Categories: Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breast (2 pieces) (Note 1)
- 1 egg
- 1 garlic clove , minced (optional)
- Salt and pepper
- 1 1/4 cups shredded parmesan (Note 2)
- 2 tbsp butter (or more oil)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Directions
-
Cut each breast in half horizontally to make 4 steaks. If they are much thicker than 1.75 cm / 3/4" thick (at the thickest point), pound a bit.
- Place egg, garlic, pinch of salt and pepper in a bowl. Whisk with fork.
- Place parmesan in a shallow bowl.
- Dredge chicken in egg, then place in parmesan CUT SIDE DOWN (Note 3). Press, then turn. Coat with extra parmesan, press. Shake off excess. Repeat with remaining chicken.
- Melt butter and heat oil in a large skillet over high heat.
- Place chicken in non-stick skillet (or well seasoned cast iron skillet). DO NOT MOVE chicken otherwise the cheese will slide off surface before it adheres! It adheres once it turns crispy.
- Press down lightly with spatula. Lift a corner to take a peek and turn with tongs when it’s deep golden brown (3 minutes for me).
- Cook the other side for 3 minutes or until also deep golden brown and crispy (again, do not move until golden). Lightly press down with spatula. Don’t cook longer than 6 minutes in total – dries out the chicken.
- Serve immediately! I served mine with lemon slices, Cauliflower Mash with Browned Butter (Note 4) and a Fennel Slaw with Yoghurt Dressing (Note 5).
-
This recipe won’t work as well with thigh or other chicken cuts because you need a relatively large flat surface area for the parmesan to adhere to. Even tenderloin won’t work as well.
-
It will work with other meat cuts with flat surfaces, like chops and steaks as long as they will cook in about 6 – 8 minutes, the time it takes for the parmesan to turn golden brown and crispy.
-
This recipe needs to be made with store bought shredded parmesan, the thin strands pictured in the post and video. It doesn’t work as well with the sandy parmesan (crust not as thick), nor parmesan that’s been finely grated or grated using a standard box-grater. The store bought shredded parmesan is perfect because it adheres enough to the chicken and it melts which is what makes it super crunchy.
-
However, in contrast, baked Parmesan Crusted Potatoes and Cauliflower, the sandy parmesan works best. (And no, baking the chicken doesn’t work, I tried, the juices prevent the parmesan from going crisp).
-
The cut side of the breast is the side that gets the best crust because it is flat. So this is the side we want to press extra parmesan on!
-
Cauliflower Mash with Browned Butter: Boil cauliflower florets in loads of water for 5 – 8 minutes until soft, then drain and leave to steam dry a bit. Whizz florets with a bit of milk (or cream!) and butter until desired consistency achieved – I made mine like a puree. Season with salt and pepper. For browned butter, melt 50g / 1/4 cup butter in a silver or white saucepan over medium high heat, it will foam then turn brown and suddenly smelly nutty. Take it off the stove immediately, pour into a bowl, leaving behind the black bits on the bottom. Drizzle about 1/2 – 1 tsp on each serving of cauliflower mash.
-
Simple Fennel Slaw with Yoghurt Dressing: Nice and fresh contrast to the strong parmesan crust flavour! Just shaved fennel, some fennel fronds + finely sliced red onion. For dressing, mix plain yoghurt, lemon juice, bit of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Toss fennel in dressing.
-
Nutrition per serving. This takes into account that there will be about 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese leftover / falls off and 1 1/2 tbsp of oil / butter left in the skillet (I measured!)