Oh it was COLD this morning. Like 40°. Our cats woke me up around 6:30 and I fought it until 7am. The two of them are partners in crime. As soon as I open the door to the spare room to let our little girl out, her and Pan, our 3 year old grumpy man, run laps at full speed from one end of the house to the other. Including over the bed which I’d imagine wakes up my boyfriend but I’ve never heard him complain about it.
So I spent my morning stumbling food blogs for ideas and curled up on the couch with Miss Lyra with blankets watching the Food Network and the Cooking Channel. Of course I’m crazy and have my meals planned out through Thanksgiving already, but everything I find, I bookmark and it gets added on the long list of things to try.
Tonight however I’m making a family dish. When I was little, my mom’s friend Diane would often come over and they would make dinner together, which I think explains why I do that weekly with my friends now that I’m older… But anyway, I couldn’t tell you 99% of what they made. I remember here being asparagus one night, only because she told me her bird loves raw asparagus. But really that could have been like Thanksgiving or something. She and my mom were best friends and she was at our place a lot.
It was probably normal stuff I ate all the time. But nothing I made a point to commit to memory. And then one night she made something she just called “Spicy Chicken”. It was FANTASTIC. (And simple to make!) I have no idea if she made it up, stole it from a cookbook, or what, but to this day we still call it Diane’s Spicy Chicken in our family.
Diane's Spicy Chicken
Ingredients:
- 4 chicken cutlets
- 1 14 oz. can Italian stewed tomatoes
- salt
- pepper
- cajun blackened seasoning
- garlic powder
- oregano
- breadcrumbs
- smoked mozzarella
- 2 garlic cloves, minced (Two teaspoons of minced jarred garlic can be used as well.)
- olive oil for sautéing
I apologize, I totally forgot about the stewed tomatoes until I needed to put them in. So they are not in this picture. Also, I opted for regular mozzarella instead of smoked.
Liberally sprinkle blackened seasoning and salt and pepper to taste on both sides of cutlets. I buy my chicken in bulk and slice it in to thinner cutlets then freeze meal size portions. So I have 5 cutlets, because that’s what I pulled out today. It worked just fine.
Sauté your garlic in oil, adding half a can of the liquid from your tomatoes.
Add the chicken, sprinkling with oregano, garlic powder, and breadcrumbs. Flip cutlets after 3-5 minutes and add spices and breadcrumbs to the other side.
When brown, flip a second time, and dump the rest of the can of tomatoes over top, topping each cutlet with a bit of tomato. I found that one can looked a little skimpy to me so I found a second one laying around and added it in as well. Simmer about 10 minutes until tender.
Top each cutlet with your mozzarella, cover and simmer 2 – 3 more minutes until cheese melts.
Serve with a little sauce over the top of the cutlet.
Mangia!
