Cooking For Others: Birthday Parmigiana

When we ate Chicken Parm as kids, we did not eat it with garlic bread or with spaghetti. I didn’t even know it was served with such things until we started going out sometimes to a red-sauce Italian joint in Yonkers. We ate it with homemade french fries, which to me is a much better use of side-dish space than either bread or pasta.

What’s more, we ate the french fries dipped in the extra tomato sauce that had been made for the chicken. I don’t know how you feel about Chicken Parmesan, French Fries, or Tomato Sauce as a dipping sauce for said fries, but I think this is the kind of food it’s hard to feel anything but enthusiastic about. Chicken Parm is more or less a combination of pizza and chicken fingers, two meals kids everywhere are crazy about, but it’s certainly not to be scoffed at for adult palates.

Chicken Parmesan with Fries wasn’t a special meal back then, so it’s funny we chose it to be a birthday dinner now. But truthfully, these days, it’s rare that we make anything with so many steps as this, even if, with practice, I can imagine those steps can be streamlined. Though it didn’t actually take that long to make, the fact that it was involved-in addition to its sentimental value-made the Chicken Parm an ideal birthday meal.

Truthfully, it’s not the best-ever meal to make in a small kitchen. We were cooking up at my mom’s, where counter space is not quite as precious a commodity as it is in my kitchen. However, I don’t think it’s really a problem to make the chicken itself in a kitchen like mine, as long as you don’t endeavor to make the french fries as well. Serve the chicken with spaghetti, just like we never did.

From my kitchen, where birthdays turn us back towards dinners past, to yours,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

Chicken Parmesan

Serves 4, with extra sauce for dipping fries

Ingredients
For the sauce:
1 tablespoon oil
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, torn
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

For the chicken:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/3 cup flour
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs*
1 teaspoon salt
pepper
oil for frying

For assembling the dish:
3/4 pound fresh mozzarella, cubed
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
10 basil leaves

*To make fresh breadcrumbs, trim the crusts from half a baguette. Cut the insides into cubes, the process in a food processor until the cubes become crumbs.

To make the sauce, cook the onions in the oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat until transparent but not brown. Add the garlic just before the onions are done and cook for 2-3 minutes, letting the garlic get ever so slightly golden. Add the basil leaves, salt, and red pepper, then add the tomatoes. Cook for 30 minutes over medium heat, letting the sauce reduce slightly. This can be made ahead.

Place the chicken breasts in a sealed plastic bag. Pound them to about 1/3″ thick, using a meat pounder, rock, or other creative utensil.

Spread the flour onto a shallow plate. Crack the eggs into a bowl large enough to hold 1 chicken breast, and beat them. Combine the breadcrumbs, pepper, and salt in another shallow bowl.

To prepare the chicken breasts, one at a time, place them in the flour, turning to coat both sides. Repeat in the egg and then in the breadcrumbs. Place them on a baking sheet: you’re ready to fry.

Put a paper-towel covered plate by the stove. Heat about 3/4 inches of neutral oil in a large cast-iron pan over medium-high heat. When a breadcrumb sizzles in an oil, put in as many breaded chicken breasts as will fit without crowding. Fry for about 4-6 minutes a side, until the chicken is crispy and brown. Remove to the paper-towel lined plate and repeat with the remaining breasts.