Recipe: Oven-baked Parmesan Chicken

If you want a change from your usual chicken recipes and lessen your time in prepping and cooking, I suggest you try this recipe.

This dish is healthy and very easy to cook. All you need are a few ingredients, an oven and 35 minutes of your time. If you don't have an oven, a mini-oven or toaster oven will do.


What you need:

4 Chicken Breast Fillets
2 cups Multigrain Bread Crumbs
3 tbsp Parmesan Cheese, finely grated
2 Spring Onions, finely chopped
1/2 cup Lemon Juice
4 tbsp Unsalted Butter, melted
1 tbsp Parsley, chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 tbsp Olive Oil

What you need to do:

1. In a small bowl, mix in your multigrain breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, spring onions, melted butter, salt and pepper.

2. Using your hands or a fork, press the mixture on top of the chicken breasts, to form an even coat.

3. Transfer the chicken breasts to a greased shallow oven tray. Before putting inside the oven, pour the olive oil and lemon juice on top of the coated chicken breasts. Bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

4. Remove chicken from the oven and keep warm. Add the parsley on top and serve.

Tips:

1. The type of breadcrumbs is up to you. I use multigrain breadcrumbs at home to up the fibre nutrient of this dish.

2. Go easy on the salt. The breadcrumbs and Parmesan Cheese has a certain saltiness already so taste your mixture before pouring in the salt.

3. Pour a bit of water on your oven tray before placing it inside the oven to avoid dryness of the chicken. Other than a tasty, delicious flavour, we want the chicken juicy as well.Bon appetit!

Thank you's



I would like to thank everyone who email, tweet or message me their feedback(s) on the recipes I share and for letting me know that they have tried my recipe(s). Your comments and appreciation bring joy and inspiration to me. Maraming salamat!

Jeanny in Sydney

I met Jeanny online. A casual encounter via Litratong Pinoy (LP) where Filipinos share photographs weekly based on a theme. From LP, we transcended to being plurk friends and it's at plurk that I learned that she will be visiting Sydney for three months for work reasons.

On the first week she arrived here, we immediately met up. On our first rendezvous, My Husband and I took her to a quick visit to QVB (Queen Victoria Building), dinner at Pepper Lunch, dessert at Lindt Cafe and a walk thru Darling Harbour before we went home.

She's a coffeeholic and so I made a point to bring her to some cozy cafes I know. One of which is The Chocolate Room. One Thursday afternoon, we hung out here after work.

This was where she celebrated her birthday and since she likes Korean cuisine, my Husband and I treated her to Korean BBQ!

The place where she stayed had a mini-gym, pool and sauna. Some nights we'd hung out at her apartment, have a good hour at the gym and a few minutes at the sauna. Before I go home, Jeanny and I would eat her delicious pasta dishes. 

Being a photo-enthusiast like me, I invited her to come with us to the Sydney Camera Market one Sunday of March. 

This was held in the morning so for the rest of the afternoon, we took her to the Fish Market for lunch...

let her experience riding a Metro Light Rail...

and have a quick tour of Star City, the casino place in Sydney.

The days passed by fairly quickly as we both became busy for the past few weeks. Before we knew it, we had our last dinner date and coffee klatch.

Friday night (23 March 2010), My Husband and I took her to dinner by the bay, with the view of the Harbour Bridge. As a parting gift, we gave her a Starbucks Sydney Tumbler.

After dinner, we hung out by the harbour. Such a beautiful night. My Husband and I would sometimes just hang out by the bay and just appreciate the beauty of Sydney at night. We wanted to share that with Jeanny before she left.

Two nights before departure for Manila, we had coffee at a cozy cafe I found in QVB called Old Vienna Coffee House (more on that later). 

We gave her one last parting gift--guess what this is????

.....it's a USB! :)

We ended our night on a quick walk thru George Street (main street in the city--it's like the equivalent of Ayala Avenue in Manila).
 
Saying goodbye isn't always easy. I know we've only really met three months ago but with all the great times and company we have shared, I have found a friend in her. We look forward to seeing each other again--in Sydney or Manila--it doesn't matter.

