Chicken Parmigiana is essentially a dish of breaded chicken with Parmesan, Mozzarella and tomato ragu. Where you go from there is up to you. Much loved by British takeaways, the popular version is a breaded escalope smothered in tomato sauce and cheese; sometimes béchamel sauce is involved. The more homely Italian style version uses stuffed whole breasts and the sauce may have added vegetables such as courgettes and aubergines.
First, you need to batten out the chicken breasts. Slice each one in half horizontally, not quite cutting through the other side, and lay flat in between two sheets of cling film. Whack hard with a heavy frying pan and the breast will flatten out. Remove from the cling film and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Next, you need to coat the chicken in the breadcrumbs. Panné is the professional term for this process.
Mix together the breadcrumbs, parsley and parmesan. Take 3 plates and add the flour, egg, and crumb respectively.
When rolling food in breadcrumbs, you work with one hand for wet and one hand for dry. It prevents that whole claggy build-up thing that happens if you mix the two. With escalopes, this can be a little tricky as you need two hands to handle them, but you get the point.
One breast at a time, dip each escalope into first flour, then egg, then crumb; turning over and making sure that each stage coats the breast well. Finally, shake off any excess (again, slightly more taxing with an escalope) and set aside.
Heat a large frying pan over medium heat and add the oil. Cook each escalope for a minute or so on either side until golden, and then remove to a large shallow roasting tray.
Cover each fried breast in tomato sauce and scatter with mozzarella cheese.
Bake in the oven until the cheese is melted and the chicken cooked all the way through. You shouldn't need to add any salt because Parmesan is salty enough.
Serve with a crisp green salad and maybe even a pile of chunky coleslaw.
Ingredients
Directions
First, you need to batten out the chicken breasts. Slice each one in half horizontally, not quite cutting through the other side, and lay flat in between two sheets of cling film. Whack hard with a heavy frying pan and the breast will flatten out. Remove from the cling film and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Next, you need to coat the chicken in the breadcrumbs. Panné is the professional term for this process.
Mix together the breadcrumbs, parsley and parmesan. Take 3 plates and add the flour, egg, and crumb respectively.
When rolling food in breadcrumbs, you work with one hand for wet and one hand for dry. It prevents that whole claggy build-up thing that happens if you mix the two. With escalopes, this can be a little tricky as you need two hands to handle them, but you get the point.
One breast at a time, dip each escalope into first flour, then egg, then crumb; turning over and making sure that each stage coats the breast well. Finally, shake off any excess (again, slightly more taxing with an escalope) and set aside.
Heat a large frying pan over medium heat and add the oil. Cook each escalope for a minute or so on either side until golden, and then remove to a large shallow roasting tray.
Cover each fried breast in tomato sauce and scatter with mozzarella cheese.
Bake in the oven until the cheese is melted and the chicken cooked all the way through. You shouldn't need to add any salt because Parmesan is salty enough.
Serve with a crisp green salad and maybe even a pile of chunky coleslaw.
