The Pioneer Woman's Chicken Parmigiana

Yesterday, I made The Pioneer Woman's Red Velvet Cake and last night, I decided to tackle another one of her recipes, Chicken Parmigiana...the real deal.

 So I headed to Kroger and picked up the main ingredients. Oddly enough, we already had the bottle of wine, thanks to my grandmother. Never thought I would see the day that my grandmother would give me alcohol! But don't worry DG, we aren't drinking it, just using it for cooking :)

 According to the recipe, I was to beat the chicken into submission and flatten it out. Well, I didn't have a little hammer, so I used a potato masher and then dredged the flattened chicken into the flour mix, which consists of all purpose flour and as much salt and pepper as you like, and I like a lot of salt and pepper.

 Nothing says it's time to cook like a bottle of wine!

 After I dredged the chicken, I cut up a whole medium onion and 4 cloves of garlic. Gosh were my hands disgusting, stinky, and sticky!

 Melting butter and olive oil in the pan, getting it hot, and then almost time to add the chicken. If you only use butter, be careful, it burns like a mo fo...olive oil is your savior. When the pan gets hot enough, throw it the chicken and let it cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side. The easiest way to tell when it's time to turn the chicken, the edges slowly start to turn a nice golden brown.

 Fry, chicken, fry!

When the chicken is done, take it out and put it onto a plate with a paper towel or two to let the excess grease run out. Just set aside until later, I covered mine and put it in the microwave. And once the chicken is removed, DO NOT CLEAN THE PAN, rather add in the mixture of onions and garlic.

 Once the onions are garlic have simmered and cooked a bit, add some red wine. The recipe called for 3/4 a cup...I don't prefer red wine, so I cut that in half. And let the wine reduce for a couple of minutes.

 Then you add crushed tomatoes to your onion/garlic/red wine mixture.

 Then it's time to cut some fresh parsley and add it into the sauce. This is when the whole house started smelling unbelievably good.

You need to let the sauce cook for about 30 minutes or so. Add the chicken and more parsley and cover the breasts in Parmesan and put a lid on and let the cheese melt.

It's almost time to eat!!

The finished product. Looks pretty good if you ask me. Especially since this was my first time making chicken parmigiana...not from a can and all. So proud of myself.

And I think Tay really enjoyed it, he went back for seconds. In my house, going back for seconds basically means, "My compliments to the chef."

If you want the full recipe, http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/10/chicken-parmigiana/