Lord LIlf's kick ass chicken parmigiana.

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After browsing the forums and goonswithspoons.com and not finding a posted recipe for this meal I've decided to toss my own interpretation out there for some of you to try. Any suggestions for improving it are definitely welcome.

I'm going with chicken parmigiana as it's considered one of the best dinners I cook here for me and the gf. She loves it! Even if you don't have an s.o. it's great comfort food you miserable, lonely bastard.

The goal is to have a home cooked taste and feel while at the same time being cheap.

First here is what you'll need.

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 box of angel hair spaghetti.
• 1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce to use as a base.
• 1 jar of olive oil.
• 2 cans of diced tomatoes
• 3/4 cup of milk
• 1 egg
• dried bread crumbs
• 1 block of parmesan cheese
• 1 bag of Italian five-cheese.
• 1 tablespoon of salt and pepper
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon of oregeno
• 1 teaspoon of thyme
• parsley (for image)
• 1/2 red bell pepper diced
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 1/4 white onion diced
• 1 roma tomato diced
• 8 olives... you guessed it; diced. Kalamata is preferred but I didn't have any and didn't feel like braving the cold to buy some.
• 2 1/2 teaspoons of minced garlic, either in a jar or minced by you if you'd like.

You would like that, wouldn't you?

Start by boiling the angel hair noodles in salt water mixed with about a tablespoon and a 1/2 of olive oil. Get used to using olive oil for this; it's how we like it around here.

while that's boiling go ahead and get your onion, tomato, peppers, and olives nice and diced.

Now if you're like me and only have one large pot for boiling stuff in then you would have thought ahead of time and got the noodles ready before you got started on everything else. After you drain the noodles you can put them in tupperware to keep them moist after straining or just keep them in the strainer and run water over them to keep them noodly.

Now bring your spaghetti sauce to slow boil adding about 1/4 a cup of olive oil, the oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper. After after it's been boiling awhile go ahead and add the can of diced tomatoes and your diced veggies to the pot. Add bay leaves and freshly grated parmesan cheese to enhance the flavor and stir occasionally until the sauce is nice and thick.

while the sauce is going let's get the chicken ready. The best thing to do first is is place the chicken on a cutting board with plastic wrap over it and pound it with the flat end of a tenderizer. I don't have a tenderizer so I pushed down on the the chicken with my palms.

Have a saute' pan ready with a large dose of olive oil over medium heat.

Crack your single egg and add it to large bowl along with the 3/4 cup of milk and whisk briskly. I said briskly!

In a seperate bowl you'll want to have your bread crumbs ready.

These are bread crumbs.

Mix the bread crumbs with freshly grated parmesan cheese and then dip the chicken in the egg/milk mixture and then rub chicken in the bread crumb bowl. The saute' pan should be heated by then so go ahead and throw the chicken in there turning over occasionally so that it's nice and cooked.

Oops. Better make sure you're not walking around with your trapdoor open for the world to see.

Much better!

Oh, you'll want to have the oven preheated at 415 degrees. Have pan coated in olive oil ready. When your chicken is nice and cooked place them about 4-5 inches apart from each other and coat liberally with your spaghetti sauce. Sprinkle with the italian five cheese, fresh grated parmesan, and a healthy dose of parsley.

It should go in the oven looking like this:

bake for about 15-17 minutes or until the cheese has patches of brown.

While the chicken is baking go ahead and clean up your mess you filthy pig.

When the chicken is ready it should come out looking like this:

Serve on a plate of spaghetti already coated in a healthy amount of left over sauce with a glass of wine and enjoy!