I have always loved Chicken Parmesan but never made it until recently (in the last year or so). I guess I just always thought there was too much work involved in making it but it is sooo worth it.

The first thing you need to do is cut your chicken into thinish slabs or pound it thin. I don’t like to pound my chicken breast. I prefer to use a sharp knife and slice it horizontally and then into single size pieces. The chicken breasts I get are about a pound each! So I cut it into at least 4 pieces: in half horizontally and in half vertically. The thinner you cut them the quicker they cook.

I took these pictures a while ago, so I don’t remember exactly how much meat there was but this looks like it was about a pound and a half or two pounds.

This next picture is really poor quality but it is the best one I had to show the breading station. Put about 1/2 cup flour in one flat container. One beaten egg and about quarter cup of milk in the second flat container. And then about a cup to a cup and a half of Italian bread crumbs in the last flat container.

Put a couple of tablespoons of oil in a skillet and turn the burner on to medium-high. We used coconut oil this night.

Also put on a pot of water and bring it to a boil, to cook your noodles.

Now, place your piece of chicken in the flour and coat all sides. Then shake it slightly to let excess flour fall back into bowl. This will act as glue to hold on the breadcrumbs.

Then place in the egg/milk mixture and turn to coat fully. Let excess drip off.

Then place in the breadcrumbs and coat thoroughly. Pat it on, if you like.

Place into skillet with hot oil.

Sorry that’s so blurry.

Continue this process until you have all your chicken breaded and placed in the skillet. Turn them over when the first side is golden brown. You should start to see the edges getting done and may see some juices forming on the top. Keep an eye on the heat of your burner, turning it down if it is browning too quickly.

Add more oil as necessary to continue frying. These should not take very long to cook through if you cut them thin enough.

Remove them from the oil to a baking sheet. Spread some of your favorite tomato sauce on top. If I am feeling energetic, I’ll make some of my pizza sauce but otherwise we like Del Monte’s traditional sauce in the tall can.

You don’t want a whole lot of sauce, just enough to accent the flavor. The chicken is the star here not the sauce.

Shred some Parmesan cheese and sprinkle it on top of each piece.

Hmmm, I’m not sure that is Parmesan that I used that night. It looks like quite a bit.

This particular night I added some Provolone cheese as well.

Pop it under the broiler to melt the cheese and heat the sauce.

Meanwhile make sure your pasta is about finished and heat up the remainder of the sauce because you will probably want it on your noodles too.

When the cheese is melted it is ready to serve.

I like butter on my noodles.

Mmm mmm! Delicious!

I hope you enjoy it!

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

I cannot even tell you where I found this recipe. I have had it for years and years . . . well over eighteen years. I stopped making it for a while when we found out Mike was allergic to pork. Then one day, my lightening fast mind realized that I could substitute chicken in for the pork and I was thrilled.

The sauce is a sweet and spicy sauce. There were times that Tiffany mixed the sauce for me while I was browning the meat and we didn’t have any red pepper flakes so I told her to substitute either cayenne or ground red pepper. Of course, that is all she heard. The rest of what I said was just use a dash of it though. I think you can guess that it was way too spicy for my liking that time. I now keep the red pepper flakes on our shelf.

I must also add that this is Lauren’s favorite meal. This is the one she usually requests for her birthday dinner. Until a few months ago I had always made it using chicken when she came. She didn’t think she liked pork but when she stayed here while Brian was out of town several months ago, I had some pork chops that needed to be used from our freezer, so she got to try it with pork. Now she doesn’t know which is her favorite. It really is tasty with both meats so use whichever you have on hand or is cheapest.

As you can see by the photo above, we serve this on wide egg noodles. I have learned to make an entire bag of noodles when Brian and Lauren join us for dinner or we run out. This particular night I had some pork chops I’d gotten on sale. I cut them off the bone and trimmed of the excess fat. I also got out a chicken breast, which weighed about a pound. I cut that one chicken breast into enough ‘filets’ to fill a 10″ skillet.

Heat a bit of oil in the skillet so the lean meat won’t stick or use spray oil and a non-stick pan.

Sprinkle one side of the meat with garlic powder and place seasoned side down in hot pan. Then sprinkle garlic powder over the top of the meat.

Here’s the pork chops in the pan.

As the meat browns on the first side prepare the sauce or have someone else do it for you.

Flip the pieces when they are browned on one side. I didn’t let the chicken brown quite long enough but I also didn’t want the meat to be tough. Better to have the meat barely browned than tough.
Once the second side is browned, pour in the sauce. For this much meat we made a double batch of sauce for the pork and a single batch for the chicken.

