Chicken Parmigiana from scratch

 

 
Several years ago, Joe and I became somewhat disenchanted (and somewhat bloated) with our diet of burritos and frozen pizzas. Thus, I began attempting home-cooked meals. Meals that would require combining at least two ingredients in a pan and weren't Hamburger Helper. Baby steps, my friends.

One of the first easy and hearty dishes I learned to make for us was Chicken Parmigiana. However, my version of it consisted of heating frozen chicken patty topped with a slice of mozzarella and serving it with cooked egg noodles and Prego sauce. And we LOOOOOVED it. It took about 15 minutes to make and we used to devour it with our bare hands. This week, I decided to resurrect this dish, but with a few changes:

Homemade tomato sauce
Fresh mozzarella and fresh basil
Hand-breaded chicken
Thin spaghetti tossed with olive oil and parsley

 Sure, the ingredient list was a LOT longer and it was more labor-intensive than just opening a jar of spaghetti sauce and pouring it over noodles (which I still do plenty of). I do find that the more work I put into a meal, the more I slow down and savor it, so that's a good thing. However, I can still sleep at night even if I've cooked with Prego and I can definitely still sleep like a baby on Chipotle Sunday.

You can find the whole recipe here. (I omitted the olives. I just couldn't quite on board with the idea.)