Chicken Parmesan
Egg Noodles, Micro Greens
A little after 3 PM today there was a knock on my office door. It was first-grader Myles. He came to thank me for a "really good" dinner last night. He told me he ate "a lot."
Myles' dad is my colleague and his wife just had a baby. To help out, we all signed up for days where we fix dinner for their family. We bring the packaged dinner to work in the morning and my colleague takes it home with him at the end of the day. My day was yesterday. I thought of preparing something green for St. Patrick's Day, but um, Myles and his little brother, a pre-schooler, might not be too impressed.
So I called my sister-in-law, Kristy, to get her recommendation as she and my brother have two boys just about the same ages of Myles and his brother. I told her I was thinking about turkey meatloaf, and she nixed that right away, my nephews would not be impressed with any kind of meat loaf. She recommended Chicken Parmesan.
Upon further consideration, this was a brilliant idea. I would fix all the components separately. Mom and Dad could put it all together and heat it up in the oven as a casserole. Perhaps Myles would like just the chicken, with the melted cheese, cut into strips, like gourmet chicken fingers. And the little one, he could eat noodles with butter? Right? And it turns out, that is how it went down. Myles told me they added more Parmesan cheese too, perfect!
Procedure:
Chicken - Organic chicken breasts were pounded thin, seasoned with salt and pepper, dusted with flour, dipped in egg, coated with a mixture of panko bread crumbs and Parmesan, sautéed in olive oil. Transferred to a platter then topped with a slice of Provolone.
Marinara Sauce - Finely chopped onions and garlic are sautéed in olive oil with red pepper flakes, add a little dried basil and oregano, then crushed peeled tomatoes, simmer for about 30 minutes, salt and pepper to taste.
Noodles - Curly egg noodles cooked al dente.
And Micro Greens - my new favorite garnish.
Congratulations to the new big brother for a second time, Myles, and his family on the arrival of their beautiful new baby! And a big thanks to Kristy for the awesome idea!
