Making The World’s Best Chicken Parmesan Recipe + It is NOT What You Think

Hey everybody, it's Tammy, and I'm not Italian! Don't believe the mustache, I don't actually hail from the boot. But Italian food is probably the world's best cuisine. Undefeated, if you ask me. And one of the most finger-kissing dishes Italian cuisine has to offer is chicken parmesan. I love chicken parm. In fact, I make it all the time. And I believe my approach is not only the easiest, but it's also the tastiest. And here's the thing, it's totally not traditional. Apologies to all the Italians out there, sorry. In fact, my recipe deviates from traditional chicken parm five different ways. The first one is don't overthink the sauce. The simplest tomato sauce is also the best. In a large pot, goes a little olive oil. Don't use extra virgin, its flavor will literally get lost in the sauce. But do use garlic, or cloves, minced. Cook these over medium heat until they're just golden. But don't let it burn. Once the garlic is golden brown, squirt in a tablespoon and a half of tomato paste. I get mine in tubes. Smear it across the bottom of the pan so it darkens in color. Cook this on medium-low so nothing burns while we grab a big can of tomatoes. I'm using San Marzano's. There are a lot of opinions out there about whether these pricier tomatoes are worth using, and honestly, I respect wherever you stand on the matter. But anytime I cheap out on tomatoes, my sauce just isn't as good. Is this psychosomatic? Who knows? But if you got the San Marzano's, use them! Alright, add the tomatoes to the pot and bring the whole thing to a boil. Now these are whole tomatoes, so I'm gonna crush them with my potato masher. But you can use tomatoes that are already crushed in the can. I would advise against using diced tomatoes, because they use a chemical on those that makes the chunks not dissolve into the sauce. But if you like your sauce chunky, then go ahead and use those. In the meantime, take an onion and slice it in half. Once you slice it in half, add it to your pot. I'm not even gonna peel this, because we're gonna fish it out when we're done. Lastly, some dried oregano. You can use basil if you want, but I like oregano. Then there's the obligatory freshly ground black pepper, a pinch or two of salt, and a few shakes of red pepper flake. Once it's bubbling up like an angry cauldron, cover and cook on low for about an hour. Then just fish out the onion and you can toss it. All you gotta do now is give it a taste. You can adjust the seasoning now, but to me this is perfect. Set this aside. By the way, this tomato sauce is good for all your tomato sauce needs, whether it's to smother on meatballs or spaghetti or pizza or something to dip mozzarella sticks into. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Here's the second way that my recipe strays from tradition. Don't use chicken breast. What am I, on a diet? Chicken thighs always make better cutlets than breasts. They're more flavorful, juicier, and honestly harder to screw up. You can buy your thighs boned, but I like removing the bone myself because I like making homemade stock with these. Taking the bone out is easy too. Here's how. Tear off the skin and set it aside. Then lay the thigh on a cutting board with the bone facing you. Using a knife, start to peel away the bone from the meat, leaving as much behind as possible. Turn and peel from the other side. Once the bone is mostly exposed, you can just slice through. Nice clean cut. Place all your bones with your chicken fat. Now, I put all these chicken parts in a Ziploc bag and freeze them for making stock or demi-glace or a million other things you can make with them, but that'll have to wait for another video. But don't toss them, it's really good stuff. Alright, once you clip off all the bone matter from your thigh, slide your knife into the thicker part of the meat and barely slice into it, like that. Then cover your chicken in plastic and lightly pound it out to make a nice flat cutlet. Go easy, we're trying to flatten them, not turn them into hamburger. Season both sides of the meat with a little bit of kosher salt and pepper. The next step is optional. Place them in the fridge for a couple hours. I usually do this even before making the sauce. This will ensure juicier meat, but like I said, this is totally optional. While our chicken thighs think about what they've done in the fridge, I'd like to to remind you to subscribe to this channel, Hammy Cooks. I'd love to share all my cool cooking hacks with you, just like the ones you see in this video. Or don't. Whatever. I'm not your boss. I'm not your daddy. At least I hope not. Back to the recipe. Now let's get a dread station going. One bowl gets three quarter cups of flour. One gets two eggs and a little bit of olive oil. And the last gets breadcrumbs. Not those. These. Broken rule number three. Use panko breadcrumbs. Panko breadcrumbs will make for much crispier cutlets I think they taste better, too. They're the only bread crumbs I keep on hand, in fact. I don't know where these came from. Now let's dredge. Take a cutlet, coat it in flour, dust off the excess, then dip it into the egg, let the excess drip off, and then finally the panko. I like to use a big bowl so I can really stir it around without making a big mess. Make sure you get both sides. Now this part you can do up to a day ahead of time, and just keep them refrigerated until you're ready to fry them. Which brings us to broken rule number four. Deep fry the cutlets. When it comes to breaded cutlets I think deep frying is the only way to go and I do all my deep frying outside because I can keep that yucky deep fry smell out of my kitchen. I also do it in a wok but you can use whatever pot you have that has high sides. Fry your cutlet in 350 degree oil until they're golden brown and the juices run clear. This should take about five minutes. Now let your cutlet drain over paper towels. Now if you're looking for a super gooey topping, consider the final broken rule. Make a bechamel. This thick milky sauce will not only add another layer of flavor to your chicken parm, but it's so easy to make, I can probably do it in my sleep. In a small saucepan goes two tablespoons of butter. Once it's melted, add in one and a half tablespoons of flour. Whisk until a paste forms. Then slowly add in half a cup of milk and whisk out all the lumps. Once you've done that, add another quarter cup or of milk, a pinch of salt, a little bit of pepper, and grate in a garlic clove. Once it's boiling, kill the heat. Now anytime I make bechamel, I always make a little more than I think I'm going to need because you can use it for a million things. And honestly, I would eat this stuff off of the counter. But I'm not going to do that here because I want to finish off my chicken parm. We're in the homestretch! Line a baking sheet with foil and then spray it down with lots of no-stick spray. Place your cutlets on the sheet, then spoon on a little bit of bechamel. This will thicken as it cools by the way then grate on two cheeses mozzarella and parmesan now i'm not going to measure this out because that's weird and there are too many variables here honestly you really can't overdo it but i like to go easy it should lightly drape the cutlet not smother it now i tend to grate on the parm first because that browns faster and we don't want it to burn before the mozzarella finishes melting all right now place your cutlets about three inches under your broiler and broil them. Don't leave the kitchen at this point by the way things can burn pretty quickly but do reheat that tomato sauce we made earlier because we're gonna need it soon. Once your cutlets look as pretty as a YouTube thumbnail they're ready to plate. Now I like to sprinkle these with chopped parsley right out of the oven. You can use basil if that's more your thing. On a warm plate goes a ladle of warm sauce and then one or two of these beautiful cutlets. These are great like this but honestly they make pretty good sandwiches too. Look at how gooey that is. All because we didn't follow the rules. Inauthentic, rule-breaking chicken parm is most definitely yummy. If you like this video, click the bell icon and check out this recipe for gourmet poultry pilaf straight out of Zelda. Thanks for watching, see you next time, bye!