Baked Chicken Breast Recipes

There are surely zillions of baked chicken breast recipes, but Chicken Parmigiana has to be one of the most loved international dishes. I'll bet you will be surprised to learn that my research showed that this dish is not named after the wonderful parmigiana-reggiano cheese and it is not named after the city of Parma, Italy. It is believed that the name actually came from a word that originated in Sicily. The word is "parmiciana" and it refers to the slats on a wooden window shutter! What? Yes! You see when this dish originated, it was not made with chicken or veal. It was made using slices of eggplant that were overlapped in the pan - much like the slats on the window shutter.

When I make this favorite of my baked chicken breast recipes, I like to use Panko crumbs for the coating. Panko crumbs originated in Japan. The crusts are removed from the bread before it is made into crumbs - resulting in a crisper but lighter texture than the type of breadcrumbs used in much of the rest of the world. Panko used to be a bit hard to find and was sometimes ridiculously priced. Thanks to Progresso, we can now find these in our local supermarket at a reasonable price. For this recipe, I always buy the Italian seasoned Panko box.

To me, the secret of a great Chicken Parm is pounding the chicken nice and thin. I then mix up a bit of flour with salt and pepper in a plastic bag and shake the pounded chicken with the flour. This helps the egg to stick to the chicken. Just mix up two eggs with a bit of milk and dip each chicken piece in the egg and then coat with your Panko. Fry these in olive oil until they have a nice golden color on each side.

Using your own marinara sauce or a decent store-bought one like Paul Newman's, put about 3/4 of a cup in the bottom of your baking dish. Now place your chicken over this. Add additional sauce over the tops of the pieces, but don't smother with sauce. Top each piece with sliced or shredded mozzarella cheese and give a few good shakes of Parmesan cheese on top. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes and you may have just made one of your new favorite baked chicken breast recipes.