chicken parmesan

This is my sister-in-law Jen's recipe and one of my family's favorite things to eat. It gets requested for several birthday dinners in our family as well as Father's Day, Mother's Day and Valentine's Day red dinner.

To start, heat oil in large skillet to medium high heat, oil should be deep enough to cover half of chicken breast (about 1/2-3/4 of an inch deep).

5-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Mix 1 1/2 cups of bread crumbs in shallow dish with 1/4 tsp basil, 1/4 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper. I've also used Italian seasoned bread crumbs and that works great too.

Beat two eggs in a second shallow dish. When oil is hot enough, dip chicken breast into egg batter coating fully, then in bread crumb mixture coating fully. Carefully lay the chicken in the oil to brown about 4 minutes on each side. Once chicken is browned, lay on paper towel to drain off access oil.

Preheat oven to 350. Spread a generous layer of spaghetti sauce (I use the giant Costco-size jars of Prego so there's plenty of sauce left over to put over the noodles.) on the bottom of a 9x13 dish and lay chicken breasts on top. Spoon a small amount of sauce across the middle of each breast, then a slice of mozorella, then another small layer of sauce, then fresh parmesan cheese. Salt and pepper if you wish.

Bake chicken uncovered in the oven for about 25-30 minutes. (photograph is before it went into the oven)

I only use about half of the jar of spaghetti sauce in the dish, the left over sauce I warm up in a sauce pan to serve over angel hair or linguini noodles. Add a ceasar salad and yummy bread and it's better than the Olive Garden - I swear! Enjoy!