Tarah's Weeknight Chicken Parmesan

I haven't been documenting my meals here lately, but I have been keeping track of them in my planner! At least that's something, right? However, I made Chicken Parmesan tonight and I thought I would share the recipe with you!

I don't have the best memories of Chicken Parmesan because it was one of the first meals that I cooked as a married woman. I picked a Rachael Ray recipe, but it called for about 57 steps and just as many ingredients. It took me forever, partially because of the steps and ingredients and partially because I was a new cook. Because of that, I've probably only made it 4 times in our marriage. That would probably be fine except for the fact that it's one of Tyler's favorite meals. I really need to get better at making it more often because he loves it so much! He asked for it tonight, and I was going to make it in the crock pot, but I remembered that I had an old recipe.

My first college RD, Tarah, is very near and dear to my heart. She was like an older sister to me in college and we've kept in touch over the years. I just love her. I went to visit her after her first baby was born in 2006 and she made this Chicken Parm for me. I'd forgotten about it until Tyler asked for Chicken Parm, so I dug it out of my email archives. It is so simple and great for a weeknight! I adapted it a little bit, but it is so delicious and reminds me of my sweet friend. That's a win-win!

Tarah's Weeknight Chicken Parmesan
serves 4-6

Ingredients 

• Three large boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded to an even thickness
• 1 cup milk (I used skim)
• 1 cup Italian bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
• large jar of pasta sauce (I used Kroger brand Tomato & Basil)
• 8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 box whole wheat thin spaghetti

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Mix breadcrumbs and 1/4 cup of fresh grated Parmesan cheese in a shallow dish. Add milk to a separate shallow dish.
3. Dip chicken breasts in milk, then coat in breadcrumbs mixture. Place in a 9 x 13 glass dish.
4. Bake for 30 minutes. In the meantime, boil your spaghetti noodles.
5. Remove chicken from oven and pour the jar of pasta sauce over the top.
6. Top each breast with the shredded mozzarella and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese.
7. Bake for 15 more minutes. At the end of the 15 minutes, broil on high for 2 minutes, just enough to brown the cheese a bit.
8. Serve hot over spaghetti noodles with extra sauce. We enjoyed ours with sweet peas. Enjoy! 

Note: The chicken breasts I used were GIANT, so we each ate a half of one. We were plenty full!