12monthsofcooking.com

The “family meal” theme of September’s issue was a nice touch. It made the restaurant issue very warm and approachable. This month’s recipe was Mario Batali’s “Chicken Parmesan“. I was determined to not like this but we’re in a “comfort food” groove at home right now and it fit in well.   

I really wanted to take the easy way out on the sauce, but my conscience had it’s way with me. The sauce was definitely fun to make and tasted quite good ( one tip – I used crushed tomatoes from the can, a lot less work than a masher). Onto the chicken ! There was a great tip in the magazine about using plastic wrap while flattening. Coating in breadcrumbs and frying was easy enough. It was a lot of fun to layer the chicken, cheese and sauce. Other tip – make sure to really flatten the chicken, I didn’t do it enough and it took a lot longer to bake the chicken.

The end result was absolutely great ! The cheese formed this wonderful outer crust around the sauce, with an inner crunchy breadcrumb crust. I’ve certainly had chicken parmesan before – but this made me see it in a whole new light. Sebastian loved it too. Definitely a keeper !

[ Other note - I just realized there are other cover recipes in this month's issue. Dandelion salad anyone ? I am still debating whether I will do that one. Stay tuned... ]