Crispy Chicken with Summer Sauce

Plan Z Phase: This is a Z3.5 (ZReboot 3.5) recipe.

Servings: Serves 4.

This dish will remind you of chicken Parmesan but this has a lighter sauce made with summer veggies. It’s easy to make and can be fancy enough to serve at a backyard party. Of course, you can eat this during the cooler months too.

Ingredients:

  • 4, 4oz chicken cutlets (Cutlets are thinner slices of chicken breast. Sometimes they are sold as just “thinly sliced chicken breast” on the label. If you are careful you can also cut the cutlets yourself by slicing regular chicken breast pieces in half the long way.)
  • A light dusting of grated sea salt and pepper to taste
  • 3/4 cup of breadcrumbs. I use Panko for more crunch.
  • 2 Tbl of butter
  • 1 Tbl of olive oil
  • 1 large egg lightly beaten
  • 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 2 cups of zucchini cut into chunks
  • 1-1/2 cups of cherry tomatoes sliced in half the long way
  • 2 tsp of minced garlic. (Jar garlic will work just fine)
  • 3 Tbl of fresh basil chiffonade. Chiffonade just means you slice the basil into thin strips.

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

In a large saute pan add your half of your butter and all of your olive oil. Heat on medium high to melt the butter but don’t let it burn. Just melt and heat. While that’s melting you can go to the next step.

Put your egg in a shallow bowl and whisk it to break it up.

In another plate or shallow bowl add the panko/bread crumbs.

Dust your chicken pieces with grated sea salt and pepper. Place your small bowls in an assembly line then gently dip both sides of your chicken pieces in the egg and over to the breadcrumbs to cover. Transfer each piece of chicken to the saute pan and cook on medium to medium-high heat for three to five minutes on each side to brown them. Don’t pester them. If you move them around a lot the breading can come off. Transfer them to a cookie sheet sprayed with olive oil.

Put them in your 400 degree oven and bake them for about 12 minutes or until no pink remains. This is a pretty good estimate, but it depends on how thick your chicken pieces are. Butchers don’t have a lot of consistency in this area. When you decide they are done just place a small portion of the grated mozzarella and top and let it melt on the chicken in the hot oven.

While they are baking you can make your sauce. Heat one tablespoon of butter in a saute pan. Add the zucchini first and begin to cook it so it starts to get softer. Add the garlic and the cherry tomatoes. Cook until the tomatoes are warm and just starting to break down. Stir often. This won’t take long. You can just take them off the heat until the chicken is ready.

To serve, place a chicken piece on the plate. Cover with a portion of the summer sauce of zucchini, garlic and tomato. Then top with the fresh basil chiffonade.

Enjoy!

Cheers,