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It all started when my Twitter buddy Shelley posted this picture of three non native Italian dishes.
Now I love parmigiana di melanzane (and even the zucchine version they bake at work) so the concept of chicken parmigiana caught my eyes,
Of course, proteine- wise, it is all unbalanced (which is the reason why the dish is normally done with vegetables) but the idea of lean slices of chicken braised in tomato sauce did appeal to my taste buds. Normally in Italy, you'd add a little mozzarella on top and call it "pollo alla pizzaiola". But I did not fancy mozzarella so decided to replace it with a layer of spinach for a full balanced meal instead.
This ended up as a layer of wilted and well drained spinach, some grated parmiggiano, a thorough absence of mozzarella, a layer of thinly sliced chicken breast, a layer of thick tomato sauce and a sprinkling of grated parmigiano. All this placed in a lighly oiled oven-proof dish sprinkled with coarse dried bread crumbs (to soak up excessive juices).
Normally this would have been cooked under the grill but I haven't been able to use my oven since June on account of the high temperatures - am having some SERIOUS withdrawal symptoms there - so grilled everything in the microwave instead since it has a decent grill function.
So there you go: the chicken parmigiana that wasn't.
Hey, if the Americans can invent some Italian dishes, the contrary ought to be possible too, n'est ce pas?
(And let's just slide on the fact that I am French, not Italian. Detail, really. Were all Europeans here,)
Now I love parmigiana di melanzane (and even the zucchine version they bake at work) so the concept of chicken parmigiana caught my eyes,
Of course, proteine- wise, it is all unbalanced (which is the reason why the dish is normally done with vegetables) but the idea of lean slices of chicken braised in tomato sauce did appeal to my taste buds. Normally in Italy, you'd add a little mozzarella on top and call it "pollo alla pizzaiola". But I did not fancy mozzarella so decided to replace it with a layer of spinach for a full balanced meal instead.
This ended up as a layer of wilted and well drained spinach, some grated parmiggiano, a thorough absence of mozzarella, a layer of thinly sliced chicken breast, a layer of thick tomato sauce and a sprinkling of grated parmigiano. All this placed in a lighly oiled oven-proof dish sprinkled with coarse dried bread crumbs (to soak up excessive juices).
Normally this would have been cooked under the grill but I haven't been able to use my oven since June on account of the high temperatures - am having some SERIOUS withdrawal symptoms there - so grilled everything in the microwave instead since it has a decent grill function.
So there you go: the chicken parmigiana that wasn't.
Hey, if the Americans can invent some Italian dishes, the contrary ought to be possible too, n'est ce pas?
(And let's just slide on the fact that I am French, not Italian. Detail, really. Were all Europeans here,)
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