Best Chicken Parmesan and Spicy Garlic Zucchini Noodles

Serves 2

Chicken Parmesan

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts

• 1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs

• 1/4 cup Parmesan, plus additional for serving if desired

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour

• Salt and Pepper

• 2 eggs

• 3 Tbs Oil (Canola or EVOO)

• ~ 1 cup marinara (I love Rao's)

• Fresh mozzarella

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

• Cut chicken breasts in half to thin them out. Pound them with a meat tenderizer until they are about 1/4 inch in thickness. Use your best judgement based on how thick your initial chicken breasts are. You should have 4 thinned out breasts by the end

• Take out 2 plates and a bowl. Put your flour on one plate with salt and pepper, combine the breadcrumbs and parmesan on another, and 2 eggs whisked together in the bowl.

• Start heating up your oil on the stove on medium. Dip each chicken breast in the flour and shake off, then the egg wash, then the breadcrumb mixture. Set aside until all breasts are complete.

• Once all chicken is breaded, place in the hot oil and cook until each side has a nice golden brown crust.

• Once each side has a golden brown crust, take out of the skillet and place in a glass pyrex-type dish.

• Top each chicken breast with a generous amount of marinara and mozzarella.

• Put the marinara and cheese covered chicken breasts in your 500 degree oven until the mozzarella gets golden and bubbly (about 5 minutes).

Cooking Notes:

• In the video, I forgot to tenderize my chicken until after I breaded it. Not the end of the world, but ideally do it before breading.

• Meat Temp Quick Guide: hold your hand out so your palm is facing you. When you touch the thick part of your hand underneath your thumb, that is equivalent to rare meat.

• Hold your pointer finger to your thumb on the same hand and feel that area below your thumb again, this is equivalent to medium rare.

• Thumb and middle finger - medium

• Thumb and ring finger - medium well

• Thumb and pinky - well done. You want chicken to be well done and cooked all the way through so if you have any doubt about whether your chicken is cooked all the way through and you don't want to cut it open, you can always feel if the "bounciness" is similar to how that part of your palm feels when your thumb and pinky are pressed together.

Spicy Garlic Zucchini Noodles:

Ingredients:

• 2 Zucchinis thinly spiraled (Spiraler Tool $16 at Walmart)

• 2 Tbs EVOO

• 2 garlic cloves, minced

• Salt and Pepper

• ~1 Tbs dried oregano, dried basil, crushed red pepper

• Heaping palm full of parmesan cheese

Directions:

• Heat EVOO in a skillet on the stove on medium

• Once the oil is hot, throw in your garlic, dried oregano, dried basil, and crushed red pepper. When using dried herbs, put them in the palm of your hand and rub them in your hands over the skillet. This way you are "waking up" your dried herbs and bringing out all of their flavor. You can vary how much crushed red pepper to use based on how spicy you'd like it. Sautee garlic and herbs for about 5 minutes.

• Toss in zucchini noodles and sautee about another 5-7 minutes until al dente. You want them to still have a slight crunch and not be soggy and squishy.

• Finish off with parmesan cheese and top with marinara if desired!