Chicken Maria
Servings 4
Ingredients
- 4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves (2 2 1/2 pounds)
- 2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup gluten free breadcrumbs or panko
- 1 cup mushrooms, sliced (5-6 medium mushrooms)
- 2/3 cup chicken broth
- 1/3 cup white wine
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- 6 ounces mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Pound the chicken. Spread a couple of pieces of overlapping plastic wrap on clean counter creating a rectangle that’s about 20” x 22”. Space chicken out on plastic wrap and then cover with another couple of pieces of wrap. (This will help contain any juice that could fly as you pound the chicken.) Using a meat pounder, rolling pin or other heavy object, pound the breasts to about a ½” thickness.
- Create an assembly line for browning the chicken. Crack the eggs into a pie plate or other shallow dish and whisk well. Spread bread crumbs/panko on a piece of wax paper, begin heating 2 tablespoons of EVOO in large frying pan over medium heat.
- Working in batches (I usually cook 2 breasts at a time) bath the breasts in the egg, lift out of the egg allowing any extra to drip back in the pie plate, lay in the bread crumbs/panko and coat evenly, saute in heated pan for about 3 minutes per side. The chicken should turn a nice golden-brown color. Remove to baking dish and repeat with remaining 2 breasts. You may want to add another tablespoon of oil to the pan before sautéing remaining breasts if it is dry.
- Combine broth, wine and lemon juice and pour around chicken. Scatter sliced mushrooms over chicken breasts and then layer on the cheese slices
- Cover baking dish with aluminum foil, tenting it as best you can so the cheese, once melted, stays on the chicken rather than sticking to the foil.
- Bake for 30 minutes, remove foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
Notes
This recipe is adapted from a Boise Junior League cook book that we received as a wedding gift nearly 35 years ago!