Crispy Chicken Parm

I watched my Italian grandma make chicken parm when I was little and I dare say I've advanced her recipe quite a bit the problem with chicken breasts is that it's just too thick for this too much meat in proportion to the crust so I cut it in half this away it's kind of tricky I don't always get the two halves evenly thick but usually somebody wants a smaller piece anyway so it's fine now I want to pound these out you could use a meat mallet or even a heavy glass but I like these medieval things with a spikes this will flatten the meat and tenderize it and make holes in it to receive my marinade yeah that looks like a car accident but we're gonna bread it so nobody has to know people like to season the breading when they fry stuff but I find it much easier to eyeball the amount of salt that I need if I just season the meat a heavy sprinkling of salt on each side and pepper throw those in a bowl and then chop up a big heap of garlic four or five cloves just splash a little white wine in the bowl throw in a bit of garlic swish it all around and toss it in the fridge to marinate the rest of the garlic is for the quick tomato sauce that we're gonna make now as is this shallot it's not that I think shallots tastes better than onions I use shallots because they're smaller I almost never need a whole onion so I end up with halves of onion hanging around in plastic wrap shallots are single serving and I think that they're easier to chop up nice and fine olive oil in the pan fry off the shallots and the garlic and also some tomato paste which is a great cheat for giving intense flavor to a quick sauce and frying it kind of mellows the flavor or as Gordon Ramsay would say that gets rid of the real sort of tank top takes that smoky oh he has I don't think he knows what taint means anyway now's the time for a good quality can of crushed tomatoes and I'll give it a glug of that white wine because I already have it open reduce the heat to a simmer and this is gonna cook in a half hour at most because I'm cooking it in a pan not a pot so there's just more surface area for evaporation just remember to stir it often or it'll burn here come the stages of breading the first one is denial then flour then an egg beat that egg well if you wanted to coat the chicken evenly then here's something that grandma ragu see I never had panko weird Japanese breadcrumbs made by electrocuting bread dough that's true look it up you want maybe a half a cup per piece of chicken these are almost too crispy and the big flakes can be kind of jagged so I like to grind them down a little bit just with my hands now grate some cheese onto the panko Parmesan or pecorino I use pecorino because grandma did and yes my pile of cheese is gonna be almost as big as the pile of breadcrumbs I'm grading it on but I do not do that whole layer of melted cheese on top of my chicken parm thing all of my cheese goes in the breading and gets fried fried cheese take the chicken out and just dry it a bit on paper towels if I don't do that the breading ends up gooey then the meat goes into the flour because flour sticks to meat then in the egg because egg sticks to flour and then in the bread crumbs because bread crumbs stick to egg get that chicken really heavily coated in panko and cheese the saltiness of that pecorino is gonna season the breading by the way oh hey look the sauce is done look how thick this got in less than a half-hour you want a quick tomato sauce simmer it in a pan not a pot salt and pepper go in and I'll put some fresh basil in right before I eat so it stays green now is the time to put some water on the boil for pasta magic a heavy coating of olive oil goes in the pan and then lay in the chicken I want a gentle sizzle this was too hot I had to turn it down that cheese and the breading will burn easily that's better man that smells good makes the place smell like grandma's house spaghetti goes in the water at this point flip the chicken when it's nice and golden you could use a meat thermometer and pull these at 160 fahrenheit but one of the many advantages of cooking thinner pieces of chicken is that I find by the time I've got a golden crust on both sides of these that meat is done these took six minutes the grandma drained them on paper towels I use a cooling rack it keeps them crispier and honestly if they weren't done cooking before they're gonna be done by the time they sit here for a few minutes encased in this hot oil soaked breading if you wanted to throw some mozzarella on these and melt it under the broiler now would be the time but I think these already have plenty of cheese and the melted mozzarella thing just Rob's the surface of its Chris penis speaking of which another trick for retaining crunch is to not put sauce on the chicken but to put sauce on the plate and not the entire plate just the outside there most of that piece of chicken will stay dry and crispy until you eat it little more cheese on that spaghetti and then you gotta pour yourself a glass of red wine they're still crunchy even after I punched with my camera for 10 minutes and you can just dose out the sauce on a per bite basis that white wine marinade just makes the whole thing sweet and bright honestly this is a lot better than grandma's which is no knock on her we all stand on the shoulders of giants

Channel: Adam Ragusea

Views: 5,308,625

Rating: 4.9080811 out of 5

Keywords: chicken, chicken parmesan, parmesan, crispy, crunchy

Id: p-LY9b1u_io

Length: 5min 9sec (309 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 23 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/pixmod]

Really love your style, great work!

[u/studentjsd]

Love the commentary! Great work :)

[u/kreekru]

Cuts his spaghetti in half like a mangia cake

[u/jiskitchen]

I love it..good combo with pasta

[u/TheRecipeJournal]

You are so funny 😂 Cool idea for the video. Dish looks great

[u/quite_contrite]

I made this recipe last night, pasta and all, and it was delicious! I’ve never been a big fan of chicken parm, but I loved your recipe. Will absolutely be cooking this again in the future.