Chicken parm, pounded until it is honest

Name: Chicken parm, pounded until it is honest
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Italian, American
Ingredients: 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts; 2 eggs, beaten; 2 cup panko breadcrumbs; ¼ cup all-purpose flour; 1 × 14.5 oz can San Marzano tomatoes, crushed by hand; 6 tbsp roasted garlic pesto; ½ cup heavy cream; 8 oz fresh mozzarella, torn into pieces; 4 oz fontina, grated; ½ cup grated Parmesan; 16 oz fettuccine; 4 oz arugula; 8 oz grape tomatoes, halved; 4 tbsp roasted pistachios, roughly chopped; 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar; 2 tbsp maple syrup; neutral oil for frying, olive oil, salt, pepper

Quarter-inch thick, no more. A breast at its natural depth cannot cook through before the crust burns, and everyone has eaten the result.

At a Glance

Time

1 hr

Adjust servings

Story

Every bad chicken parm is a thickness problem. A breast comes off the bird at an inch and a half at the fat end and tapers to nothing, so by the time the thick part is safe the thin part is dry and the crust has been in hot oil for nine minutes and tastes of it. Pounding is not tenderising and it is not showmanship. It makes the whole cutlet the same depth, which means the whole cutlet finishes at the same moment, which is the only way the coating and the meat are ever ready together.

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 eggsbeaten
2 cup panko breadcrumbs
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 × 14.5 oz can San Marzano tomatoescrushed by hand
6 tbsp roasted garlic pesto
½ cup heavy cream
8 oz fresh mozzarellatorn into pieces
4 oz fontinagrated
½ cup grated Parmesan
16 oz fettuccine
4 oz arugula
8 oz grape tomatoeshalved
4 tbsp roasted pistachiosroughly chopped
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp maple syrup
neutral oil for fryingolive oil, salt, pepper

Method

A weekend dish, and it knows it. There is a fried thing, a baked thing, a boiled thing and a raw thing, and the only way it goes wrong is doing them in the wrong order. Sauce first, since it waits happily. Salad last, since it does not.

Oven to 450F, big pot of salted water on.
The sauce. Crushed tomatoes and pesto into a pot with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Simmer 5 to 6 minutes until it tightens. Cream in, stir 1 minute, off the heat.
The pounding. Chicken between two sheets of plastic, and hit it with the flat bottom of a heavy pan, working from the middle outward. a quarter inch all over. Season both sides.
Flour on one plate, beaten egg in a bowl, panko on another plate, all three seasoned. Flour first, then the egg, then panko pressed on properly. The flour is not optional. Egg slides straight off wet chicken and takes the crumbs with it.
The frying. Thin layer of neutral oil, medium-high, hot enough that a crumb fizzes. 5 to 8 minutes a side in batches, deep gold. Do not crowd them, or they steam and go pale and sad.
Most of the sauce into a baking dish, the cutlets on top, the rest of the sauce over, then the mozzarella and fontina. 5 to 7 minutes to melt, then under the grill 2 to 3 if you want it blistered. Stand it 2 minutes.
Fettuccine in while that bakes, al dente, drained, a slug of olive oil. Arugula, halved tomatoes and pistachios tossed with the balsamic and maple.
Chicken and sauce over the pasta, Parmesan at the table, salad on the side and not on top. It has been through enough.