Is my hair okay?
Sure?
Cute.
Hi guys, I'm Laura Vitale and on this episode of Laura in the Kitchen, we are remaking an
old classic, the good old chicken Parmesan.
I made chicken parm here on Laura in the Kitchen, probably close to ten years ago, we are coming
up on the ten year Laura in the Kitchen anniversary, and I haven't done this here in a long time,
I make it very differently than I did back then, I don't add any olives, I don't add
a whole lot I keep it very simple, I make a little ricotta sauce for the chicken, I
mean it's just to die for but it's very simple and it's delicious, it's what my family loves
and if you follow me on Instagram, you know my sister came over, she requested it, I made
it for her, I shared it with you and I had overwhelming amounts of you asking for an
updated recipe.
I think you guys really appreciate really easy home food, the kind of food that makes
you feel good, you appreciate that because when you see it on my Instagram, which we're
very active on, it's the thing that speaks to you the most.
A beautiful picture of a wonderful dish is wonderful, but when you see home cooking,
you really get excited so that's how I know we're good friends, you know?
Because I love me some home cooking.
What I have in here is a little olive oil, I just turned it on and you can see that I
added the onion and the garlic to cold oil because I want the onion and the garlic to
just sort of soften but I don't want it to really caramelize.
We're going to make a quick sauce, I've got that, I've got really good San Marzano tomatoes,
really juicy, lovely they're whole plum tomatoes and I just sort of crush them by hand because
I love that rustic look and feel of it.
Fresh basil, I've got some salt and that's all you'll need to make the sauce.
Once the sauce is going, then we make our chicken cutlets, then we layer, then we bake,
it's phenomenal, you're going to love it.
I'm going to keep an eye on this, when it's ready I'm going to add the tomatoes.
Looks good, add your tomatoes.
If your sauce that the tomatoes comes in is a little thick, just add a splash of water,
I'll do that I'll just probably add like a quarter cup of water in here, add it to that,
few leaves of basil, a good pinch of salt, and now I'm just going to let this simmer,
partially cover it, add a splash of water, let it simmer for I don't know about half
hour or so, in the meantime, we're going to get all the fixings ready for the chicken
cutlets, we need chicken breast, you can do this with thighs but I use chicken breast.
Chicken breast, breadcrumbs, eggs, parmigiano, salt, a little oil to fry them in, a little
fresh mozzarella, a little bit of pasta for the side, I'm very hungry, that's why I can't
stop, I'm going to let this go and then we'll continue.
Alright let's talk cutlets, I've got a couple of eggs, some breadcrumbs, these are Italian
breadcrumbs, plain breadcrumbs will do, and I've got some chicken breast.
These were two really big chicken breasts, they were close to about twelve ounces a piece,
I just slice them lengthwise make sure that they're all the same thickness from top to
bottom, and they are beautiful and perfect and ready to go.
Do not use chicken breasts that are really thin because what happens is when you put
the sauce on and you put the cheese and you pop them in the oven, they will overcook and
become really tough and rubbery.
You're looking for chicken breasts that are about this thick, okay maybe a quarter to
a half of an inch.
Beautiful because you still want them to be juicy on the inside if you are doing chicken
parm, if you're doing the plain old chicken cutlet, you want it thin, crispy and delicious.
I've got some light olive oil coming to temperature, you can use vegetable oil, I meant to say.
I want that nice and hot but not burned so keep an eye on that.
I've got a few eggs, to the eggs I'm going to grate in some parmigiano reggiano.
I don't really do the whole flour and egg and breadcrumb thing anymore when it comes
to my chicken cutlets just because I don't feel like it's necessary.
I put a little bit of parm in there and it thickens the eggs and it makes the chicken
really sort of adhere so it works out perfectly.
A good pinch of salt to both.
You want every layer of your dish to be delicious delight.
Whisk your eggs, you can add a splash of milk if you want to, again, I don't think it's
necessary, so I'm not going to but you can if you want to.
I'm all Tony Soprano on you, you know?
We've been starting to watch the series all over again, because Joe's never seen it and
we're obsessed.
Alright, whisk away.
