So last night was supposed to be mystery basket night, something we have been doing for the last couple of months. H picks a bunch of random ingredients that I have to use to create a 3 course meal with. I am allowed to add ingredients but I have to use every single ingredient that she picks. Loads of fun and keeps your food from becoming boring and mundane. I know of people that have a set weekly menu. Same thing over and over and yes their lives are just as boring as their menu!
H has been going on at me to make Chicken Parmesan for some time now, as she is an absolute pasta …. Person (see what I did there? Kept my potty mouth in check) Last night’s mystery box was full of subtle hints (not so subtle at all) and I could see where she was going.
She gave me the following:
Tomatoes, Onions, Chicken Fillet, Garlic, Lasagna Sheets, Parmesan Cheese, Tomato Paste, Flour along with some other ingredients.
So I looked at her while sipping on my Ardbeg and said: “You call this a mystery basket or a Chicken Parmesan basket”. We scrapped mystery basket for this week and I made my gorgeous wife her chicken parm. The last time I made this for her was on our wedding day, yes I did my own catering and yes I know it was a stupid Idea.
Chicken Parmesan
2-4 Skinless chicken breasts
4 Medium tomatoes
1 Onion
1 Clove of garlic
1 Egg
1½ Cup red wine
4 Sprigs of rosemary
Flour
Bread crumbs
Salt & Pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
2 Bay leaves
Sauce:
Add olive oil to a sauce pan over high heat. Finely chop your tomato and garlic and sauté. *Peel your tomatoes and roughly chop.
*An easy way to peel tomatoes is to cut the bottom of the tomato, the piece that attaches the tomato to the vine, off and cut a cross on top of the tomato. Put them in a bowl with the crosses facing up and pour boiling water over them. You will immediately notice that the peel starts to separate from the flesh at the tips of the crosses. Leave the tomatoes in the boiling water for about 15 - 20 sec and strain. Now you can just pull the skin off the flesh. Easy peasy.
Add the tomatoes to the sauce pot and stir. I do not add any liquid at this stage, if it starts to burn, turn the heat down. Cook the tomato and onion mix in their own juices for about two minutes. Add 1 tbs of tomato paste and stir. When you add the tomato paste all the liquid that was released by the tomatoes and onions will dry up. Keep stirring and cook for about a minute. Before your sauce starts to burn add 1½ cup of red wine, bay leaf and rosemary and stir. I also lightly season the sauce at this stage with salt & pepper and a pinch of sugar to cut the acid in the tomato. Bring to the boil and reduce heat to a slow simmer. Let the sauce reduce and develop flavour while you move on to the chicken. Remember to keep an eye on the sauce, so that it doesn't over reduce and burn. If your sauce starts to over reduce, just add some more wine. Everything is better with more wine. Once we are ready to use the sauce, taste it and adjust seasoning as needed. The sauce must be nice and thick once it is finished, some people like to blend it until smooth. I prefer to keep my sauce more rustic, thick and chunky, almost like chutney. Remember to remove all the bay leaves and any rosemary stalks before using the sauce.
Chicken Fillet
Butterfly* your chicken breast (*cut them in half but not all the way through) and lay them flat on a cutting board. Cover them with cling wrap and beat the crap out of them with a rolling pin. You want them to be about the same thickness all the way through. This will help them cook evenly. Remove the cling wrap and get three bowls out to start crumbing them.
When crumbing anything, always remember the month of FEB. Flour, egg and then bread crumbs. I season the chicken with salt and pepper before I start. Coat the chicken in the Flour, then the Egg and lastly the Bread crumbs.
Heat up a pan with some extra virgin olive oil and turn your oven on to 150ᵒ C. Sear the chicken on both sides until the crumbs are golden brown. Remove them from the pan and place them on some kitchen roll to drain the oil. Place the chicken in an oven proof dish and add some of the tomato sauce. Don’t drown the chicken in the sauce. I used about 3 tbs per breast. Smack it into the oven for about 5 – 10 minutes (timing chicken is hard, when I did my training and asked one of the chefs how long to cook a piece of chicken the answer was always an abrupt “…until it’s done!”). At this stage I normally drop my pasta into a pot of seasoned (salt and olive oil) water. I like to add about a punch (about a fist full) of salt to my water, this will not only season the water, but also help it boil faster.
Just before I remove my pasta I pull the chicken from the oven and grate a generous amount of Parmesan cheese over the chicken. Stick the oven on grill and grill until the cheese is nice and crispy.
When your pasta is cooked, strain all the water and drizzle with olive oil, this will help your pasta not to stick. By the time you have done this, the Parmesan should be nice and crisp, unless you work as fast as a 1 legged, blind Rottweiler, in which case the cheese will burn.
Plate
Plate your pasta first and drizzle with some of the left over tomato sauce, and plate the chicken on top or on the side of the pasta. Garnish with some flat leaf parsley.
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