First Blood

If you had asked me on January 1st how long it would be before I injured myself doing this project, I would like to think I would have projected at least a month.  Now, those close to me know that I have a tendency to accidentally cut myself when in the kitchen essentially every other time I handle a sharp knife.  So, it should have been no surprise that a mere fifteen minutes after admiring how wonderfully my brand-new ceramic knives sliced through raw chicken breasts that I would find myself staring at my finger wondering "where did that red stuff come from?"  The good news it was only the tiniest nick and the better news is it didn't hurt at all.  It is, however, a shame that I managed to do it while slicing mozzarella cheese, not while doing something impressive, say, like quartering a squirrel (p. 55).

A little blood loss was well worth it though, because Lucy's Chicken Parmesan (p. 50) was delicious beyond words.  I chose to make this as my second recipe from the book because, quite simply, we love chicken parmesan.  Well, at least me, my husband, and my daughter do.  My son (who abhors meat except hamburgers and chicken nuggets) recoiled in horror at the sight.  He ate most of the spaghetti that surrounded the chicken, but did manage to choke down one piece of chicken, which we required of him before he got his treat of blueberries. 

The recipe calls for shredded mozzarella or slices of mozzarella, and I went with slices, recalling how much I enjoyed having slabs of melted cheese atop a lasagna we made over the holidays.  The slices did not disappoint here, either, where they created heavenly thick layers of cheese atop our chicken.  The recipe also called for garlic salt, which I truly believed I owned until I got started making the dish.  Apparently not, but luckily the internet exists, and it taught me that garlic salt is basically a 3:1 mix of salt to garlic (use the USP definition of the ":"), and can be mixed from salt and garlic powder.  According to the internet, this is a way frugal people avoid paying for both garlic powder and garlic salt, so that they can really stick it to that evil Goliath, the McCormick company. 

In addition, the recipe called for chilling the breaded chicken for 20 minutes before pan-frying prior to baking.  I suspected (and later confirmed via more internet searching) that the chilling helps the breading to not flake off while frying.  It worked like a charm!  In the past I have only ever made chicken parmesan by breading the chicken and putting it directly into the oven to bake, in a misguided attempt at making the dish healthier.  Now, having had this delicious recipe in all its pan-fried goodness, I cannot fathom returning to those dark days of baked chicken parm.

Thank you, Lucy, for sharing this delicious recipe.  It is definitely one I will make again and again and again.

Here is the chicken parm after it was removed from the oven:

And served atop spaghetti: