Chicken and Rice: Breaded Chicken with Tomatoes

Kiddo loving chicken & rice.

As I set off on my mission to not be bored to tears by a diet of chicken and rice, I of course asked my co-workers for ideas.  Nizdaar, who used to work in the meat industry and has a wealth of good cooking ideas, immediately suggested pounding it flat, breading it and baking it.  Pikko, who has not one but two food-related blogs, suggested I use her Tonkatsu recipe on the chicken.

The interesting bit is not an hour before I found this recipe over on Betty Crocker's site, which also calls for pounding and breading the chicken.  So one option for chicken (and pork!) is to pound it thin, bread it, and either bake or fry it.

Breaded Chicken with Tomatoes

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (1 lb)
1 cup Progresso® panko crispy bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
3 large tomatoes, chopped (3 cups)
2 medium green onions, chopped (2 tablespoons)
1tsp garlic powder

1 tablespoon dried oregano

Between pieces of plastic wrap or waxed paper, place each chicken breast smooth side down; gently pound with flat side of meat mallet or rolling pin until about 1/4 inch thick.

In shallow medium bowl or pie plate, mix bread crumbs, cheese, salt and pepper. Coat chicken with crumb mixture, pressing to coat well on both sides.

You want a deep skillet for frying.

In 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over medium-high heat. Cook chicken in oil 6 to 10 minutes, turning once, until golden brown on outside and no longer pink in center. Remove chicken from skillet; cover to keep warm.

To skillet, add remaining 1 tablespoon oil, 2 cups of the tomatoes, the onions and garlic; cook and stir 2 minutes. Stir in vinegar; cook 30 seconds longer. Remove from heat; stir in remaining 1 cup tomatoes and the oregano. Serve tomatoes over chicken, with rice on the side.

For the kids I cut one flattened chicken breast into "nuggets" before breading and frying, which went over well with Kiddo, but not so hot with Junior who claims to hate chicken and any meat that is not hot dogs or bologna.  I can see a lot of possibilities for this kind of breaded chicken, but I'm saving them for future Chicken and Rice blogs!

You say Toh-may-toe!

Sis and I have decided that this is the last year we muck about with seriously growing tomatoes in the garden.  They cost about $4 each at the greenhouse, and we're just not entirely happy with our home-started tomatoes.  We got past the spindly issue this year with good lighting, but they didn't temper and took forever to acclimate to the garden when we transplanted.  Since the idea is to save money with the garden, we're going to use that space for more reliable, freezable crops.  I wasn't enjoying peeling and canning tomatoes anyway.

So naturally my friend Feldon (who also is the voice of EQ2 Wire), just published his definitive Tomato Seed Staring Guide on the South East Texas Tomato Festival site.  This is a great guide for most folks; us Alaskans would have to keep them indoors much longer and follow a different timeline when it comes to dates.  In the Interior of Alaska where I'm at you'd start your seeds indoors in mid-April, and not plant them outside until Memorial Day at the very earliest.  Feldon's advice is very sound, and I've always enjoyed his writing (even when we hopelessly disagree with each other).

We might even try tomatoes again next year!