Parmesan Chicken sticks

Ok, folks, my cooking and baking experiments have begun! I have started out with simple recipes, mainly with chicken. My first self cooked dinner here was a faux fried chicken (as seen in the previous post), which was easy enough. But what wooed me over even more was the chicken dinner I had a few nights ago:

It was divine!

It's a recipe of Ina Garten's (aka The Barefoot Contessa), and even though this is my first recipe made from her, I'm going to go out on a limb and say I have most faith in her recipes... Even if you substitute ingredients (as I did!).

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts (3 to 4)
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 extra-large eggs
• 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• Unsalted butter
• Good olive oil
• Bamboo skewers (6 to 10 inches long) or ice-cream sticks

Directions

Lay the chicken breasts on a cutting board and slice each diagonally into 4 or 5 large strips.

Combine the flour, salt, and pepper on a dinner plate. Beat the eggs with 1 tablespoon of water on a second plate. Combine the breadcrumbs and Parmesan on a third plate. Dredge the chicken breasts on both sides in the flour mixture, then dip both sides into the egg mixture and roll in the bread-crumb mixture, pressing lightly to coat.

Heat 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute pan and cook the chicken strips on medium-low heat for about 3 minutes on each side, until just cooked through. Don't crowd the pan. Add more butter and oil and cook the rest of the chicken breasts. Serve each strip on a skewer or stick.

You can keep the chicken breasts warm for about 15 minutes on a sheet pan in a preheated 200 degree F oven.

And I took some pictures along the way for my own amusement...

E voila!

*Note: -As you can see, I didn't cut the chicken up into pieces as Ina instructed; if you prefer to do them as I did, I'd recommend frying them for about five-seven minutes on both sides. Be sure to cut into them to see if they're done!

-I didn't have any seasoned bread crumbs on hand (as I only found this recipe spur the moment), so I substituted it with... crushed cornflakes! It was a fine substitution.

Buon appetito!

~M.