Getting Crazy With the Croûtons

Beck gets crazy with the Cheez Whiz. Me, I get crazy with the croûtons because Chez Boeckman-Walker is bereft of Cheez Whiz. We're up to our eyeballs in croûtons, for between roughly January 2000 and February 2008, I ate approximately 1.5 millions bowls of salad then suddenly stopped despite being fully stocked with half a dozen bottles of fat-free Kraft thousand island dressing (yes, I know it's just ketchup and relish, but I like what I like--or used to like) and as many if not more of Rothbury Farms buttery garlic croutons.

"Why the stockpile?" you ask, Gentle Reader?

The answer is quite simple. Our neighborhood HEB would occasionally be out of stock of one or both items for a few weeks, which would cause sheer panic at Chez Boeckman-Walker because, as I previously implied, all I ate were salads dressed with thousand island dressing and croutons. So when the shelves were replenished with these items, we tended to horde in case of another outage. Thus when I stopped eating salads, we had a stockpile.

That stockpile I've grappled with how to dispose of in a nonwasteful way. The dressing--hell, it'll be good through the apocalypse. The croûtons, sealed as they are in very sturdy packaging, are probably good as well, but they're taking up more than their fair share of space in my pantry. Fortunately, Christopher Kimball and the fine folks at America's Test Kitchen presented me with an opportunity to begin to dispose of the croûtons. (If they could present me with inspiration for using half a dozen bottles of fat-free Kraft thousand island dressing, I'll be really dazzled.)

"Oh boy! Chicken Nuggets!"
Last Wednesday (yes, Gentle Reader, I'm that far behind on blogging) night, the husband and I were thumbing through our copies of The Best Light Recipe and The Quick Recipe in search of inspiration for supper the following night. We'd grown a bit tired of the meals we'd been having of late, but I wasn't feeling terribly ambitious to embark on a full-scale culinary experiment since Thursday afternoon we were set to have our first parent/teacher conference, and I was quite apprehensive about what kind of progress report we'd get. Sometimes cooking can soothe my nerves or help me unwind after a harried day. Sometimes, though, cooking can make me even more frazzled, and seeing as how I was already losing sleep over the pending bad news about the boy, I doubted I'd want a big to-do in the kitchen Thursday evening.

Finding the chicken Parmesan recipe seemed to fit with what I wanted: not a lot of prep work, not a lot of cooking time and labor and not a lot wasted if the recipe turned out not to be to the boy's liking. Plus I saw in in the opportunity to use some of the croûtons stockpile, so that was a happy bonus.

Chicken Parmesan1 1/2 C panko (or 2 C fresh bread crumbs)
1 T olive oil
1 oz. Parmesan, grated (about 1/2 C), plus extra for serving
1/2 C unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t garlic powder
NaCl
Ground black pepper
3 large egg whites
1 T water
3 large (8 oz. or so) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 C plain tomato sauce
3 oz. low-fat mozzarella, shredded (about 3/4 C)
1 T minced fresh basil leaves

1. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil, place a wire rack on top, then spray the rack with nonstick cooking spray.
   
2. Combine the panko and olive oil in a 12" skillet, then toast over medium heat, stirring often, until golden (about 10 min.). Spread the bread crumbs in a shallow dish and let cool slightly. Stir in the grated Parmesan.
   
3. In a second shallow dish, combine the flour, garlic powder, 1 tablespoon of NaCl and half a teaspoon of pepper. In a third shallow dish, whisk together the egg whites and water.
4. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, then season with NaCl and pepper. Lightly dredge the cutlets in the flour, shake off the excess, dip it into the egg whites, then coat with panko. Press on the panko to make sure they adhere. Lay the chicken on the wire rack.
   
5. Spray the tops of the panko-coated chicken with nonstick cooking spray, then bake until the meat is no longer pink in the center and feels firm when pressed with a finger (about 15 min.).
   
6. Remove the chicken from the oven. Spoon 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce onto the center of each breast, then top with 2 tablespoons of mozzarella. Return the chicken to the oven to bake until the cheese has melted (about 5 min.).
   
7. Sprinkle with basil and serve, passing the remaining sauce and Parmesan separately.

Nutritional Info
Calories: 310
Fat: 8 g
Sat fat: 2.5 g
Protein: 38 g
Fiber: 1 g
Carbs: 20 g
Cholesterol: 75 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
Only a few futzings on this one, Gentle Reader, the most prominent of which you can sure guess.

• Although I do have panko, I threw an entire 6-ounce bag of croûtons into the food processor (not all at once, mind you) to make the bread crumbs. Not only did I get to skip the whole toasting 'o the crumbs, their garlic flavor gave the crust an extra kick. Sure, the panko had a bit of a nutritional edge, but panko's flavorless--and the croûtons are taking up valuable real estate in the pantry. By the way, that 6-ounce bag gave me the cup and a half of crumbs I needed. Fabulous!
  
• I didn't use freshly grated Parmesan. I used the stuff in the can--so sue me--and didn't have nearly the half-cup needed. I think it was closer to a quarter-cup, so we had no extra to serve alongside the chicken. No big loss there, if you ask me.
  
• I didn't bother with the tomato sauce and mozzarella topping. I did, however, prepare some whole wheat rotini that I tossed with fat-free ricotta, milk and a bit of fat-free shredded mozzarella for a side dish.

Now I know what you might be thinking, Gentle Reader, after looking over the steps for the recipe: Why in the world would you spray Pam atop those coated breasts? As the folks at Cook's Illustrated kindly explained in a sidebar, that spritz of nonstick cooking spray keeps the top crumbs extra-crisp, and...

"This small amount of oil adds that 'fried' flavor to the crumbs, giving your food the illusion of being truly fried without making it greasy or adding too much fat, and ensures that it will emerge from the oven gorgeously golden."

If you dare doubt Christopher Kimball and the fine folks at America's Test Kitchen, just see for yourself what spraying nonstick cooking spray atop crumb-coated chicken breasts does for said crumbs:

Gorgeously golden, non?

You might have noticed earlier, Gentle Reader, that I only made two chicken breasts. Yes, I opted not to partake of this particular dish because I just didn't feel like more chicken. I was chickened out, so I thawed some yummy vegetable curry to enjoy. The husband gave me a bite of the chicken, and I thought it was pretty yummy, but I'm just not big on chicken dressed in coats.

The boy didn't see this meal as a light take on a favorite Italian restaurant offering. No, he took one look at the cut-up breast on his plate, grinned and hollered, "Chicken nuggets! Oh boy1 Chicken nuggets!"

Oy.

Recipe Update
A few weeks back, I shared with you my take on a Rice Krispies treat that uses Cocoa Krispies instead of Whitey McWhitey Rice Krispies. Well, Gentle Reader, I made it again late last week, this time using Choconilla Cocoa Krispies, a box of which I got for about a buck fifty at HEB using an in-store coupon.

How'd the bars turn out? Well, know in advance, Gentle Reader, that Choconilla Cocoa Krispies are pretty damn sweet because the white rice puffs aren't just regular Rice Krispies thrown in with regular Cocoa Krispies. No, they're shellacked with some chemical that tastes nothing like vanilla but is very sweet. So by the time you add these shellacked-with-sweetness rice puffs in with a fourth of a cup of Splenda brown sugar blend and half a cup of agave nectar, which I used in lieu of light corn syrup this time around, you wind up with some teeth-rottingly sweet stuff. But oh! is that teeth-rottingly sweet stuff wonderful! The brown and white puffs make the treat visually interesting as well.