week for 2/28 - Kay's Parmesan Crusted Chicken

This is another recipe from Kay, guest blogger on The Pioneer Woman Cooks! Though we didn't love her Stuffed Onions, I saw no reason to totally discount her recipes!


Kay's Parmesan Crusted Chicken
from Kay, guest blogger on The Pioneer Woman Cooks!

Ingredients
1/2 c. Hellman's mayonnaise
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 sun-dried tomatoes (jarred in oil)
1 t. Italian herbs
1 t. basil
cayenne pepper

for crumb topping:
2 T. breadcrumbs
Lawry's garlic salt
1 T. Parmesan
1/2 t. oregano

Directions
Preheat your oven to 425.

Place 1/2 c. of Hellman's Mayonnaise in a medium sized bowl. Add 1/4 c. of grated Parmesan cheese to the mayonnaise. Next, add a good pinch of cayenne to spice things up a little. You can add regular pepper if you don't care for cayenne. Next, add 1 t. frozen or dried Italian herbs or your favorite Italian seasoning and 1 t. dried or frozen basil. Finely mince two oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes and add it to the mayonnaise mixture. Stir until combined.

Now grab another bowl and measure 2 T. breadcrumbs, combine that with 1 T. Parmesan, 1 t. dried oregano, and a generous amount of Lawry's garlic salt. You can also use a little garlic powder wtih regular salt, of course.

Place 4 chicken breasts in an oven-proof dish and spread the mayonnaise mixture over the top generously. Next, cover them with the breadcrumb mixture. Place in a pre-heated oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until cooked through. (Longer cook times will be required for thicker pieces of chicken. Flattening thicker pieces of chicken with a tenderizer beforehand will help reduce over-all cook time.)

The Photo
This photo is not from the actual debut of this recipe. We've had it several times since then (see The Verdict) and this one was taken last week. That time, we had it with noddles tossed in garlic olive oil. The first couple of times, we had it with rice.

The Verdict
We really liked this one! In fact, we've had it twice since I originally tried it and it's on the menu for the upcoming week. It comes together very quickly - I usually have the mayo mixture and breadcrumbs ready to go before the oven even gets heated up.

The first time, I made it pretty much as directed. However, I am a Duke's Mayonnaise girl, so I used that. It was great, but the mayonnaise didn't seem that healthy.

The second time, I decided to try it with plain yogurt instead of mayo. It came out okay, but it was not as flavorful as with the mayo.

Last time, I decided to use Greek yogurt, which we've really enjoyed in a similar recipe, Yogurt Parmesan Chicken. When we sat down to eat it, though, it seemed a little sweet. Alec asked me what kind of yogurt I got. I said it was the plain Greek yogurt and I didn't understand why it was so sweet. Alec solved the mystery when he looked at the empty yogurt container and realized I had actually used honey yogurt! Oops!

Like I said, it's on the list for this week, and I really did buy the plain Greek yogurt so hopefully the 4th time will be the charm!

Alec's Birthday & the Recipe for the week of 9/13

For Alec's birthday, I made a dish I've been wanting to try for quite some time. But, I knew it wasn't the sort of thing you'd make for just two people, so I had to wait for an occasion where we'd have guests. I invited a few friends for a small dinner party and eagerly pulled out this recipe!

It's a baked pasta dish, but with a twist - you bake it in a puff pastry shell, using a springform pan.

In the interest of time, so I can get caught up, I'm just posting the link:

Baked Angel Hair with Eggplant
from Giada DeLaurentiis, The Food Network

The Photo

Here's a photo of the dish, before I cut & served it. The glass bottom of my springform pan fit perfectly onto my pewter tray. I initially had a cake knife out out to cut it, but we ended up having to use a chef's knife. The cake server worked well, though! I wish I'd taken a picture of a slice; it looked really cool!

The Verdict

I made one change, which was to leave out the eggplant. Neither of us is really a fan. I considered artichoke hearts as a substitute, but ultimately decided the turkey sausage would be enough. (If you have an idea for a substitute, leave me a comment and maybe I'll try it next time!)

One mistake I made was that I didn't read the recipe thoroughly enough and I missed the part where you are supposed to let the pasta mixture cool before you put it in the pastry shell to bake. We ended up having to shove it in the fridge (which I know is a bad idea, as it brings down the temp in there but I didn't have time to wait).

I suggest putting a sheet pan on the rack below the springform pan. I guess some grease from the sausage dripped into the bottom of my oven. I didn't notice, until the next time I went to use the oven and smelled an awful burning smell. That resulted in two rounds with oven cleaner and a couple of nights of baking dinner in the toaster oven. Basically, it was a huge mess, which could be avoided by having something to catch the drips!

We ended up letting it sit for longer than 20 minutes and I was concerned it would be cold, but it was still hot & steamy.

