Chicken Parm
Is this something worth making at home?
Time: 2 Hours
Ingredient Availability: 5/5
Difficulty: 2/5
I’m no expert, but I feel like chicken parm is one of those ubiquitous Italian foods. I’ve had this on my list of recipes to try for a while, so I’m looking forward to seeing if it’s worth it. I don’t think there’s be anything particularly special about this particular recipe from the Italian American Cookbook, but I still have high hopes.
Key Ingredients & Omissions:
Nothing in this recipe is special at all. Despite the long ingredients list, nothing was difficult to find or left out. For the 10 minute San-Marzano Sauce, the recipe calls for DOP San-Marzano tomatoes, but I think you should be able to get away with San-Marzano style tomatoes.
Tools:
Shallow dredging bowls
Frying Vessel
Graters
Sharp knife
Cooking Review:
Making Sauce: 20 minutes
This recipe uses the 10-minute San Marzano Tomato Sauce that I’ve already made and analyzed. It’s pretty simple despite taking twice as long as the recipe’s name would suggest. If you want more details on the process of making the sauce, you can read that analysis (linked above).
Prep: 30 minutes
To prep for this recipe, I grated the Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano cheese and shredded the mozzarella cheese. I also prepared the breading stations, mixing the hard cheeses with the potato starch, bread crumbs, and oregano. The eggs were beaten together and seasoned with salt and pepper and the flour station was set up. I mixed the remaining hard cheese and mozzarella together in a bowl.
Pound & Season Chicken: 19 minutes
The recipes somewhat confusing here. It says to put the chicken breast in a freezer bag (one at a time) and pound them to about a quarter inch thick. Once pounded, you’re supposed to cut the chicken in half crosswise. In my mind, crosswise would be cutting it across the thin section, making the chicken about 1/8 inch thick. So, after giving that a try once, I just cut the chicken crosswise first then pounded them to 1/8 inch thick. This is much easier then trying to cut something already a quarter inch thin. After slicing, I seasoned them with salt and pepper.
Bread Chicken: 10 minutes
To bread the chicken, I started by dredging each piece in flour, followed by the egg, and finished with the bread crumbs. I set each fillet on a plate after breading.
Fry Chicken: 20 minutes
After mixing the vegetable oil and olive oil and letting it heat up, I began frying the chicken. I fried them in 3 batches, each taking about 4 minutes. I flipped each piece 2 minutes in. I seasoned the chicken with salt after frying.
Assembly & Finishing: 13 minutes
I arranged the chicken in two baking trays and covered them with about 3 cups of the tomato sauce. Next, I sprinkled all of the cheese mixture over the sauced chicken. I put them under a broiler on high for 7 minutes. Once out of the oven, I tore up some basil and put it over the chicken. At that point, the chicken parm was done.
Analysis:
I don’t think many chicken parms stay very crispy and this one isn’t much different. In a few spots that weren’t coated in sauce, there was a slight amount of crispiness that remained, but it was very few and far between. The sauce, just as it was the first time I made it, was pretty good, but I feel like it kind of overpowered the chicken breading and even the cheese. Yes, you can still taste them, but it is mostly dominated by the sauce and the chicken itself. The breading is a little disappointing as far as flavor goes. Not that it’s bad, just not as flavorful as I would’ve liked. The cheese really is more of a textural experience than a flavor one. Overall, this is a pretty solid chicken parm. The chicken is pretty well cooked, but the flavors just need to be more balanced. Not sure about the cheese, but I know the breading could be more flavorful. I’m going to give the recipe a 7/10. I know that the words may make it seem like I didn’t like it very much, but I did. I was just a little underwhelmed.
