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Chicken Parmigiana Neopolitano


Ingredients

• 6 Large Chicken Breasts (The larger the better)
• 1 Pound Ricotta Cheese (softened at room temperature.)
• 3 eggs + ¼ cup water
• 1 Large Green Bell Pepper diced,(remove seeds and white membrane)
• 1 Cup Diced Black Olives
• 1 Cup Diced Mushrooms
• 6 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• ½ Pound Sweet Italian Sausage
• ½ Cup Diced Sun Dried Tomatoes In Oil (You can substitute 2 paste tomatoes skinned, seeds and gel removed and diced finely.)
• 1 Cup Flour
• 1 Cup Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs
• 1 Cup Corn Meal
• ½ Pound Thinly Sliced Mozzarella (Or The Melting Cheese Of Your Choice.)
• 2 16OZ Jars Marinara Sauce (Or Your Own Marinara Sauce)
• Pasta Of Your Choice
• Wooden Skewers Or Toothpicks

Pound chicken breasts to ¼ thick with mallet. Be careful NOT to tear breasts.
Brown Italian sausage until crumbly and done, retain grease. Remove sausage to large bowl add ricotta and mix throughly. To grease in sausage pan, add bell pepper & mushrooms. Saute until translucent.
Drain grease. Add cooked mushrooms, pepper, black olives and sun dried tomatoes to Ricotta/sausage mixture and mix thoroughly. Set aside.


Whisk eggs/water mixture until blended well. Place bread crumbs, flour and cornmeal in flat pan (pie plate works well.) Dip chicken breast into egg mixture. Place egg coated breast into bread crumb/flour/cornmeal mixture. Coat thoroughly. Place 1 heaping tablespoon of Ricotta mixture in center of breast. Bring ends together and secure with skewer or toothpick. Re-coat with breadcrumb mixture, pressing breast down slightly to flatten. Set on plate covered with wax paper. Repeat until all breasts are filled. (if you have leftover ricotta mixture, you can place a tablespoon on top of each browned breast before baking.) In a large skillet, heat olive oil. Add chicken breasts and brown lightly on all sides, adding more olive oil to pan as needed. In a large baking pan, place ½ jar marinara sauce. Place browned chicken breasts on their side in pan. Remove skewers/toothpicks. Top breasts with remaining sauce. Cover pan with foil and bake at 350 for 1 hour. Remove foil & place slices of Mozzarella on each breast. Brown under broiler until mozzarella is melted and lightly browned.


To serve: Ladle marinara sauce on pasta and place chicken breast beside it. I slice the chicken breast crosswise into ½ inch thick rounds. The roulettes make a beautiful presentation. This is a really rich and flavorful mixture so do not use so much sauce on breasts that is drowns out the flavor of the ricotta mixture.


This recipe takes some time but is well worth it. This recipe freezes beautifully. After baking the hour, remove pan from oven. Skip the Mozzarella step. Allow pan to cool and then freeze. When you are ready to serve it, defrost thoroughly. Bake in oven 30 minutes at 375. Remove from oven and place Mozzarella slice on each breast. Follow step(s) above.


This is a “WOW” recipe and will knock the socks off your guests!