Chicken Parmesan / Pui cu parmezan

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to medium.

2. Peel and chop onion and garlic. Set aside

3. Peel, chop, and seed tomatoes. Set aside.

4. In medium saucepan, add oil and sauté onions until clear. Add garlic. Cook additional 5 minutes.

5. Add tomatoes, herbs and salt. Simmer uncovered for 30 to 45 minutes. Set sauce aside.

6. Flatten chicken to ⅛ inch thickness with meat mallet.

7. Finely grate parmesan cheese and add to flour in a shallow pan.

8. Separate 1 egg, and discard the yolk. Lightly beat the egg white.    

9. Dip each chicken breast in the egg white and dredge in flour-parmesan cheese mixture.

10. Heat a bit of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add chicken and cook on each side for 2 minutes until golden brown. Remove from heat.

11. Place a small amount of tomato sauce in bottom of a greased baking dish.  Arrange chicken on top of sauce.  Cover chicken with remaining sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

12. Bake un-covered for 20 to 30 minutes.  Check after 15 minutes to make sure nothing is burning – reduce heat if necessary. Cover with foil if necessary.

 

Notes: This is a great dish for entertaining, or a weekend night. If you are substituting cheeses - be very cautious many Romanian cheeses don’t melt the way you might expect.

 

Variations: Instead of chicken, you can use veal, beef, pork or eggplant.  You can use any type of good “melting” cheese besides mozzarella.  Gouda works well. 

 

Substitutions: Parmesan/Other sharp cheese. Flour/Bread crumbs. Mozzarella/Other meltable cheese