Parmesan-Panko Baked Chicken, Lemon Risotto, and Balsamic Sautéed Tomatoes with Spinach

A few words on cooking with Rebee….

I seldom ever measure. I prefer eyeballing things and then tasting them after they have had time to do a little cooking, and then adjusting as needed. What this means for you… I will be giving a rough estimate of how much of a certain ingredient I used, so that you can (if you wanted to) make basically the same dish. Please taste as you cook. Your idea of a good amount of garlic and mine may differ drastically. (My sister won’t touch onions and I use them in nearly everything – for example) Alter any of this to your own flavor preferences.

Also…I have provided nutritional information for this menu (and hope to do so for all recipes I provide). This information is only a guideline. 1.) It is taken from information that may be incomplete. 2.) It is based on the supposed normal 2000 calorie diet. (Like anyone is on a 2000 calorie diet!) 3.) Math was never my strong suit. 4.) A lot of estimating goes into this as I nearly never measure anything. You are welcome to double check my numbers yourself if you would like. I use: The Wellness Encyclopedia of Food and Nutrition from UC Berkeley.

Finally…I am NOT a professional cook. My methods are very basic. I hope that anyone will be able to follow my directions.

One of the meals that I bought the ingredients for on Monday was:

Parmesan-Panko Baked Chicken, Lemon Risotto, and Balsamic Sautéed Tomatoes with Spinach. – Serves 6

To make this meal you will need…

A Stovetop and an oven

A frying Pan, and a lid for it

A large pot, and a lid for it

A baking sheet

Some bowls

A cutting board

A decently sharp knife

Some spoons

Ingredients:

1 lb Chicken (boneless, skinless, breast meat, uncooked)

½ C Miracle Whip (or your preferred Mayonnaise)

¾ C Parmesan Cheese (The real stuff, not the green shaker!)

1 C Panko (Japanese-style Bread Crumbs)

1 C Rice (Any style will do)

4 Onions (Mary - you can, of course, leave these out)

6 tsp Minced Garlic (I buy pre-minced stuff to save time)

4 to 6 C Chicken Broth (Try to remember to get low sodium and low fat-I always forget)

2Tbsp Lemon Juice (Juice from one lemon can be used or the Reallemon stuff)

3 or so ounces Pine Nuts

1 C Frozen Peas (never use the canned stuff)

6 to 12 ounces of fresh Spinach

1.5 pt Grape, Pear, or Cherry Tomatoes (experiment with local heirlooms when in season)

2Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar (I don’t have the real stuff either just use what you can afford, my balsamic cost about $10.00 for a 15oz bottle)

Some seasoning mix or your favorite spices (I used a Tuscan mix this time, next time I might use a French mix)

Some Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Some Spray oil (or something to keep the chicken from sticking to the baking sheet)

Directions:

Right… Find a surface and clean it off. If your kitchen is as small as mine there is no harm in using your office desk or a folding card table in the living room as a kitchen surface. Just be sure it is fairly clean.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. If your oven is decent, it will be ready in about 15 minutes. If you feel like it… set a timer now. It is unlikely you will be ready to put the chicken in the oven 15 minutes from now, but on the off chance…go ahead.

Now…Back to that surface. You will need your decently sharp knife and your cutting board. If you only have one knife and one board, or you hate doing dishes as much as I do…you will need to cut up your veggies first to prevent the chance of salmonella contamination.

I like to use an empty bowl for scraps when I’m going to chop a bunch of veggies so I can keep my area as clean as possible.

Chop up your onions 2 at a time (2 are for the spinach dish and 2 are for the risotto). You can go ahead and place these in their respective pans (The frying pan and the large pot). If you are not using pre-minced garlic mince your garlic now and again split it equally between the frying pan and the large pot. Also slice each tomato in half. Set these (the tomatoes) aside in a bowl for later.

If your spinach is older you will need to cut off the stems. This is a serious pain in the ass, so if you can avoid it, do so by buying baby spinach. Also if you are buying your spinach from a farmers market (Highly recommended) you will need to wash these leaves very well, as they can be very gritty.

