Chicken Parmesan

Guiltless Chicken Parmesan

According to Clean Eating Magazine, this recipe was created by Robin Miller. I've enjoyed her show on The Food Network (TFN) and I love her cookbooks so it was an easy decision to make this. It's a bit more time consuming than the recipes I usually make, so I saved it for a weekend night. It still didn't take much time to put together.  One tip I learned from TFN was to get everything I will need out before I start. I can't believe how much time I wasted going around my kitchen looking for things in the past. I realize this is a "duh" tip but as someone who didn't really start cooking until her late 30's, this was pretty eye opening. (I cooked but mostly pre-packaged things like...gulp....Hamburger Helper.)

We enjoyed this. You notice the mustard but it doesn't taste as weird as it might sound. I felt it was missing something but I concluded that it was the fact that I didn't use an obscene amount of cheese, as I would have in the past. I do like cheese.  But this was still very good. Quite filling.

INGREDIENTS:

• Olive oil cooking spray
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup white onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp dried oregano, divided
• 1 28-oz jar crushed organic tomatoes
• 1 tbsp organic tomato paste (mine was with roasted garlic so I only used 1 clove garlic)
• 1/2 cup  panko bread crumbs
• 1 tbsp reduced-fat Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 4 4-oz boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1-inch thickness
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 8 oz cooked whole-wheat penne (or your favorite pasta)
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper and garlic and saute 3 to 5 minutes, until vegetables are soft. Add 1 tsp oregano and stir to coat. Cook 30 seconds, until oregano is fragrant. Add tomatoes and tomato paste and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, partially cover and simmer 20 to 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a shallow dish, combine panko, Parmesan, remaining 1 tsp oregano, thyme, salt and black pepper. Mix with a fork to combine. Brush both sides of each chicken breast with Dijon. Transfer each breast to panko mixture and turn to coat both sides. Arrange chicken on prepared baking sheet. Coat surface of chicken with cooking spray. Bake 20 minutes. 
4. Top each chicken breast with 2 to 3 tbsp tomato sauce and 2 tbsp mozzarella. Return chicken to oven and bake 10 minutes more, until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted and bubbly. (Mine took 15 minutes instead of 10 and came out perfectly.)
5. Arrange pasta on a serving plate and top with remaining tomato sauce. Serve chicken with pasta on the side, garnishing both with basil.