AUTHENTIC CHICKEN PARMESAN

Steps:

• Wash and pat-dry each chicken breasts.
• Cut any visible fat from each chicken breast.
• Pour olive oil (1/2 cup) into frying pan, and turn the heat up to medium-high.
• Mix all of the following ingredients in a medium-large mixing bowl: Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, basil, salt, black pepper, oregano, thyme.
• In another mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk until it is slightly foamy. More milk, approximately 1/4 cup, can be added to make the milk-egg mixture less thick.
• Dip a chicken breast into the milk-egg mixture. Remove the chicken breast once it is well coated and allow the excess to drip off into the bowl for a second or two. Place the chicken breast into the breading mixture. Roll chicken around to thoroughly coat all sides of chicken.
• Once oil has reached optimum temperature, place the minced garlic into the oil and stir around for a second. Turn temperature of burner down between medium and medium-high. The garlic should be sizzling. Do not allow to burn. After a minute of constantly stirring the minced garlic, place the breaded chicken breast from the bowl into the frying pan. Allow room for the remaining breasts to be placed into the frying pan.
• Repeat step 6 above for each of the remaining breasts (one at a time). Place each breaded breast into the frying pan.
• Cook the chicken breasts on each side to a nice golden brown. This may take about 5 minutes per side. It really depends on the temperature you have your burner set at. You do not want to burn the chicken breasts.
• Once each breast has reached a nice golden brown color, remove from frying pan and place on a plate lined with a few paper towels.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Take a square glass pan, or equivalent, and spray with cooking spray (i.e., spray Pam).
• Pour half of the jar of spaghetti sauce into the square pan. (Note: if you are using a pan that is larger than a square glass pan, you may need to use more than one jar of spaghetti sauce. I used a 13x13 square glass pan.).
• Pour 2 tablespoons minced garlic into the glass pan with the spaghetti sauce. Mix around to spread garlic throughout the pan.
• Place each chicken breast into the pan without having the sides touching. Do not overlap the chicken breasts.
• Pour the remaining spaghetti sauce onto each chicken breast. Spread sauce over each chicken breast to ensure the sides and top of each breast is covered with sauce.
• Cover pan with aluminum foil. There is no need to have a tight seal around the edges of the pan. The foil can be loosely placed on the pan with some gaps for venting to occur.
• Place pan into oven on the middle rack. Bake for 40 minutes.
• After 40 minutes have passed, take pan out of the oven. Carefully uncover the aluminum foil to avoid burns from escaping steam.
• Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese over the sauce and chicken breasts. The idea is to have each breast thoroughly covered with cheese. It is okay if cheese gets on the sauce. It will make the dish look even better.
• Place uncovered into the oven. Bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and light brown.
• Remove pan from oven. Place on a wire rack or on top of the stove burner, and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.
• Sprinkle parsley on the top of each chicken breast. (This is for garnishment.)
• Serve over top of cooked pasta. Spaghetti noodles are the best for this meal. Spoon sauce over top of each dish. (Fresh homemade spaghetti noodles are the absolute best for this meal.)
• Note: As mentioned above in the preparation steps, you may wish to use more sauce when baking the chicken. The chicken will absorb a lot of the fluids in the sauce. I use 2 jars of spaghetti sauce and 4 tablespoons minced garlic in the baking pan. We love sauce in our family.
• An Alternate method:.
• You can make this dish exactly as described above, and add one modification that will make this dish even more tasty. Stuff each of the chicken breasts, before breading, with a ricotta cheese mixture.
• The ricotta cheese mixture should contain ricotta cheese (8 - 16 oz), 2 tablespoons garlic, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1 tablespoon basil and oregano.
• When stuffing the chicken breasts, make sure you flatten out each breast with a pounder (to approximately 1/4" thick). Flatten each breast on a piece of wax paper to avoid sticking to surface.
• Spread a nice portion of cheese mixture onto each breast.
• Fold breasts in half and seal with wooden tooth picks. You may need to use a lot of tooth picks to thoroughly seal each breast.
• Once each breast has been stuffed and sealed, refer to step 6 above for breading each breast.