Night 8 02/12/10 Chicken Parmesean Dinner Party!

Tonight was the first official Harts Club Supper Club Dinner Party to celebrate the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. In addition to myself and two roommates, Lindsey and Pat, we had Tara and Shawn W., Kyle K., Chris and Evan M., Heather B, Amy L. show up for dinner. It was my first chance to prepare the main entree for all my friends, and it turned out amazing! I made two trays of chicken parmesean, which is a recipe my mom Rosanne gave to me. Here is the pic and recipe:



This recipes is to make 1 pan of chicken parm, which feeds 4-6.

Boneless skinless chicken breasts (it takes about 8 thinly cut chicken breasts to fill a pan so use as many as needed to feed your party; I always butterfly cut my chicken breasts to make them thinner)
3 eggs
1 cup grated parmesean cheese
2 cups bread crumbs (this can be reduced, but always use 1 part parmesean cheese, 2 parts bread crumbs)
1 jar of pasta sauce
sliced provolone cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, beat together eggs. In a separate bowl, mix together parmesean cheese and bread crumbs. Then heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet.

2. Dip chicken breasts into the eggs, coating both sides. Then toss in the bread crumb mixture, again making sure both sides are covered. Brown breaded chicken breasts in the skillet on the stove, adding the 2nd tablespoon of oil when you turn them.
(You aren't trying to cook the chicken all the way through, just make sure to brown them on both sides.)

3. Pour the jar of sauce into a 13x9 baking dish. Place the browned chicken breasts on top of the sauce. Cover the chicken with the sliced provolone. Bake at 400 for about 25 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly on top.

WORDS OF ADVICE:
1. This dish is really simple, but potentially easy to screw up. Make sure to add additional oil when you flip the chicken, because the breading will soak up the oil quickly.

2. The dish is filling, so serve with a thin noodle. I serve the dish with angelhair pasta (my favorite). I made 2 boxes of angelhair for an expected 10 people. It was a little bit too much, but we ended up with leftovers.

Here is a picture of the whole spread:



A big thanks to Tara and Shawn for bringing the salad, and to Kyle for making the garlic bread! It was a great night with great food, and with even better friends!