Chicken Parmesan with Rigatoni

SP and I cooked in on Saturday. I love grocery shopping with him. I really don't like to grocery shop, but it's fun when I go with him. We stopped at Jewel and picked up what we needed for dinner and breakfast, and he had taken some chicken breast tenders out of the freezer already.

I made my red sauce, which is basically a little bit of meat (like ground pork or sausage), two ribs of celery finely chopped, a small onion or half of a large onion finely chopped, and some garlic sauteed in olive oil. Then I add one large can of tomato puree and two small cans of tomato paste. To that, I add four cups of water and bring it to a boil. I add some fresh parsley, oregano, basil, salt and pepper and a dash of red pepper flakes. Then I reduce the heat and simmer the sauce for a few hours, stirring to avoid burning.

While the sauce simmered, I heated some olive oil and canola in another skillet over medium low heat. I dredged the chicken tenders in egg, and then I lightly patted them in Italian bread crumbs that I seasoned with a little more parsley and California garlic blend. I turned the heat up slightly and seared the chicken tenders on both sides for about three minutes or so, each side. Then I removed them to a coated baking casserole to finish them.

I coated the chicken tenders with sauce from my simmering pot, and a layer of Romano, parmesan and mozzarella cheeses. I placed them in the oven on 350 for 45 minutes. When they were brown and bubbly, I pulled them out of the oven to rest while we cut the bread and finished boiling the Rigatoni in a large pot of salted water.

The chicken was juicy and tender, with a slightly crispy breading, and the sauce coated the pasta and chicken nicely. It was a robust and somewhat healthy meal. We sopped up the leftover sauce with fresh Italian bread. This is comfort food at home, folks.

The bonuses? It was inexpensive, and we both had lunch for today at work. It heated up really well, too.