Thanks Jeanny...for your great company, for the friendship and for being the true person that you are. We miss you already.

Cooking Tip: Fresh is Always Best

In cooking, it starts with the produce that you buy from the market or grocery store. There are some produce that I buy in the market and there are some that I buy at the grocery store. I'm currently lucky to have a mini-market two blocks away from where we live. Some days, I don't have any planned meal in mind and I just figure it out when I'm in the market. I let my senses lead me to the freshest and most beautiful produce I could find on a certain visit.

I'm grateful for my mom for bringing me to markets when I was a kid. I learned about traveling inside a big market, being friends with sellers and butchers and knowing when a certain produce is fresh or not.

 
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Here are some of the tips I follow when in I shop for fresh produce:

On Buying Fresh Produce
(1) Do the squeeze test and look for bumps and bruises before buying.
(2) Take your time. Fresh produce is vital to our diet and it is worth shopping around for.
(3) Be friendly with local grocer owner/s or market sellers or butchers. They will be of great assistance should you need help in finding the right produce for you.

On Choosing Fresh Produce
(1) The freshest produce are the ones in season--take advantage! In spring, buy apricots, artichokes, asparagus, avocados, beets, carrots. In summer, buy berries, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, figs and garlic. In fall, buy apples, broccoli, fennel, pears, sweet potatoes.
(2) Buying out-of season produce does not mean it's not fresh. It may only mean that the produce may be smaller or weaker in taste compared to in-season produce.

On Buying Vegetables
(1) Be selective. Examine each vegetable individually. Be on the lookout for rotten pieces mixed in with the good group.
(2) Look for bright color.
(3) Check for firmness and crispiness. If you see wrinkles or wilted looking greens, that is not fresh at all.

On Buying Ripe Produce
(1) Remember that overly ripe produce is squishy and overly juicy.
(2) Check the color. If a produce has pale color, choose another one that has more color.

On Buying Fresh Fish
(1) Look for bright and clear eyes, plus shiny, metallic and clean skin.
(2) Fresh fish smells like clean water or has a scent of the ocean.
(3) The place where you buy seafood should not stink! If you find yourself in a fish market that reeks, leave.

On Buying Fresh Meat
(1) Look at the color. Beef should have reddish color, pork should be pink, poultry should be white or pale yellow.
(2) Smell the produce. Avoid buying if the meat has a rancid or strange smell.

These are some of the tips that I normally follow whenever I do my shopping at the market or grocery stores. Hope these few suggestions will help you in finding the fresh produce you need for cooking.

**This post is also in response to Fave Diets Blog's monthly Healthy Bite. The question for April is "What is your favorite healthy cooking tip or trick?"

Pre-Natal: Tom and Ara

It's always such a joy hearing news of couples having a baby. And it's always extra special when those kind of news come from good friends.

When I learned about Tom and Ara's pregnancy, I screamed with so much delight. Ara and I were walking on the beach a few days after my birthday when she told me the news about her pregnancy. I was totally ecstatic when she told me I will be the godmother of their little bundle of joy, it felt like a belated birthday gift.

 

Two weeks ago, our barkada were at the park to celebrate a friend's birthday. We took the opportunity to take a few shots of the soon-to-be parents Tom and Ara.

Chris and I thought it was the perfect concept for a pre-natal shoot. Trees for the symbol of life. Autumn colors which symbolize the season. Changing of leaves for the symbol of growth.

To make the pre-natal shoot a bit different and more special, I asked our other girlfriends to join in the shoot.

 

We hope that when Tom and Ara's little bub sees this photos of ours in a few years, she will know how much she means to us.

 

This is my Husband and I's first pre-natal shoot and we are grateful that Tom and Ara trusted us in capturing a very special moment of their lives.

Pre-natal Shoot for Tom and Ara
Bicentennial Park (NSW, Australia)
17 April 2010

All photos by Chris and Ivy Sanchez, copyright 2010.
Cameras: Canon 7D, 30D and 400D.
Lenses: Canon 17-85mm, Canon 50mm and Fujinon 55mm
Flash: Canon 430EX and Canon 270EX