Happy New Year, in May right. Today's recipe is Chicken Parmesan, the trick with this recipe is being careful not to end up with too much sauce. What you need for this is an oven proof skillet for easy cooking and we will talk about why.

First step is to make the pasta sauce(or buy it). If you love fresh sauce like i do then in a skillet fry onions in some oil, add tomatoes and let soften. I like to leave my tomatoes in hot water for about 30 minutes and then peel them before i make the sauce, it makes for a smoother sauce in my experience. Add a bay leaf and some basil and let simmer. Remove the bay leaf and blend the mixture. Some recipes add celery and carrots to the mixture to cook before blending but I don't do that only because carrots take a while to soften and I'm always going for the quickest way to skin a cat. Now if you use pasta sauce a lot, make a big batch and freeze, you could also add chopped cilantro once the mixture is ready for that extra something.

To make the Chicken Parmesan place 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a bowl, add your herbs, in this case I used teaspoon each of fresh rosemary, thyme and parsley. This mixture will be enough to brush onto about 4 double breasted chicken cutlets. Heat your oven proof skillet and add the oiled chicken and brown both sides (about 2 minutes per side).  The oven proof skillet comes in handy here because you move on to the next step directly, if your skillet is not oven proof, transfer your chicken to a baking tin. Remove from the heat and add your pasta sauce over the chicken, about 3/4 to 1 cup. Sprinkle Mozzarella cheese on top of the chicken and top with Parmesan cheese. I eyeball the cheese step, i love Mozzarella so i add to my hearts content then sprinkle my Parmesan. place the skillet in the oven, cover and cook at about 250 degrees Celsius until the chicken is cooked, (about 40 minutes), uncover and cook for five more minutes to get the color.

 

The recipe is not a very quick one but its worth it, the slow cooking makes all the juices sip into the chicken and makes it so full of flavor. Its finger licking good and makes for an impressive presentation.