Peppery garlic parmesan chicken

I'm a pretty happy person by nature.  Not much gets me down for long, but things can certainly bum me out momentarily.

Like wicked cold weather without snow.  Snow just makes cold weather more bearable, and it's so gosh darn pretty!

And library fines.  The.absolute.worst!  Finish the book and incur more fines or return it early and risk waiting a few more weeks before finding out the ending?  Rock and a hard place, folks.

Or, gosh, what's really rocked my world as of late.  Ready for this nugget of information?  The Dairy Queen in the local mall food court has closed.  Oh, this makes me sad.  Super sad.  Because my mall ritual is the following: shop a little, eat nuggets from Chick-fil-A and a mini Blizzard from Dairy Queen, and fully energized, shop a lot more.  The lack of a Dairy Queen really throws a wrench in that pasttime.  Bonus sadness: It's the only Dairy Queen within a 15 mile+ radius!  [shakes fists at the heavens] Whyyyyyy?

But, what really makes my heart heavy, what really makes me pretend a single tear is slowly running down my cheek, is the idea that chicken is a boring food.

How can anyone think chicken is boring?  Chicken is not boring!  It's one of the greatest edible canvases I know!

Okay, I guess I could see how some people consider chicken boring.  Chicken, plain and not wearing any kind of fancy pants, can be a bit bland.  But bland does not equal boring.  Bland just means the cook can let her imagination run wild and dress up that bird however she sees fit!

Fancy pants, fancy blazer, and even fancy shoes, if one's feeling inclined.

Or, you know, if you prefer to eat your chicken, replace pants, blazer, and shoes with garlic, parmesan, and black pepper -- YUM!

Where did I come up with that flavor combination?  Something got me thinking of wings the other night.  While I'm no fan of wings (too much work and mess and  not enough reward; only crab legs are worth that kind of effort), I am a huge fan of the smell of garlic parmesan wings.

That nutty cheese and the incredibly fragrant garlic.  Heck. Yes.  And without the grease and guilt?  Sign me up!

I was intentionally heavy-handed with both the pepper and the garlic and, boy, did that make for some mm mm good chicken!

Cheesy, garlicky, crunchy, and with a bit of a welcome kick from pepper.  Fancy pants chicken, indeed!  Happy pants chicken, for sure.  Gone in much less time than I'd like to publicly admit chicken.  Definitely your next dinner chicken.

But not even close to boring chicken.  No, sir.


Garlic Parmesan Breaded Chicken
(an original recipe!)
-serves 2

One quick note: Cooking time may vary slightly depending on the thickness of the chicken breasts.  Mine were relatively thin, so my cooking time was 15 minutes exactly.

2 4-6 ounce boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup seasoned Italian bread crumbs
2 teaspoons dried garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons grated parmesan cheese
1 egg white, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 400F.  In a small bowl, stir together bread crumbs, garlic, pepper and 2 teaspoons of the cheese.  First dip each chicken breast in the egg white mixture, allowing excess to drain.  Then, coat all sides of the breast in bread crumb mixture, pressing slightly to adhere crumbs, and place on baking sheet.  Repeat with second chicken breast.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until bread crumbs begin to turn golden brown and chicken is cooked through completely.