Monday, February 1, 2016

Parmesan Chicken Cutlets

Every 4 months, 80 lbs of chicken breast waits on my kitchen island. I spend a whole day, sometimes with
my mother in law, sometimes by myself, processing all that meat into packages of unseasoned, marinated, shredded or ground meat. I have over 50 meals started, and it costs me $135

I order a lot of my family's meat through Zaycon Fresh. The chicken breast comes fresh and straight from the farmer, so it ends up being a lot fresher than what you buy at the grocery store. For example, my last case of Zaycon Fresh chicken breast had a bar code with a time stamp for the butcher date that was 3 days prior to my receiving it. I recently went to my local grocery store to see what their time frame is - and their chicken was 15 days old and also had 3% water injected. It's really not much of a discussion on which chicken I prefer to buy!

So today I want to share with you one of the ways that I meal prep when I am processing all of this meat. When I prep the breasts to freeze I cut them into 3 separate ways (after trimming the fat off) - a tenderloin, a breast and a cutlet. A cutlet is made by laying the breast down on a cutting board and cutting through the middle of the breast, horizontally.


I like to make my cutlets really small; they are really more like a chicken coin than a true cutlet. 
 It's about the size of your palm. Cutting that small bit off a breast makes the breast thickness more uniform so that it cooks easily and the "coins" are really tender. They are perfect for Chicken Parmesan Cutlets!

For the breading:
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
  • 1 tablespoon of paprika 
  • 1 tablespoon mustard powder
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 beaten eggs
  • 1/2 c of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
This will bread about 16 small chicken "coin" cutlets. 2-3 cutlets per adult is a standard serving. The remainder can be frozen between sheets of parchment paper and bagged in freezer bags once fully frozen.

Instructions:
1. Prepare three small mixing bowls. Fill one bowl with 3/4 cup flour, fill the second bowl with 1 1/2 cups of Panko, 1 T paprika, 1 T mustard powder, salt & pepper, and the third bowl with the beaten eggs. Set the 1/2 c of freshly grated Parmesan aside. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Dip each chicken cutlet first into the flour, then into the beaten eggs and then into the Panko mixture.
*If you are prepping for a future meal, skip the baking portion and read the instructions at the end.*
3. Place onto a greased broiling pan or cookie sheet.
4. Bake at 425 degrees F and bake for 15-25 minutes, until the chicken is fully cooked. Flip half way through.
5. Remove from the oven and give each cutlet a good sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.
6. Voila! I love to serve mine with my lazy girl gnocchi (using left over mashed potatoes!!) and spaghetti sauce. 

**If you are going to freeze these, after step 2 place them in between two squares of parchment paper and freeze them on a cookie sheet. After they are frozen, store them in a freezer safe ziplock bag.**

Get started on saving your family money but not compromise the quality of your meat! Zaycon Fresh is where it's at. Sign up here! Also - check out my favorite Zaycon Fresh product - Wild Alaskan Salmon - and how I love to prepare it!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Affiliate links help keep this blog going and using them is at no cost to you! All images, opinions and the recipe are my own. 

15 comments:

  1. These look delicious! I've never seen them made this way! I love that I could make and freeze some for easy future meals.

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  2. What an amazing deal on chicken! I have never heard of any service like this, but I love it!! These parmigian chicken cutlets sound delicious and look very easy to make! I am always trying to come up with new chicken recipes, as my family gets tired of the same old stuff. Thank you so much for sharing! :)

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  3. Looks delicious! I need to look into that service once I get a larger freezer!

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  4. Now I'm hungry. Yum! I really want to start making more meals with chicken. We've been looking into getting fresh meat locally!

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  5. Oh this looks amazing!! Ive been in such a dinner rut and this looks like just the thing to pull me out!!

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  6. These sound so good. We eat alot of chicken and fish at our house because cardiovascular disease is high in our family This sounds so good. I have been thinking about ordering from Zacon Fresh and this article just confirmed the fact that I should. I wonder if this chicken is antibiotic free. I will have to check it out. Thank you so much for sharing

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  7. We do this in our house, too! Homemade chicken nuggets is so much healthier and rather than store bought.

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  8. These look amazing! Sound delicious! Thanks for sharing!

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  9. These sound delicious! We are hoping to start buying our meat in a similar way soon!

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  10. This looks like a yummy and simple meal to try for my family!

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  11. I've had Parmesan on chicken before. Your recipe looks way better than mine.

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  12. This looks so yummy!

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  13. these look so yummy, maybe dinner for tonight.

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