Chicken Parmesan Strips

Since my husband is a pasta-man, I am frequently finding new ways to do classic pasta dishes. This rendition of the traditional Chicken Parmesan is fairly easy and kid friendly! I know my kids scarfed it down, the only thing I heard during dinner was the constant request of "more kicken please". (Yes, that is how chicken is pronounced by my munchkins). I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

boneless skinless chicken breast

flour

crackers (ritz, saltines, any other fav.)

egg

parmesan cheese (for coating and garnish)

salt and pepper

olive oil, enough to coat pan

spaghetti or angel hair noodles (cooked according to package)

your favorite marinara sauce

As you can see there arent quantities, as I go step by step I'll let you know about how much of each I did, but adjust amounts according to your need. I fed a family of four, two adults and two children.

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees then cut up the chicken breasts into thin strips and salt and pepper them. In one shallow dish, whisk the egg (you may need more than one depending on how much chicken you are coating; I always do one at a time because it's easy to wisk up another when needed). In a second shallow dish mix flour, smooshed (great word, I know) crackers, and Parmesan cheese. I used about 2 T flour, 6 crackers (mine were a mulitgrain cracker about the texture of ritz but larger, so you may need more if you are using a smaller cracker), and cheese to taste. I like to make sure that I can easily see the cheese, it cant be hiding in the other ingredients.

Heat olive oil in a pan large enough that all the chicken will fit in one layer (or you can do two batches). Dip the chicken in the egg and then in the flour mixture. Make sure it is completely coated and then place in the pan. (Make sure the oil is hot, be patient, and don't put it in a warm pan or the crust wont develop as well!)

This next step can be a little tricky, once the chicken has browned well, flip it over and brown the other side. You only want to flip it once, so dont flip too early; you want a nice brown crust, if it looks tan still, it is too early. Don't worry about the chicken being cooked through, you will throw it in the oven later.

Once you have the other side browned place the chicken in an oven-safe pan (if you have a frying pan that can go in the oven as well, you are lucky! and can skip the transfer step). Then put the chicken in the oven until cooked through. If you have really thin slices of chicken you may need as little as 10 minutes in the oven, if they are thicker maybe more like 20-30. I know that when I do a whole breast coated then I will usually keep it in the oven ~30 mins, but with these strips I only needed 10-15 minutes.

In the meantime cook the noodles and warm up the sauce you will be using. Once the chicken is cooked place the chicken on top of the cooked noodles.

Then take your marinara (I make a homemade sauce which I end up canning from garden tomatoes so I always have it on hand. The recipe is here, minus the meatballs.) and spoon over the chicken and then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

And there you go, a little dressed up spaghetti for any occasion! I hope you have fun with this, I sure did. And like I said it was a hit on our dinner table!

Sydney