Chicken Parmesan

Ingredients:

Two (or more) chicken breasts
1 Egg, beaten
Parmesan cheese
Seasoned bread-crumbs

Beat the egg in a bowl and dip chicken into the egg. Once you've coated the chicken in the egg, you won't be able to tell which came first. And it won't matter... but I digress. Pour some Parmesan cheese on a plate and dip the chicken into the Parmesan, coating nicely on both sides. Next, pour breadcrumbs onto a plate and repeat the same procedure, turning and moving chicken until it's covered nicely.

I have one of those George Foreman grills, and I love it for cooking meats and such. This would also work in a pan with a bit of oil (to prevent sticking), or even baking it in the oven (350F for about 40 min or until chicken is completely done and white -not pink- all the way through). On the GF grill, it takes maybe 15 minutes (give or take, depending on the size of your breasts), turning the pieces about half way through.

You can eat the chicken as is, or serve with your favorite pasta sauce and melt some lovely mozzarella cheese on top. Tonight, I was hungry and not really up for the whole pasta and sauce thing, so I had the chicken plain. It was lovely and tender and tasty. Enjoy!

Mom’s Chicken Casserole

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts
box of stuffing (I use Stove Top)
can of peas (8-or-so-ounce size . . . feel free to use more if you really like peas)
gravy (jars . . . whatever brand works for you . . . try 30 to 36 ounces)

Start by boiling the chicken breasts in advance; you want to give them time to cool, so I do this the night before and stick them in the refrigerator. Start the actual prep work by tearing the chicken breasts into little bits . . . putting the little bits into a medium-sized mixing bowl. It helps things go more smoothly if you toss some of the little bits to your Siamese cat who is meowing psychotically at your feet and threatening to jump on the counter. (And don’t CUT the chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces because you’ll mess up the texture. Geez.) Once you’ve finished tearing up those breasts (heh), dump in the peas and jars of gravy. Add some seasoning if you want; personally, I add a little pepper. Mix it all up with a handy-dandy mixing spoon.

Next, make the stuffing according to the directions on the box. While the water's boiling, find your casserole dish . . . preferably one with a top/lid. (Now, I should’ve added this to the prep work, as I couldn’t fucking find my casserole dish and had to settle for two smaller substitutes.) When the stuffing is done, use your mixing spoon to coat the sides of the casserole dish with the stuffing. Once the stuffing is even on the sides, dump in the chicken/pea/gravy mush. Ideally this will fill up and cover the stuffing area. Put the lid on your casserole dish and put the dish in the oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes with the lid on, and another 15 minutes with the lid off.

Goes nice with dinner rolls and cheap white table wine . . . perhaps a $6 Riesling.

NOTE: If you use more chicken (like I did), compensate with more gravy and a bigger casserole dish. Otherwise, your casserole will be dry.

Chicken, Stuffing and Cans of Stuff

1) Get a glass rectangular thing whats good for baking.
2) Put three tablespoons of butter in it. The stuffing box says ¼ cup, but you don't need that much artery clogging goo.
3) Nuke a cup and a half of water for a minute or three.
4) Pour hot water slowly over butter, thus melting and mixing it the easiest way.
5) Set oven to 375 because you forgot to do it earlier.
6) Get four chicken breast halves, remove fat and skin and ickies and shit. Yes, shit. There's shit on almost all chicken. That's why you wash your hands so much when this is over, optionally moving slowly from side to side and murmuring about leper outcasts unclean.
7) Dump box of stuffing into butterwater. Don't bother mixing it or fluffing it or anything, as long as it's even.
8) Slap those chicken breasts on top of the stuffing. Wash hands again.
9) Discover some lovely hot sauce, the kind that leaves blisters. Put it on just one of the chickens, because the kiddies you are also cooking for are little babies who cry when they lose 0.5% of their tongue, much less the 67% this shit sloughs away.
10) Find an old can of enchilada sauce in the pantry. Shrug to yourself and pour it on the other three.
11) Pop the whole shebang, sans cover, into the oven for 30-40 minutes.
12) Yum.