Now all the veggies are chopped. You can now use the same board and knife to cut up meat (if you don’t have a designated board and knife for meat – an unnecessary precaution if you know how to wash up). Cut each breast in half (assuming you chicken breasts are as ridiculously large as the ones I bought were) You want the chicken to be about the size of your palm, or a deck of standard playing cards (not Tarot cards, which can be much larger). If you happen to have a kitchen scale…you are looking for chicken pieces to be about 3 ounces give or take.

Right…Now take the large pot and add some olive oil to it and put the burner on to a medium setting. You are going to cook up the diced onions and minced garlic. This olive oil cooked garlic and onion mixture is very common in Italian cooking (as well as my own). They have a word for it in Italian but I don’t speak Italian so I can’t tell you what it is. Let the onion and garlic cook for a bit on its own…there is plenty of stuff to do.

Take out a bowl. Go to your fridge and take out the mayo and the shredded Parmesan cheese. Also take out the spices you want on the chicken. In the bowl, combine the ½ a cup of mayo with ½ a cup of cheese and however much seasoning you want (remember a little goes a long way with dried spices, so don’t over do it).

The onion and garlic cooking in the pot should be getting near to transparent at this point. If so, take the cup of rice and add it to the pot. Stir it and let it cook briefly in the oil. Then add some (maybe 2 cups) of broth and the lemon juice to the pot and stir. Lower the burner to a low setting but not all the way down. Do not add a lid to this pot.

Prepare the baking sheet (clear some surface to put it on and spray down the surface with cooking spray, or cover it with a silpat, or use some Crisco or whatever you want to keep the chicken from burning on to the surface).

Stir the rice pot. If the broth level is dropping add some more broth (1 cup or so)

Take a chicken breast half and cover the top with a thin (1/8” to ¼”) layer of the mayo mixture. Place the chicken on the sheet and repeat with the remaining chicken. When the chicken is all coated take out the panko and sprinkle the chicken until fairly well topped.

Place the chicken into the oven. Set a timer (if you don’t have one get one they are infinitely useful) for 20 minutes.

Stir the rice and add broth if it needs it. The rice should start looking more like a rice pudding very creamy. This is because the rice is exuding its starch into the broth.

Now you can turn on the large frying pan on to a medium setting on your burner. The garlic and onion should be in there. Add some oil to the pan and stir. Again you want the onion to be slightly transparent.

Keep an eye on the rice. Stir it occasionally and add broth every few minutes. Taste the rice to see if it is done cooking at this point. The rice should not be hard in the center but it also should not be too soft. When the rice is ready, add the remaining Parmesan cheese, the pine nuts, and the peas. Stir until the cheese is melted. If you want you can add some herbs and spices at this point, fresh parsley is fantastic in this. Turn the burner to the lowest setting. Then add a lit to the pot to keep everything warm.

When the onions and garlic are ready in the frying pan add the vinegar and stir. Put the burner on low and add the tomatoes, stirring occasionally. When the tomatoes are well coated add the spinach in batches. Stir the spinach until it wilts and shrinks slightly and then add the next batch to the pan. If the pan is filling too much you can take some of the spinach that has wilted out and add more fresh in. You may need to turn up the heat to do this. After all the spinach has wilted, return all of the spinach to the pan and put a lid on it to keep warm.

About now your timer will go off letting you know that the chick is probably done. Take the pan out and check the chicken for doneness. You can use a thermometer (170 degrees Fahrenheit) or you can cut open a breast and check that it is not pink. The thermometer way is better as it prevents you from overcooking, and therefore making you chicken dry. However the cutting method is cheaper, after all you do own a knife -I saw you use it earlier in this recipe.

If the chicken is not done put it in the oven again for another 5 minutes or so. If it is done serve up dinner!

This recipe makes 6 servings. These keep well as leftovers. And they will freeze decently too for a couple of months. There will be extra rice as this risotto makes more like 8 servings so don’t over load on the rice or the nutrition listed below will be off.

Each serving will contain roughly:

(To be added later as I’ve mislaid my notes-bugger!)