Essential Ingredients:
2-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup wine (or more)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (or more)
Non-Essential Ingredients:
dash nutmeg (if desired)
sliced mushrooms (if desired)
sliced tomato (if desired)
Preheat oven to 350. In a glass baking dish, arrange the chicken breasts. If you use the mushrooms or tomatoes, put those on top of each piece of chicken. Pour the wine over the chicken. Cover the top of each piece of chicken with Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle with nutmeg if you desire. Bake for 30 minutes or so - you will smell it when it is done!
Tips:
Karen Simmons, September 2 I made the chicken this evening with 2 really large chicken breasts. It was great. First of all, it took me less than 5 minutes to pull all the ingredients together and stick the thing in the oven. That's always a bonus. Popped it into the oven and cooked for about 40 minutes (really they were *large* chicken breasts). I wound up using chopped tomato, 'cause I had some leftover from a salad and I used quite a bit more than a 1/2 cup of cheese per breast. I also didn't really bother to measure the wine, just poured in enough to have about 1/2" at the bottom of the baking dish. Next time I might add a sprinkle of garlic to the top - but we both love garlic and tend to add it to everything - and the mushrooms. The tomato was just perfect tho, as it added a little tang. Kevin thinks the next time we make it we'll use fresh grated cheese rather than the packaged stuff as the topping was a little salty. I served it with rice pilaf and a salad. Yum. Kevin was sorry there weren't seconds.
Karen Vicky Larmour, September 6 I made the starving student chicken on Saturday night. It turned out nice - I used tomatoes and mushrooms on top, and a mixture of cheddar, parmesan and breadcrumbs for the topping. The only small problem was that the breasts I used were a bit small, so the tomatoes and mushrooms would only just balance on the top! I used sherry mixed with water because we didn't have any opened wine and I didn't want to open any specially. It smelt very strong while cooking but the sherry taste was mild once it was done. Very nice, and simple to make! Vicky
Jean Peters, September 6 I made it tonight - well a version of it. I added mixed capsicum peppers and spring onions into the wine before cooking, and left out the tomatoes and mushrooms. I used a mixture of breadcrumbs and cheddar cheese for the topping because I was out of parmesan. I also added dried parsley and paprika to the topping mixture again cos I had no nutmeg (I got to go grocery shopping tomorrow :-) ). I served it with steamed new potatoes. I think I used the wrong kind of dish, I used a casserole dish without a lid, and in hindsight maybe I should have used a larger but shallower dish. There seemed to be too much liquid in it which formed a sort of sauce with the bottom of the the breadcrumb mixture (I covered the entire dish with mixture). I only had chicken quarters, so I decided to take Julie's advice and debone them. I have never deboned chicken before, and in future I'll buy the fillets! I *hate* handling raw meat, and I never think to buy latex gloves. It also meant that I had very large pieces of chicken, so it took longer to cook than I had expected. I had wine leftover from last night, but only about a glass. So I made it up to a cup with water which I think was too much. I should have left the wine as it was. With the exception of deboning the chicken, I agree. I thought it was really nice, and Mark even ate most of his chicken and some of the sauce. Jean
Barbara Elizabeth Warner, September 7 Here's my report: Summary - it was easy, flavourful and delicious! Substitutions: I used lean, "filets" of pork instead of chicken. Wine: I used a red Chilean, just enough to cover the bottom of the 7 by 5 aluminum pan. I put the pork in first, sliced a local field tomato into generous slices, laid these on top of the pork, poured just enough wine on to cover the bottom and go up a little on the sides (I used a small pan so this worked very well and didn't "waste" much wine). Finally, I sprinkled generous amounts of homemade breadcrumbs (from breadmaker bread!) on top. I put it in the toaster oven, at 375 degrees F, for about 30 degrees. About five minutes into the recipe, I remembered about the parmesean cheese and sprinkled it (a lot!) over the breadcrumbs. That worked just fine, I think. I had a tomato-and-lettuce salad (with generous amounts of olive oil, garlic powder and Italian seasoning) for starters, to keep myself from snacking mostly!, and then followed up with the baked pork and some pasta-and-sauce-from-a-package (They call it fettucini alfredo but it's really just white and green noodles in a cheesy-creamy sauce). It was great - I'd highly recommend this to anyone. I think any "flesh" would do...chicken, pork, fish, etc... It's getting added to our recipe box! Cheers, Barbara
jess h., September 10 I made the starving student chicken last night, and it was a big success. Thanks Julie, it's great to have some delicious recipes that don't take so much effort to make! I used already deboned skinless chicken breasts, because I've never deboned a chicken, and don't plan to start now. :) I didn't measure any of the ingredients... I just sliced a couple of big mushrooms and put those on top of the chicken breasts, and then poured the white wine (Riesling) in the pan. I used lots of freshly grated parmesan cheese mixed with breadcrumbs for the topping, and sprinkled some nutmeg and garlic powder on top. I served the chicken with rice and steamed green beans, with a little cheese and the extra wine sauce from the chicken poured over them. Yum! Jessica