Everyone at the party raved about the dish! There were 2 portions left over and I had them for lunch over the next couple of days, heating them up in the toaster oven (I don't think using the microwave would be successful.

More Photos
Here are a few more photos of the event.

The Cola Cake, all decorated.


The table, set for dinner


A close-up of the place setting. I used my New Yorker cartoon plates as the salad plates.

The bar area. I lined up 3 TV trays and draped them with a full-size table cloth.

Recipe Catch Up - Week of 8/9 - Chicken Parmesan

I am very excited to share the awesome dinner party I threw last weekend for Alec's birthday. But, before I do, I am making myself finish catching up on the Recipe of the Week backlog. Also, I have not downloaded the pictures from the dinner and I don't know where Alec put the card reader.

Anyway . . .

The week of 8/9, I tried my hand a Chicken Parmesan. I got the recipe from a cookbook I've had for 2.5 years, but haven't used yet, Stirring Performances from the Junior League of Winston-Salem. How I got it is actually kind of a funny story.

First, two pieces of background. When I lived in Winston-Salem, I was very active in the women's circle at my church, along with one of my best friends. Alec and I went back to Winston-Salem to get married in December, 2005 and were there for about a week before the actual wedding. So, when I was telling my friend (who was also a bridesmaid) when we were coming to town, I was very excited to find out that the circle Christmas party would be the same week. This party was always one of the highlights of my holiday season. I loved the women in my circle and we always had a great time at the party, eating yummy food and playing a vicious game of "dirty Santa." It might have been a church group, but we took our gift stealing very seriously!!

Even though I had a ton of wedding stuff to do, I decided there was no way I was going pass up the opportunity to attend the party. During the "dirty Santa" I opened, on my first try, a copy of Stirring Performances, which had recently been re-released by the Junior League. My mom had this cookbook when I was growing up, and I always loved to look at it. I was very excited to get it. The problem was, I had an awfully long time to defend it before the game was over. I successfully did so with plenty of pouty comments like "I'm getting married on Saturday, don't you think I need a cookbook?" and "I have always, always wanted this book" and "Doesn't everyone already have it?". Plus, plenty of hugging it to my chest and trying to hide it. Fortunately, there was plenty of snowman stuff (I don't know what it is about these gals and their snowmen, but they always cause good-natured fights) to go around and I got to keep it!

I then proceeded not to use it for 2.5 years. Maybe my excitement was overrated. Really, I think it was because I always thought it was full of really difficult, gourmet recipes. I remember mom using it for special occasions. But, when I finally looked through it, I realized that there's plenty of easy, everyday stuff in there, like this Chicken Parmesan.

Now that you're convinced I'm never going to get around to the actual recipe, here it is:

Chicken Parmesan with Herbed Tomato Sauce
from Stirring Performances by The Junior League of Winston-Salem

Ingredients
3/4 c. dry bread crumbs
1/3 c. fresh Parmesan cheese, grated
4 chicken breast halves
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 c. olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
8 oz. tomato sauce
1/4 t. oregano
1/4 t. thyme
1/4 t. basil
4 slices mozzarella cheese

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese in a bowl. Wash chicken and dip in egg, then coat in bread crumb mixture.

Heat oil in a skillet and saute garlic over medium heat. Add chicken and brown 5 minutes on each side. Remove chicken and drain on paper towels.

Arrange chicken in 5x8-inch casserole. In a small bowl, stir seasonings into the tomato sauce and pour over chicken. Top with mozzarella slices.

Cover casserole and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes. Serve.

The Verdict
(No pictures. I forgot.)

The only thing I would do differently is maybe reduce the amount of breadcrumbs a bit. I might try Panko breadcrumbs next time. I just thought it needed to be a little less "bready." I also used grated mozzarella b/c I forgot to buy slices and it's quicker to grate from the block of cheese than to cut it into a bunch of slices. Thus, it melted a lot faster and was pretty much incorporated into the sauce by the time it was done.

Overall, though, it was a successful dish. Alec said he could eat it every week. Which I guess is a pretty strong endorsement. I haven't made it since then, but I have it on the list for next week!

Recipe Catch Up - Week of 8/2 - Spaghetti Carbonara

This was another Robin Miller recipe from Food Network

I didn't really make an changes, so I'll send you to straight to the Food Network website:

Spaghetti Carbonara
from Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller on the Food Network

The Photo
Here's a photo. Doesn't it look yummy? I served it just with bread from our fabulous grocery store bakery.


The Verdict
This was so good! I loved it, Alec loved it! And, it was super easy. My one change was to use angel hair pasta instead of spaghetti, because we like it better.

The only thing I will say is stay pretty true to the amount of cheese in the sauce. I recently made it again, and there was just a bit of a chunk of Parmesan cheese left, so I used it all, without really measuring. It was clearly way more than 1/4 cup, because the sauce was way too thick. It was almost the consistency of paste! But, I just thinned it out with some more milk and it was all good.