Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Italian Night

Tonight I thought I would do something Italian! Yes, this dish is a little heavy right after the holiday but it’s delicious and your family will love it. It’s very easy and will only take about 30 minutes from start to finish. Ok, maybe a little longer once you include clean up but it really is an easy dish. I suggest reading the whole recipe to get a good idea of the process and when to do what. I hope you enjoy this recipe. Serve with a nice crisp salad and some baked Italian garlic bread.

Chicken Romano with Linguine
2 Lg Boneless Chicken Breast
1 C Seasoned Italian Bread crumbs
1Tb Dried Italian Seasoning herbs
1 Tb Parmesan Cheese grated
¾ C Milk
2 Tb flour
1 Ts minced garlic
4 thick slices of Mozzarella Cheese
1 Jar of your favorite Marinara Sauce
1 Small jar of your favorite Alfredo Sauce
1 Pkg linguine pasta
2 Tb fresh chopped flat leaf parsley

Preheat oven to 375 and heat a large pot (I suggest 10 qt) of boiling well salted water. Pound chicken breasts thin to ½ inch evenly and cut in halves. In 3 small shallow pans (such as round cake pans) fill 1 with the flour, 1 with the milk and 1 with the bread crumbs, Italian seasoning and Parmesan Cheese. Take the chicken and dredge in flour then milk and then bread crumb mixture to coat.

In a large oven proof skillet, heat 3 to 4 Tb of Olive Oil to med-high heat. Place coated chicken in skillet, brown on each side for 3 to 4 minutes. Place pan in oven for around 5 to 7 minutes until cooked through. (test with a digital thermometer to 160 degrees). Place one slice of Mozzarella Cheese on each piece of chicken and place back in oven to melt.

While chicken is in oven cook pasta in boiling water until al-dente and in a small sauce pan heat the marinara sauce. Now, in a sauté pan melt 1 Tb butter and add ¼ Ts of minced garlic and cook until it blossoms, add a 4 oz ladle of the Alfredo sauce to the pan bringing to a simmer, sprinkle with a pinch of the chopped parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Note: most likely if you are using store bought sauces they will have enough salt. Add 1 serving of pasta to sauce and toss.

To plate: on a rimmed plate or pasta bowl ladle 3 oz of marinara sauce onto bottom of plate. In center of plate top with pasta (I suggest twisting it with a pair of tongs to a mound). Top with one piece of the chicken and garnish with parsley.

Do this for each serving or if you have a large enough sauté pan do all 4 servings in it and divide. Last note: some Alfredo sauces are thicker than others. If yours seem to thick when you add the pasta just add a little pasta water to it to thin it out some.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I made this receipe this weekend. We used spegitti noodles instead of linguine, but it turned out really good. I like the pan fried chicken with the 2 different flavors of sauces. It was not too hard to make either. Thanks!

Unknown said...

WOW Dave, that sounds and looks really good. I'm going to have to try that one day, I think my family will love it.