100 Recipes - #88 Chicken Parmigiana

[lillibet]

Since I had two more zucchini to use up and the zucchini parmigiana was so good, I decided to try doing it with chicken.

#88 Chicken Parmiagiana I used this recipe, but decided to cut up the chicken breasts and pound them flat. That worked fine, but after just 25 minutes in the oven, they were done and maybe even too dry. But I put them on top of the veggies and sauce and then smothered them in sauce and cheese until any defects of the chicken were, Jason assures me, unnoticeable. I really like filling up on the veggies, instead of also making pasta to go with this. This time I added in a can of mushrooms, because I have cans of mushrooms. I think it's a little heavy on the onion, but within tolerances. I also think that panko are not the ideal crumbs for this, but they're what I have on hand--maybe next time I'll try pounding them up a little more before using them. This was just as tasty as the version I made with prosciutto, so what I make in the future will probably just depend on what I have in the fridge.

While I was making this, I was thinking about how you don't need to boil lasagne noodles before putting them in the casserole--the liquid from the sauce cooks them in the oven. Has anyone tried this with other forms of pasta? I'm wondering if it would work to just throw hard egg noodles into tuna casserole, or ziti into red sauce & cheese. Anyone done the experiment?

Comments

[muffyjo]

I know t_l_e_e makes lasagna that way..."dry" noodles, lots of layers, etc and it tastes delicious.

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

I've been really unhappy with using un-cooked noodles in lasagne. I don't know what I've done wrong. Then again, it's rare that I do it.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

My guess would be not enough sauce. I've never had it fail, but when I've talked with other people about it, that seems to be the failure mode.

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

It seems pretty likely, yeah. It's so rare that I make lasagne, though: if I'm making baked pasta, it's almost surely mac + cheese or ziti with tomato sauce and lots of mozzarella.