Recipe: Fake-It-Til-You-Make-It Chicken Parmesan

  I haven't been grocery shopping in, oh, about three weeks. I've picked up ingredients here and there, but as far as having cohesive and relevant ingredients in my pantry and fridge, well, I'm falling down on the job. So, when lunch time rolled around, I looked to see what exactly I had to work with. I had spaghetti noodles, sauce, grated Parmesan cheese, and ONE grilled chicken breast left.
Spaghetti is fine by itself if you're a child, or me, but like I've stated before, my husband needs meat for it to be a meal.

*scoffs* Men. How dare they need protein!

So I decided to get creative and try my hand at make a super quick version of chicken Parmesan where one chicken breast would stretch to feed a family of five. Here's what I came up with.

Fake-It-Til-You-Make-It Parmesan Chicken:

Sauce:
1 jar spaghetti sauce of your choice
1/2 C grated parmesan  cheese

Chicken breading:
1 C bread crumbs
1 tsp salt
dash pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

And the rest:
1 C milk (I used almond milk and it worked just fine)
1 grilled chicken breast cubed
1/2 box whole wheat spaghetti
1/2 C olive oil (for frying chicken)

First, combine your two sauce ingredients in a sauce pot and simmer as low as your burner will go.

Next, follow cooking instructions for your spaghetti noodles.

Then, mix together all of your chicken breading together in a bowl using a fork, then set aside.
Pour your milk into a bowl.

Now you're all set to get your fingertips nice and gross!

Alrighty, now you cube your chicken breast. My chicken breast was already grilled, so the cooking time was cut in half. But, you can of course use raw cubes as well. (However, I like to cheat so I don't burn my breading.)

Heat your olive oil in your skillet on medium-high.

Dip your chicken cubes in your milk and then immediately roll them around in your breading. I set my finished ones on a plate so I can cook all of the chicken at the same time to prevent burning.

Place your chicken in your hot oil and kind of stir them gently every 30 seconds or so. Once all sides are nice and golden brown, take out of skillet and place on a plate.

PLEASE make sure it's a different plate than you used for the raw chicken!

Now you can combine your cooked noodles and sauce together. Spoon into an oven safe dish. place your breaded chicken cubes on top and sprinkle generously with grated Parmesan cheese.

Set under a broiler for about two minutes until the tops is a very light brown.

Then simply enjoy!

Happy cooking!
-Heather