The moment my lovely friend Jenn told me about her Pan-Fried Chicken with Red Wine Linguine, I knew it was next up on my must-make list. It includes a few more pots and steps that my usual recipes (I try to stick to two pots, tops, because of the no-dishwasher/limited-space situation), but it’s worth it. The recipe below is sort of loosely based on Jenn’s; I added a can of diced tomatoes because I ate most of the grape tomatoes during the slicing-in-half process, skipped the basil because I forgot to pick some up at the store (I subbed in parsley for color), and made a few other lazy-me modifications.
PAN-FRIED CHICKEN w/ RED WINE LINGUINE (serves 4)
What you need:
For chicken:
4 chicken breasts, preferably free-range & organic
About half a cup of flour
1 egg + 1 tbsp water, beaten
About half a cup of Panko bread crumbs
4 slices fresh mozzarella
Salt & pepper
Olive oil
For sauce:
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved (I used way less than this – see above – and added a can of diced tomatoes with juice)
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt
Olive oil
For linguine:
Red Wine Linguine recipe is HERE; for best results, boil the pasta while your chicken fries, and then finish it off with the wine and other seasonings when the chicken goes into the oven.
What you do:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Generously season each chicken breast with salt & pepper, and then dredge first in flour, then in egg, and finally in the breadcrumbs.
3. Heat some olive oil in a skillet, and fry the breasts for about 4 minutes per side, depending on thickness. The chicken breasts I used here were super thick, so I fried them for a couple of minutes longer than the recipe states. (By the way, this is an excellent time to be cooking the pasta and simmering the wine for the red wine linguine).
4. Once the chicken breasts are golden on both sides, place them in a lightly oiled baking pan, top each slice with mozzarella, and bake for about 8 minutes, or until mozzarella is nicely melted. While the chicken is in the oven, finish off the red wine linguine and get moving on the sauce.
5. To make the tomato sauce, just saute your halved grape tomatoes in the balsamic, adding a little brown sugar for sweetness if you like, for about 3 minutes. You can also add a can of diced tomatoes, as I did (you’ll have to simmer the whole thing for a bit longer – about 10 minutes – if you do this).
6. Plate by topping a portion of linguine with a chicken breast and then pouring over a little sauce; you can add some basil or parsley for garnish if you like.
