Sunday, October 23, 2011

Lemon Pepper Crusted Chicken

First, let me apologize for the fact that there's only one picture, and that it was taken with the camera on my phone. I'm not going to lie, I've been looking forward to trying this ever since someone mentioned a similar recipe on Twitter a few days ago. Waiting around for a food photo shoot was the last thing I wanted to do when this was plated and ready to be eaten.

Furthermore, I don't think I can quite get across how easy this recipe is. Chances are you probably have half of the stuff to make it already in your house, too. This recipe serves two but can easily be multiplied to however many you need... it's another one of those where the amount of each ingredient doesn't really matter.


Ingredients
2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Approximately a half cup of Mayonnaise
Grated Parmesan Cheese
Spices of your choice- I went with garlic powder and chilli powder
Panko Lemon Pepper Bread Crumbs

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

If your chicken breasts are thick, pound them out a little. I didn't have a meat pounder (I'm sure that's the official term...) at our apartment in Chicago so I just kind of hit them a bunch with the bottom of my fist while they were still in their package.
(Who says you need classy tools to cook!?)


Mix mayo, some grated parmesan cheese, and a hefty sprinkling of garlic and chilli powder together. Sorry these aren't more official terms, but use as much or as little as you like. You don't want the mixture to get TOO thick so just add a little at a time where the cheese is concerned.

Coat one side of a chicken breast at a time with a little covering of the mayo mixture and then cover in bread crumbs. Flip and do the same, then repeat with the other chicken breast.

Put chicken breasts on a slightly greased (or buttered, or olive oiled, whatever you have on hand) pan. If you have a broiling pan, these are ideal so the bottom doesn't get soggy. You could also just use a wire rack on top of another pan, or any other contraption you can come up with. We don't need to be too technical with this one.

Bake at 350 for approximately 40 minutes until the chicken feels firm ( or "done"- just cut one open to check if you need to) and the bread crumbs are golden brown. I put them in for 15 and then flipped them over and left them in the rest of the time on the other side. You might want to turn the broiler on for 5 minutes or so towards the end just to make them a little bit more golden, but that's really just for visual appeal.



And TA-DA! Super moist on the inside and crunchy on the outside, this chicken is ready for you to eat! We had it with a serving of linguine with a homemade alfredo and then some lemon pepper sauteed broccoli and peppers, but you can serve it with just about anything: roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, any other kind of pasta, pasta with red sauce for a "chicken parmesean" of sorts, rice and vegetables... whatever suits your tastes!

ENJOY... I sure did!

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