This with my hands, really easy home cooking, you know?
The kind that just makes everything better.
I'm going to do this with my hands because my hands are clean and I can.
We do a little dip.
Right?
Dipping and dipping.
And a nice dredge, take your other hand, your dry hand as I call it, make sure you coat
the chicken.
Flip that around ans much as I love breading, you want to make sure you shake off any excess
because I don't want it to just burn in the oil anyway.
Shake that off, look at that parm on there hmm?
Hot oil.
Badda bing badda boom!
I'm going to do the rest, they'll probably take a few minutes on each side, I want to
make sure that they're cooked but not overcooked and remember they're going to go in the oven
for ten minutes or so to melt the cheese so they will carry on cooking a little bit, keep
an eye on them you want them golden brown, delicious.
Beautiful, beautiful beautiful beautiful.
Beautiful.
That one goes to the side, look at that color.
Yes!
Alright, I've got my sauce here, remember that sauce that we were simmering for a while?
To this what I want to do, I like a little richness, I love ricotta with my sauce, I
love ricotta with my pasta, so I add some right in, okay?
Along with a hefty grating of parmigano and it just makes the sauce extra luscious, you
don't have to do this but you know as an Italian household there's always about 99.9% chance
that there's ricotta in the house.
And so if there is, stir that in and it makes it infinitely so much better, and if you ever
grew up with your nonna or your mom or your zia made sauce on Sundays with rigatoni, with
meat sauce, a lot of times they add ricotta in it, sometimes they bake it like a baked
ziti, sometimes they wouldn't.
Put some of that in there.
Right?
Reserve a little bit for your pasta, if you get little pieces of ricotta, it's fine it's
going to go in the oven and it's going to do it's nice little melt-a-roo and be perfect.
I'm just going to try and move things out of my way a tiny bit, there we are.
And then I've got my oven preheated nice and hot I have it to 425F because I just ant to
put this in there long enough to kind of melt the cheese and get everything bubbly and delicious.
Nobody wants overcooked anything.
And then I just do - plus I don't want to get that breading super soggy - I just do
a little sauce kind of right in the middle because you've got the sauce at the base as
well, and you can always serve some on the side.
My mouth is watering.
Fresh mozz.
Get the mozz that's like this, not the real wet kind, because the real wet kind is going
to add too much moisture to this and make it way too watery.
You know what I'm saying?
A little bit of parm.
And I'm going to pop this into the 425F oven until everything is golden brown and delicious,
I've got my pasta boiling and then I'll meet you back here for a nice plate of Sunday dinner.
My sister is not here but when she watches this she's going to be so mad!
How gorgeous, just came out of the oven it was in there about ten minutes, the exact
amount of time it took me to boil up some pasta.
Whoa!Just splashed sauce all over my self!
But you know what?
That's fine.
I've got a little more ricotta and mozzarella, add that straight in.
A little bit of parmigiano.
Going to add a little bit more to this because you know what?
It's chicken parm, people!
Chicken parm, just toss everything together, you kind of want the ricotta to melt a bit.
Mmm.
Look at that!
Get that into a large bowl.
Got your creamy delicious pasta.
How many times can I say delicious?
But it is delicious!
I want this guy right here.
Right onto my plate.
Oh yes, yes thank you very much yes.
Little extra sauce on top.
I welcome you to Sunday dinner, look at that cheese.
You know it's going to be good!
I was going to get that right in my mouth but I don't want to embarrass myself.
You know it's going to be good.
Let's look at this.
My goodness!
Look at that!
Messy but you know what?
I'ts all good!
Oh brother!
If your chicken parm is not deliciously creamy, saucy, so cheesy and a little crispy from
the cutlet, you're doing it wrong my friend.
I can't get this cheese to get off my knife.
Hot!
No words.
So hot though!
So hot!
It was hot.
But well worth it because that's how you eat chicken parm when it's hot and it's gooey
and it's ooey and it's delicious.
With a side of pasta, it's everything and more.
Go to LauraintheKitchen.com, get the written recipe, I hope you have enjoyed spending time
with me, I'm staring at it like we're long lost lovers.
I'll see you next time, bye.