Tasty Tuesday: Mambo Italiano

While I might be Irish in heritage, I love some Italian food. One of my favorite and easiest things to make is Chicken Parmesan. It only takes about 30 minutes to make and is super good.

Here is what you need:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts sliced lengthwise to make them thin
1 egg, slightly beaten
3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 package of your favorite pasta (I used linguine this time)
1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
4 slices (or 1 cup shredded) mozzarella cheese

First, heat the oil in a large skillet on medium heat while you set up your assembly line of the egg, the bread crumbs, then the skillet.

Coat the chicken breast halves in egg, then dredge in the bread crumbs until coated. Add them to the hot skillet.

Cook each side until lightly browned, about 3-4 minutes per side. The chicken should look like this:

Spray a 13x9 inch baking dish with cooking spray (I used olive oil spray), then pour 2/3 of the jar of spaghetti sauce in the dish. Lay the chicken breasts on top.

Pour the rest of the spaghetti sauce on top of the chicken, then lay the pieces of mozzarella cheese on top of the chicken breasts or sprinkle with the shredded cheese.

Bake this at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes. While the chicken is baking, boil your pasta.

Normally I post a picture here of what the final result looks like when you pull it out of the oven, but my family was all over this like a duck on a june bug. Anyway, put some noodles on your plate, ladle out some sauce, then top with some chicken covered with sauce and cheese. It should look something like this:

Yep. It's as good as it looks, if not better!

We easily feed our family of five with this recipe, but it's also easy to double if your family is bigger or eats more. Quick and easy just what you need for those busy days.

Using the little bit of Italian that I know in the treehouse tonight (Ciao, bella!),

Chelli