Chicken Parmesan over Spaghetti
current situation: chicken parmesan
Chicken parmesan is usually ruined in the same place: the breading goes soggy under the sauce. Everything here is arranged against that.
Sauce the middle, not the edges. A stripe down the centre of each cutlet, cheese over the stripe, and the breaded border left bare so it stays crisp and you can hear it when you cut it. A cutlet drowned corner to corner is a wet cutlet.
The spring onion and banana peppers on top are mine and they are not decoration. Sharp and raw against breadcrumbs and cheese — the plate needs them.
- Feeds
- 4
- Hands-on
- 45 minutes
- Fry
- 3 minutes a side
- Rule
- Sauce the middle only
What you need
The cutlets
- 4 chicken breasts, butterflied and pounded to 1/2 inch
- 1 cup flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
- 3 eggs, beaten with 2 tbsp water
- 2 cups dried breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan, in the crumbs
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- Oil for shallow frying
The sauce
- 28 oz tin whole tomatoes, crushed by hand
- 4 cloves garlic, sliced
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp chilli flakes
- A few basil leaves (from my garden)
- Salt
On top
- 2 cups mozzarella, grated
- 1/2 cup parmesan
- 1 lb spaghetti
- 4 spring onions, chopped
- Pickled banana pepper rings
How it goes
1 — Pound the chicken to an even half inch
Butterflied, between two sheets of plastic, hit with a pan until it is the same thickness everywhere. Even thickness is the whole reason a cutlet cooks through before the crust burns.
2 — Parmesan goes IN the breadcrumbs
Mixed through the crumbs with the oregano. Cheese in the crust browns and crisps; cheese only on top just melts.
3 — Flour, egg, crumb — press hard, rest ten minutes
The standard three stations, pressing the crumbs on firmly. Then ten minutes on a rack so the coating sets and does not slide off in the pan.
4 — Sauce: garlic in cold oil, tomatoes crushed by hand
Sliced garlic started in cold oil over low heat so it goes gold rather than brown, chilli flakes in, then hand-crushed tomatoes. Twenty-five minutes at a simmer. Basil and salt at the end.
5 — Shallow fry, three minutes a side
Quarter inch of oil at 350°F. Three minutes a side to a deep golden. Onto a rack, never paper.
pro tip — A rack, not a plate and not paper towel. Anything flat traps steam under the cutlet and the bottom crust is gone in two minutes.
6 — Sauce a stripe, cheese the stripe, broil
Cutlets on a tray, a stripe of sauce down the middle of each, mozzarella and parmesan on the stripe only. Under a hot broiler for three minutes until it bubbles and browns in spots.
7 — Spaghetti tossed in sauce, not drowned
Cooked to just short of soft, drained, and tossed in a pan with a few ladles of sauce and a splash of the pasta water so it clings.
8 — Plate, then the raw things on top
Spaghetti down, cutlet on top, more sauce beside it rather than over it, then chopped spring onion and two rings of banana pepper.
Current situation. The crisp edge is the whole point, so cut it at the table. LFG.