Get in the kitchen and make me some: Baked Garlic Parmesan Chicken

"A wonderful baked chicken recipe that's quick and easy! Using just a few handy ingredients, create a delicious main dish, that also makes great leftovers - if there are any! Serve with a salad and pasta or rice for a quick, scrumptious dinner."

Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 30 min
Total Time: 45 min
Makes: 6 servings

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup dry bread crumbs

2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon dried basil leaves

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

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1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2.	In a bowl, blend the olive oil and garlic. In a separate bowl, mix the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, basil, and pepper. Dip each chicken breast in the oil mixture, then in the bread crumb mixture. Arrange the coated chicken breasts in the prepared baking dish, and top with any remaining bread crumb mixture.
3.	Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.

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To make things really challenging on myself, I combined this recipe with another to make a new version of chicken parmesan. The other recipe is Penne with Vegetables in Tomato-Basil Sauce from bettycrocker.com. It's really good practice for me to make several things at once because I really struggle with the timing (as I've mentioned before). It really is an art to get everything to finish at the same time (an art I haven't mastered, by the way).

Anyway, one of the keys to making this recipe in 45 minutes is to make sure you let the chicken thaw ahead of time, if you're using frozen chicken like me. Luckily, I DID in fact remember to let it thaw while I was at work. Made life much easier for me this evening.

I read the reviews on the website before I made this recipe (is that cheating?) and someone suggested not using bowls to coat and bread the chicken but rather use pie plates. I ended up using a meatloaf dish and a square dish. Why? Because they were already out and I'm lazy. :) They worked just fine, I might add.

So as I'm cutting the fat off the chicken, I remember why I hate cutting chicken. What are those big white things that go through the middle of the chicken? Sometimes they're sticking out of the ends and you have to cut them (I had to cut them from each piece of chicken). I'm assuming they are some sort of vein and that they're okay to eat, but they really gross me out.

I pretty much followed this recipe to a T except for the fact that I used Italian bread crumbs instead of plain. I have both and have cooked with both and it just seemed like the Italian would be better for this recipe. I also used Italian seasoning in addition to the basil.

I had some oil left over after dipping and breading the chicken so I dumped it over the chicken in the casserole dish before putting the extra bread crumbs on top.

While the chicken was cooking I made the penne pasta and the sauce (which is just a can of tomato sauce, a can of diced tomato with garlic and basil and some zucchini). I made some garlic bread in the oven for the last 5 minutes of the chicken (I put it on the top rack while the chicken was cooking - is that a no no?). After exactly 30 minutes, I got the chicken out and cut the biggest piece in half. There wasn't any pink so it was good to go.

Everything actually ended up being finished around the same time - the noodles got done a little early but I kept them warm by putting a towel over them in the strainer. In case you ever do make the penne recipe - I disagree with the statement that it would serve 6 people. Maybe 4 at the most with the pasta but only 2 or 3 with the sauce. That needs to be doubled for 6 people for sure! I added some mozzarella cheese to the top for a finishing touch (and taste)!

Pat and I both LOVED the recipe (as indicated by the before and after images of Pat's plate)! The chicken was so tender and the breadcrumbs added a lot of flavor. I will DEFINITELY make this recipe again! And because it's baked not fried, it's a much healthier version of chicken parmesan.

I took some leftovers to work today for lunch and day 2 of this recipe was just as delicious as day 1!

My Grandma sent me her recipe for red velvet cake so I'm going to make red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for dessert this holiday weekend! Stay tuned!