Chicken Parmigiana is a recipe I’ve been aware of for quite a while but which I don’t remember trying. Yesterday, we had a couple of chicken breasts defrosted for dinner and a lot of “waste” left from my concentrated tomatoes, which was enough to prompt me to give it a go.

I think this was the recipe I started with although, not having mozzarella on hand, I was immediately in improvising territory. I started with the tomato base – skins, pips and some garlic and celery mixed in. That went in the oven while I turned to the next task, preparing the chicken. I’ve had a slice of toast kicking around in the bread bin for a while and, since it didn’t show any signs of mould, I cut it up into chunks and blitzed it in a coffee grinder to produce a fine crumb. I sliced up the chicken, dipped it in a whipped egg and then breaded it with the crumb. That went into hot oil to be fried until turning golden on the outside (in batches). I also used my mandoline to get a pile of fine slices of Parmigiano Reggiano, an authentic parmesan cheese.

By this point, the tomato mix was hot. I took half of it out of the dish, added the chicken, returned the rest of the tomato and topped with the cheese. That went back into the oven while I cooked up some Cavolo Nero kale (allotment grown) and the resulting dish was delicious, both yesterday and reheated with some additions for today’s dinner. It is a pretty easy recipe so one I expect I’ll be trying again soon, possibly even with the mozzarella most recipes use.