Me an’ Martha….we’re gettin’ tight

There once was a time that I would have rather gnawed on gravel over having anything to do with Martha Stewart. There was just something oddly spooky about her strange smirk and how her head was always tilted ‘just so’ in every one of her pictures. But then I decided to give her Everyday Food magazine a try. Now I am NOT saying that I will invite Martha over for coffee so we can chat about paper plate doilies and how to make window hangings from my old t-shirts, but I am slowly and cautiously coming around to thinking more positively about her. Slowly. Very slowly.

I made the Chicken Parmesan from the current Everyday Food magazine, which promised to be light as well as flavorful. The bread crumb mix is pressed into one side of a boneless, skinless chicken breast and then baked at a high temp. A small topping of mozzarella cheese and you’ve got dinner ready in just about 35 minutes. And y’know what?? It was easy and it was delicious. Martha is ratcheting herself up a notch or two in my book.

Light Chicken Parmesan from Jan/Feb 2007 Everyday Food magazine.

You will need two slices whole grain bread, torn into pieces; 1 T. grated parmesan cheese, 1 t. olive oil; coarse salt and ground pepper; 2 T. AP flour; 1 egg white; 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts; 3/4 c. shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese; 1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes; 1 garlic clove, minced.

Preheat the oven to 425. In a food processor, place the bread, parm cheese, olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Process until coarse crumbs are formed, place in a shallow bowl. In another shallow bowl, place the flour, and in a third, the egg white. Whip the white with a fork until frothy and season the flour with salt and pepper. Dip the top of each chicken breast first in the flour, then the egg white and then the crumbs, pressing the crumbs firm. Place on a foil covered baking sheet and bake until crumbs are crisp and browned, about 10 minutes. Top with cheese and bake until lightly browned, about 2-4 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, place tomatoes and break them up with a spoon. Add garlic, season with salt and pepper and cook until thickened, about 6-8 minutes. Serve chicken with a generous amount of tomato sauce.

I skipped the tomato sauce as I wasn’t in the mood. And instead of the flour, I used seasoned cornmeal, for the heck of it. I left the bread slices out on the counter all afternoon to dry slightly as they were pretty fresh, then before processing them, they were toasted to make them even drier and the resulting crumbs were perfect. I also used fresh mozzarella instead of shredding a block of it. Fresh is best, I say.

On the side I served whole wheat pasta (Ronzoni’s multi grain spaghetti) with garlic herb oil. For the oil, finely slice two cloves of garlic and put them in about 1/3-1/2 c. olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add a teaspoon or two of red pepper flakes and about 2 teaspoons of dried basil with a shake of oregano, dry parsley and maybe some rosemary, and saute slowly until the garlic is slightly browned. Toss with your favorite pasta. For our vegetable, we ate baby carrots.

The chicken, as I said, was delicious. The crumbs were crisp and very flavorful, the chicken perfectly cooked. There was no heaviness of it being fried, which Mike liked a lot. Griffin even gave it two thumbs up, saying that dredging it through the blue cheese dressing he got out for his carrots was really good too. The pasta was light and garlicky without making us vampire-proof, and the two together was a great match. Now if Martha keeps coming up with such good stuff in her magazine, she might get on my good side eventually. Eventually.