Sauce:
4 tablespoons olive oil
½ a yellow onion, small dice
4 garlic cloves, minced
Pinch red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 tablespoons tomato paste
56 oz canned crushed tomato
1 large basil sprig
Chicken:
2 boneless chicken breast halves
2 cups panko
2 eggs
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons garlic powder
⅓ cup parmesan
Cooking oil spray
12 oz fresh mozzarella
Salt and pepper to taste
To make the sauce:
- Add olive oil to a sauce pot and heat pot until the all is warm.
- Add in minced garlic and onion and cook got one minute. Add pepper flakes and oregano and cook for a minute more.
- Add tomato paste and cook for two more minutes, stirring.
- Stir in canned tomatoes and add basil.
- Simmer, stirring occasionally, for thirty minutes.
For the chicken:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Combine flour, salt, pepper, half of the parmesan and garlic powder in a bowl.
- Whisk eggs with buttermilk in a different bowl.
- Spread panko on a sheet tray and toast in a 400 degrees F oven. Place toasted panko in a bowl.
- To bread chicken, coat both sides with the flour mixture, then egg, then breadcrumbs.
- Spray a sheet tray with cooking spray thoroughly. Place chicken on the tray and lightly spray the chicken with more cooking spray.
- Cook chicken at 400 degrees F until cooked through and crisp.
To assemble:
- Add one-third of the sauce to the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange breaded chicken on top.
- Top with another third of sauce down the center of the breasts.
- Slice mozzarella and cover the breasts. Sprinkle remaining parmesan in the dish.
- Cover the chicken with last third of the sauce and cook in a 400 degrees F oven for about twenty minutes. Check occasionally to avoid burning.
