It has been ages since I made Chicken Parmigiana.   Since my son has been gluten-free almost 5 years ago now I try to limit having to make two meals every night when I can.  I have learned to “adapt” our dinners for him so I usually divide everything without gluten into 1/3 for him and 2/3 for us.  Then I mix the gluten ingredients separately for us.  Sometimes it is as simple as adding gluten-free pasta to his casserole and baking it in his dishes.

Very rarely do any of my recipes contain “cream of stuff” soups or dried packets of stuff.  I usually try to find a work around for those things.  If they contain those items he usually is eating something different on those nights.  I keep gluten-free soy sauce, gluten-free Worcestershire sauce and other gluten-free ingredients on hand for all of us to eat.

I used a recipe for Bobby Flay’s Chicken Parmigiana on Foodnetwork.com.  I even made the spaghetti sauce that in his recipe.  The only substitution I made for ours was that I did not use the small can of tomato paste as this contains flour and I wanted to use the same sauce for both ours and my son’s dinner.  His was fried first separately using gluten-free bread crumbs instead of panko.  I also thickened the sauce slightly with 1 TBSP cornstarch mixed into 1/2 cup chicken stock.

I served this dinner with a side of spaghetti and sliced carrots.

Verdict:

This was a hands down hit!  Almost everyone left the pasta on the side and ate all of their chicken.  It was moist and delicious.  I won’t be making this every night as I seemed to have a kitchen full of dishes, pots and pans when we were done but it was amazing!

Ingredients

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin – about 1/4″
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
• 4 large eggs, beaten with 2 tablespoons water
• 2-3 cups panko bread crumbs
• 1 cup pure olive oil
• Tomato Sauce, recipe follows
• 1 pound fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
• Fresh basil or parsley leaves, for garnish

Spaghetti Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large sweet onion, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 (28-ounce) cans plum tomatoes and their juices, pureed in a blender
• 1 (16-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 TBSP corn starch
• 1/2 cup of chicken stock, cold

Directions:

1. Start the tomato sauce cooking.  Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook until soft.
2. Add pureed tomatoes with their juices, crushed tomatoes, bay leaf and parsley and bring to a boil.  Add cornstarch mixed into chicken stock.  Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Reduce heat and cook until slightly thickened, about 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
4. Season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Dredge each breast in the flour and tap off excess, then dip in the egg and let excess drip off, then dredge on both sides in the bread crumbs.
5. Divide the oil between 2 large saute pans and heat over high heat until almost smoking. Add 2 chicken breasts to each pan and cook until golden brown on both sides, about 2 minutes per side.
6. Transfer to a baking sheet and top each breast with some tomato sauce, a few slices of the mozzarella, salt and pepper, and a tablespoon of Parmesan.
7. Bake in the oven until the chicken is cooked through and the cheese is melted, about 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from the oven and garnish with basil or parsley leaves.