Camp Nanowrimo Day 7: Try a New Recipe

What the hell is the deal with quarantine and cooking? Like, it’s bad enough I’m working from home and hit the quarantine fifteen a month ago.

But I guess with people unable to get to restaurants it makes sense. Have you seen thr rise of sourdough? It’s incredible.

People are taking online cooking classes and sharing recipes. Parents are teaching their kids secret family recipes. Pinterest is filled with copy cat recipes. This is the age of the home cook.

What a time for me to have a kid going into culinary arts! However, she has a little bit to go before she’s moving beyond chicken and rice and spaghetti.

Plus, it’s hot enough to cause Satan to have swamp ass. Who wants to cook and heat up the house? And heavy meals right now just sit in your stomach forever. Bleh. Too much.

But then, I came across this recipe. Summer chicken Parmigiano. Zucchini, tomatoes, fried chicken. On spaghetti.

Can I get an Amen here?

I waited till I made it to write this because I didn’t want to give you a recipe and it suck. But it didn’t. It was awesome. So now I share with you summer chicken Parmigiano.

Oh, let me say this. If you don’t like a specific ingredient, don’t use it. Cooking is art. Cooking is personal. Make it yours.

Ingredients

• flour – enough to cover a plate
• Beaten eggs – the number will depend on how many chicken breasts you use.
• Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
• Chicken breasts – how big your family is will determine how many you’ll need. Oh, and make sure those suckers are completely thawed or this will take about 20 minutes longer. Trust me.
• salt
• pepper
• olive oil – enough to fry the chicken and Sautee the veggies and garlic
• Cooking spray
• Shredded mozzarella cheese – there is no such thing as too much
• Diced, chopped, sliced julienned zucchini – depending on the size of the zuke and how much your family likes it. We used 3 but they were scrawny.
• cherry tomatoes, halved, quartered, and left whole.
• 2 garlic cloves – sliced, minced, whatever
• basil – fresh or dried, either way it’s good

How to Make It

Step 1

Preheat broiler with oven rack in middle position. This is when you learn that your oven had a broiler feature. Mine has low and high. I put it on low. Place flour, egg, and breadcrumbs in separate shallow dishes. Get your tongs out because touching raw chicken is gross. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Dredge chicken in flour; dip in egg, and dredge in breadcrumbs.

Step 2

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add 2 breasts at a time; cook 1 minute on each side. Be careful flipping them. Hot oil is not a good skin treatment. Place on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Do this until all your breasts are fried.

Step 3

Top cutlets with cheese. Now, I totally forgot to put the cheese on when I put the chicken in so the chicken sat in there for about a minute. Then I pulled it out, slapped a ridiculous amount of cheese on each, and put it back in to broil for 1 1/2 minutes. Add zucchini to the oil in the skillet and sauté 1 minute. Add salt, tomatoes, and garlic; sauté 4 minutes. I decided to add Parmigian cheese and wow! That was a super good choice. I have those every now and then.

And this is when I realized I fucked up. See, my chicken wasn’t thawed completely so when we took it out and cut it open, well, I opened the door to Sam and Ella’s diner. That’s when I put the oven to 400. I also started a pot of water for pasta. The extra ten minutes did the trick. We put the pasta in the skillet with the sautéed veggies. We put the chicken on the pasta and veggies. I guess this is when you can top it all with basil if you want.

Well, there you have it. A new recipe. And it was so good. And I do feel good. Old, classic family favorite with a new twist. And even better, my family ate it. And liked it. That’s self care on a whole new level.