Parmesan Chicken with Tomato Basil Sauce

Ingredients:

• Chicken breasts, about 1.5lb
• 1 cup of white bread crumbles
• 1 cup of grated parmesan
• 2 eggs
• 8oz mozzarella slices (around 8 slices)
• 4 roma tomatoes
• 1 big onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• Fresh basil
• Salt to taste
• Olive oil

How to prepare, step-by-step:

1. Prepare ingredients: I usually make breadcrumbs myself by chopping white bread (italian or such, sliced and dried in the oven) in blender:

   

2. Start from preparing sauce. Put a pot with water to the burner for blanching tomatoes. Peel onion and grate it on big slots of the grater, warm up a tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan and add grated onion to it, fry onions stirring from time to time for 2-3 mins:

   

3. Peel and chop garlic cloves and add them to onions, continue stirring while onions and garlic are cooking:

   

4. Blanch tomatoes in the water prepared earlier (leave seeds in), then grate them or press (you can also use blender to chop tomatoes but that will break seeds which may influence the taste):

   

5. Add tomato puree to the saucepan, mix, bring to light simmer (reduce heat if needed) and let sauce cook while you prepare chicken:

   

6. In a bowl mix a half cup of parmesan and breadcrumbs:

   

7. Crack eggs into another bowl, add a bit of salt to taste and mix:

   

8. Rinse chicken breasts and slice them into portion pieces, lay them down on the cutting board, cover with food wrap and beat with meat tenderizer from one side:

   

9. Then flip to another and repeat, remove warp:

   

10. Warm up skillet with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Work with each piece of meat one by one. Start from dipping a chicken piece into egg mix:

    

11. Then to breadcrumb and parmesan mix:

    

12. Add prepared chicken piece to the warmed up skillet and fry until golden from one side:

    

13. Then flip to another side and fry until golden again. Repeat with all chicken, move prepared chicken to a plate:

    

14. Once chicken is ready, warm oven up to 400F; remove sauce from the burner and mix in half of fresh chopped basil, salt to taste:

    

15. Pour sauce to the baking pan, even the layer up:

    

16. Arrange fried chicken in the pan:

    

17. Garnish with remaining chopped fresh basil:

    

18. Lay a layer of mozzarella slices:

    

19. And sprinkle with remaining parmesan cheese:

    

20. Bake in the warmed up stove for about 10 mins or until mozzarella gains some color:

    

21. Serve baked chicken parmesan over the bed of your favorite pasta topped with remaining sauce: