Herb Crusted Chicken Breast over Marinara

Italian food is absolutely delicious and so versatile. Its so hard for me to resist buying all the fresh pasta and different types of sauces from Whole Foods. Since, I am very much trying to keep within my grocery budget, I decided to buy a few just plain ol' marinara sauces and then later on embellish the sauce to give it a fresh taste. Spaghetti or Linguine is a staple for our weekly night dinner but the box of ziti was calling my name. Tonight, I went back to an old classic and made it my way. Last year, I would have topped this off with cheese to make it a chicken parm, because hubby can't eat cheese so I have included some aged parmigiano reggiano in the crust itself which makes this dish lactose free. This is an absolutely mouth watering dish, that can be edited to fit your needs as you go along. I got the idea from Rachel Ray on foodnetwork.com, and made my own modifications from it.

Herb Crusted Chicken Breast













Ingredients:
*Olive oil for frying
*1 1/2 pounds chicken breast
*Salt and pepper to taste
*1 cup all-purpose flour
*2 large eggs, beaten with 1/4 cup water or Milk
*2 cloves garlic, pressed

Breading:
*2 cups Italian style bread crumbs
*1 cup shredded parmigiano reggiano
* 2 tablespoons of dried Italian seasonings
*1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes


Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Place a nonstick cookie sheet in oven with a tin foil liner.Heat 1/2-inch oil in a large nonstick skillet or frying pan over medium to medium high heat. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper and 2 pressed garlic cloves. Place flour in a shallow dish. Beat eggs with water in a second dish along side the flour. In a third dish, combine the breading ingredients. Coat chicken in flour, then egg, then bread and cheese mixture. Cook chicken until deeply golden on each side, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to cookie sheet in preheated oven and finish off for another 20 minutes cooking time. Check on the chicken, if the pieces are thick you may need to leave in there for another 10 minutes extra. I brought the oven down from 300 to 200 and left it in there for another 15 mins. This way my chicken will still be hot when I served dinner Serve chicken with your own pasta and sauce version. Mine is as follows

Simple Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:
*1 bottle of plain marinara sauce
*1 whole peeled & shredded carrot
*1 medium white/red onion, sliced
*2 medium pressed garlic cloves
*any other vegetable (squash, eggplant,mushrooms) will do too
* salt & pepper
* 1 tablespoon oil

Heat oil in a medium sauce pan and sautee garlic and onions for about five minutes or till onions start to soften. Add vegetables and sautee some more. Pour in the marinara sauce and reduce heat to slow. Mix well and heat the sauce till desired temperature to serve over pasta.

Grilled Chipotle-Cheddar Chicken Sandwich

Sundays are the days that I prefer to cook something grand. It partially stems from my childhood. When we still lived in India, my mother would cook meat on that day. She would especially cook lamb. The whole house would smell of her delicious curry. Of garlic releasing their fresh aroma's, to the sounds of the onions sizzling. Now that I am married, I too like to cook something absolutely delicious on sundays. Being as how I usually cook quick and fast during the weekdays, on sundays I take things a bit leisurely and indulge in my hobby and my obsession. This sandwich was so good that we did not want it to end. Surprisingly I also learned that it is a fantastic recipe to cook during the weekday! Yay! Squeal! No matter how delicious the food in my kitchen is, I miss sundays with my parents.

I first got the inspiration to this recipe from simply recipes. I made it with cheddar cheese (as my husband is lactose intolerant, and he recently learned that aged cheeses do not affect people who suffer from this intolerance. huh.) Also, I toasted the bread along with separately grilling the red onions after they were marinated in red wine vinegar.

My version of the Chiptole-Cheddar Chicken Sandwich

Marinade for Chicken
*1 lb of thin chicken cutlets
*1 whole lime
*1 tablespoon chiptole chile powder (more or less to suit your "spicy" taste)
* Salt & Pepper to taste
*1 table spoon olive oil

Slice the chicken in thin strips of all different sizes. Mix all the remaining ingredients in a bowl. Add chicken. Marinate for 30 minutes.

Marinade for Red Onions
*1 medium red onion
*1/3 cup red wine vinegar
*1 teaspoon olive oil
*ground black pepper to taste

Slice the onion in thin rounds. Mix all the remaining ingredients in a bowl. Add onions. Marinate for 30 minutes.

For Sandwich
* 1 small avocado
* 1 medium tomato sliced rounds
* Mayo to taste
* Cheddar Cheese (or any other you wish), sliced
* Sour dough bread

Spray the grill pan with oilve oil spray. Grill the marinated sliced chicken. Cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side, or atleast till the chicken starts to get dark lines across its body. Place in a bowl. Take half the sliced and place in the same bowl with the chicken, so that the cheese starts to melt. Let the chicken and cheese start to blend. In the meantime, pour the onions on the grill pan and let heat up. After the onions start to barely get soft, remove (2-3 minutes) and place in the chicken-cheddar mixture. Clean out the grill pan a bit and place the bread on the pan. Toast evenly on both sides. Coat bread with mayo and fill with chicken-cheddar-onion mixture. Eat & Enjoy

Spicy Meatballs with Rice Pilaf

"Dinner in 45 mins?" That's the question I ask myself everyday right before I am about to leave work. My husband hates grocery shopping. I on the other hand, absolutely love it. Therefore when I do go food shopping (yes I always drag him with me) I tend to buy in bulk and foresee what can I cook in a jiff when I am bored of eating the regular stuff. The regular stuff for after work dinner has been pasta or tuna. Recently, I grew tired of tuna just as fast as I had fallen in love with it. Also, there are a billion different ways of cooking chicken breast, but it didn't seem interesting enough to satisfy my pallet tonight. Believe it or not, meatballs always present a challenge to me. Even Indian kofta's elude me. Regardless, practice makes perfect. I did not cook the rice below, I bought that pilaf pre-made. Though the meatballs are my creation and much to my happiness, freaking delicious!

Serves 4.
Ingredients:
* 1 lb ground chicken
* 1 medium onion/diced super fine
* 2 medium garlic cloves/pressed with a garlic press
* 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
* 1/4 teaspoon italian seasonings
* 1/3rd cup bread crumbs
* 1 egg
*Salt & Pepper to taste
*Olive Oil

**Rice Pilaf/premade
***Equipment: A grill pan. You can make these anyway you feel like, baked, fried, in sauce.

In a medium bowl mix together all ingredients.


Mix real well. Oil your palm with the olive oil.
Seek a handful of mixed spiced ground chicken between the palm of your hands. Roll the ground chicken and press gently with the pal, to flatten it and make it a bit oval.

Grill on the grill pan approximately 5 minutes atleast on each side. Make sure that they are well done. Mine took more than 5 minutes on each side. I even had to tilt them on their skinny sides just to make sure they cooked all around. I supposed if you used to make these in a sauce, or bake them they would cook evenly. Serve with Rice Pilaf that you enjoy.