If your meat is cooked through, which mine is, bring the sauce to a boil and add the cornstarch and water, whisking it in as you push the meat out of the way. I’m lazy and don’t take the meat out of the pan.

The sauce cooked down a bit as we waited on Sean to arrive so we could eat dinner, so it was a bit thicker than usual.

Put noodles on your plate and then top with meat and sauce. I frequently serve applesauce with this meal.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

When I found this recipe on the pinterest it seemed very odd. Normally when you bread a meat for frying you use flour first then egg then flour again or just egg and then flour. This recipe is different. First you use cornstarch and then dip it in egg. It seemed backwards to me and I was skeptical of even trying it but I did and I am very glad because this is one of our favorite meals! We really like it when we pair it with Egg Rolls.

Mix the sauce (sugar, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, and salt) in a medium bowl and set it aside.

I take a one pound chicken breast, remove any fat, and cut into bite-size, or smaller, pieces.

Place each piece in cornstarch and coat completely. (I just dump about 1/2 cup into a bowl and then add more if necessary. Better to add more than to have too much and have to throw it away.

In a small bowl, beat one egg. Next coat the cornstarch coated pieces of chicken in the egg mixture. Let the excess drip off.

Then place in a hot pan with a couple of tablespoons oil in it.

Brown on both sides.

Preheat oven to 350º. When all chicken is browned, pour sauce over all and place in the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes. Flip the chicken over and bake for another 15 minutes.

(We should have removed this from the oven a few minutes earlier so that the sauce was less evaporated but it was still VERY good.)

Serve over rice. Yummmm!

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Over the last couple of months Tiffany and I have gone to McAlister’s Deli a few times. Tiffany tried their Chicken Caesar Salad Wrap and loved it, rather, she loved it without the dressing. She doesn’t eat many condiments. She liked it so much that she decided to recreate it at home.

First she tears up a couple of large leaves of romaine lettuce into a bowl and shreds a couple of teaspoons of Parmesan cheese on top of it.

She mixes the cheese and the lettuce and piles it on a flatbread.

This time we used leftover chicken breast that had been seasoned with onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper and cooked in a skillet. When we don’t have any of that she uses whatever lunchmeat we have available and because she loves cheese, she adds another tablespoon of grated parmesan to the chicken before adding it to the flatbread.

Roll up and secure with toothpicks to keep it from unraveling on you before you can get it in your hands to eat.

I prefer to add some Creamy Vidalia Onion dressing to mine, as well as some sliced grape tomatoes.

I hope you like this one.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

This is probably the day of my posts that will see the most change over time; recipes take more setup than other types of posts, to allow users to print or store them in an easy and formatted way. So please be patient with me and know that I am working on it.

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Years ago one of my cousins had a restaurant. One of the dishes they had on the menu was Steak and Fries Salad. It sounded odd but I was told it was delicious and when I finally had the opportunity to eat at their restaurant, it did not disappoint me. I re-created this deliciousness at home but have changed the main meat to chicken, since my husband is allergic to both beef and pork. (It took me a long time to realize that I could make most any recipe and just substitute the meat used if it was originally a beef or pork recipe.) The picture above is how I like mine but I serve it buffet style so the kids can add what they want.

The first thing to do is preheat the oven and put the french fries in the oven to bake; this time we used Seasoned French Fries. We like ours good and crispy. Now  time to get started on the actual salad part. I have included a variety of lettuces (artisan, romaine, and green leaf), sliced radish, shredded carrot, and finely diced mini peppers but use whatever you like.

Next I saute diced onions and sliced fresh mushrooms in butter over medium-high heat, while I cut the chicken breast into bite-size pieces. Since my kids don’t care for onions and mushrooms, I let them caramelize in one skillet and begin to saute the chicken in a tiny bit of oil, seasoning with salt and pepper.

Now, juggling all the pans and the oven, get any other veggies and the cheese prepped. Cucumbers and tomatoes are my veggies of choice. Again, my kids don’t like these veggies, so I don’t include them in with the rest of the salad, besides that, if there is any leftover salad, it will stay good and not get all wet and wilted when stored. Now cube the block of cheese into small bite-size pieces; I don’t add this in with the rest of the salad, so that if there is any leftover, it can be stored separately as well.

Have each person build their own salad. I like to put the base salad first then add any extra cold veggies and cheese, then add the cooked veggies and meat, and then top with the fries. I then top it with dressing. I have had it with Ranch, Catalina, and my new favorite Creamy Vidalia Onion; my daughter eats it without dressing – to each his own.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº