Recipe: My Favorite Baked Chicken

*This recipe does use 3 kitchen tools you may not have.  They are inexpensive and so useful.

All I do is smash four organic chicken breasts with a meat mallet until they are about 1/2in thick. Really as thin as they'll go.

*I use the meat mallet on chicken breasts all the time because I hate a big chunk of chicken.  The day I bring the chicken home from the store, I smash it, and put it in freezer bags.

Then I let them marinate overnight in 1 cup of light italian dressing.




When I'm ready to make dinner I mix together 1/2c italian seasoned breadcrumbs, 1/2c whole wheat panko breadcrumbs (you can use regular panko), and 1/4c-1/2c parmesan cheese (really how ever much I end up grating).



There isn't any need for liquid because of the italian dressing so I just coat the chicken in the breadcrumbs and put them on cooling racks over a foiled cookie sheet.  Make sure to spray the racks with non-stick spray.

*Those cooling racks were $2 a piece and I use them ALL the time.  For baking purposes- these let everything get crispy all the way around (homemade chicken nuggets, pork, bacon).  For cooling- cookies and cakes.  For icing- these let all the icing drip onto a paper towel underneath.

Bake at 350* for 30 minutes flipping half way...


or until the meat thermometer says 175* or above.

*Every kitchen should have a digital meat thermometer.  I bought this at Walmart for $10.  I follow cooking times in recipes but a lot of times they are off.  I use the meat thermometer and everything is cooked perfectly every time!



We love this chicken over salads, with rice, dipped in ranch, rolled in wraps, on pizza... Anything!