New and Improved Chicken Parm

I'm always on a hunt to improve an old recipe and the Chicken Parmesan recipe posted earlier on this blog became my latest target. I hesitated when I saw this one in Cooking Light mainly because it said fried (seriously cooking light, use your heads and don't use scary words like "fried" when talking about healthy recipes). However, with a few modifications (mainly a decrease in the amount of oil) and a slight decrease in the amount of cheese, out came a beautiful dish full of yummy looking chicken. You won't even miss the pasta with this one!

Side note: I get nervous about putting my pans in the oven (don't ask me why) so I "fried" the breasts in a pan on the stove top and then transferred them into an oven safe dish.

Oven Fried Chicken Parmesan

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
3/4 cup panko
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless thin chicken breasts (pound them slightly if you can't them like that at the store)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup jarred tomato-basil pasta sauce
1/3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450°.

Combine first 3 ingredients in a shallow dish; place egg whites in a bowl. Place panko in a shallow dish. Dip each breast in egg whites; Dredge 1 half in flour mixture and the other half in panko. Repeat procedure with remaining chicken, flour mixture, egg whites, and panko.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan; cook 2 minutes. Turn chicken over; cook 2 minutes. Top each breast half with 2 tablespoons sauce, 2 tablespoons Parmigiano-Reggiano, and 3 tablespoons mozzarella. Place pan in oven or transfer breasts in a oven safe dish. Bake at 450° for 5 minutes. Turn chicken over; Bake 6 minutes or until chicken is done.