Bake ALL THE CHEESE!

You'd never know it from the way that I keep my kitchen and haphazardly throw ingredients and utensils around when I cook, but I really do like having a plan to follow. Vague recipes make me crazy. There are few worse things that could happen in the kitchen than getting halfway (or all the way) through a recipe and discovering that a step or ingredient was missing and that your dish is now ruined. That's why I read and re-read recipes approximately a bajillion times before I start cooking. Knowing that, you can now understand why this recipe seriously freaked me out. Basically, all of the directions and ingredients just tell you that you can do whatever you want, and it'll all be fine. Sorry, but that's just not how I've been led to believe cooking works. Nonetheless, I needed a quick dinner that I could throw together before hubby got home after a long, snowy day, and he LOVES chicken parm. I figured if I followed the directions (such as they were) as closely as possible, at the very least, some part of it would probably be salvagable, and I could just throw it on a plate with some pasta and pretend that was my plan all along. Let me tell you, I was worried for no reason! The recipe was so easy, and the final product so delicious, that this is officially one of my go-to quick dinner dishes. If you suffer from the same culinary OCD that I do, though, here's a more specific recipe for you.

Look at all that cheeeeeeese...

Chicken Parmesan Bake

1-1/2 lbs chicken breast cutlets (you don't necessarily need to use cutlets, but I thought they were the perfect cut for this recipe)
1 Tbsp. olive oil
11/2 Tbsp. minced garlic (we're big garlic people, so I used a lot of garlic. I don't imagine you need to use that much)
1 Tbsp. crushed red pepper (again, you can use less if you want)
1 jar marinara sauce (I used Prego's new Bacon & Provolone. It's amazing.)
3/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
1 bag Garlic&Cheese croutons (Or whatever kind of croutons you want/already have)

 

Preheat your oven to 350. The first thing you're going to want to do is mix the garlic, pepper, and oil together, then spread the mixture along the bottom of your dish. You want to have a nice even layer of goodness in the pan, then lay your chicken on top of that layer. Cover the chicken and garlic with the marinara. Mix the two cheeses together, then put half of the cheese down on top of the marinara. Now, you're going to crush the croutons. If you have a food processor, that would probably be the easiest way to handle this. Or you could do what I did and just hammer at the bag of croutons with a meat tenderizer until they're sufficiently crushed. Warning: this may freak your dog out. Layer the crushed croutons on top of the cheese. Then, put down another layer of cheese. YUMSOMUCHCHEESE. All that's left to do now is bake everything for about 35 minutes. The cheese should be melted, golden, and bubbly and the marinara should be starting to creep up the sides of the dish. Enjoy! And if you should somehow find yourself with leftovers, it's pretty amazing on Day 2, as well. Of course, what I thought was the last piece of chicken turned out to just be a TON of cheese and sauce. It was still awesome. Using the bacon and provolone sauce gave the whole dish a meatier taste and enabled me to convince myself that I was totally eating a balanced meal. Meh. Balance is over-rated.