This is not the chicken parm you make for guests. This is the chicken parm that I make for myself when on a Monday night, I decide I want chicken parm and in five minutes I'm eating.
So what shortcuts are we using? Frozen chicken tenders. I use the Trader Joe's brand for this dish because they are the crunchiest. Microwave then griddle on electric grill to make sure both sides are ultra crispy.
The sauce is another shortcut. I just use a jarred marinara and zhuzh it up with salt, pepper, basil, garlic and balsamic.
Meanwhile, grate some fresh parmesan and we're ready to assemble.
What I did above was sauce on top of chicken, parm on top, into the broiler for a minute and we're golden. The chicken says it's 130 cals per piece, so that's 520 in chicken, another hundred for the sauce, 80 for the cheese, and that's a big plate of chicky chicky parm parm for 700 cals.
Next time I might try sauce on bottom to preserve some extra crunchiness in the chicken.
I made the chicken parm again for lunch today. It was really nice to follow along for what I did to the sauce and not have to think about it. I didn't even have to do any math or think about calories.
ReplyDeleteI did do the sauce on bottom this time but it doesn't really make a difference. Any side that touches the sauce loses the crispy edge, but that's okay.