Cooking With Ashley: Chicken Parmesan

My friend Ashley and I have nights where she comes over and we cook dinner. We've only done it a couple of times, but we are planning to make this a continual thing. It helps me feel like I've got some sort of human interaction, and, let's face it, it is also a great excuse to taste Ashley's awesome cooking. Plus, what girl wouldn't love the promise of Italian food and wine?!

The other week we got together and made Italian food. Ashley made an amazing Chicken Parmesan and it was a somewhat time consuming, but fairly easy dish.

This is a great meal to make on the nights that you want something gourmet without the gourmet price.

She simply followed this video and in about an hour, we had this as a result:

These are both Instagram photos, with no filter. They really turned out that amazing and taste just as good as they look.

Don't have time to watch the video? Here's the recipe and instructions:

Chicken Parmesan

• 2-3 small chicken breasts
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
• 1/3 cup grated parmesean
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 cup Panko
• Olive Oil
• Jar of your favorite Tomato Sauce
• Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

1. Separate all ingredients. Combine Garlic Powder and Dried Basil in a dish. Combine Breadcrumbs and Panko in a separate dish. 
2. Cut chicken breasts in half and trim the fat. Salt and pepper both sides of chicken.
3. Combine eggs in a bowl and beat. Add garlic powder and dried basil mixture to eggs.
4. Put in order, flour, egg mix, and bread crumb/panko mix. Then, put a handful of bread crumbs onto a plate. 
5. Add fresh parsley and 1/2 parmesan with the breadcrumbs.
6. Dredge in flour until evenly coated. Then, through egg mixture. Grab a handful of bread crumbs and then place chicken in bread crumb mix and pour handful of crumbs over chicken.
7. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
8. In a pan, put about 1/4 inch depth of Olive Oil and heat. Gently fry until golden brown on both sides.
9. After cooling, transfer chicken breasts into a baking pan. Slowly spoon a small amount of sauce onto each breast and spread. 
10. Add Italian or Mozzarella cheese blend to each chicken breast generously.
11. Bake chicken for 7 minutes in oven or until cheese is melted.
12. Sprinkle the remainining parmesan and a little parsley onto the chicken fresh out of the oven.
13. Place back in oven and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

The perfect side dishes for this meal are spaghetti noodles and a side salad. 

It may seem like a lot of work, but I promise you it is so worth it for the finished product.