Chicken Schnitzel

It's back to school time.

That means that I'm making myself take a break from lesson planning to do this blog post. As it is every year, the first few days back to school is a whirlwind. It's even more so this year because I'm new at the school. So most of the questions my kids had for me today I couldn't quite answer. It didn't help their anxiety or mine. And, while schedules keep changing, I have all of my students in my room for most of the day until it's all straightened out, which means finding work/activities to fill that time. Needless to say, my eyes are burning and I have a slight headache after going through so many "Back to School" resources and ideas.

I suppose it didn't help that I spent me long weekend before school started camping instead of getting ready for this week, but I needed my last hoorah of the summer. I also crammed this week with extra activities, like my alterations fitting for my wedding gown today and a meeting with my wedding planner Thursday night. And all with cheerleading mixed in and our first game this weekend.

I was able to plan a couple of dinners for this week at least, and even with a busy night, I was able to make dinner. I'm glad I did. A nice home-cooked meal makes the stress of planning a little better. My usual on a busy night is something frozen or really easy like pasta, but I'm trying to get away from the "easy" (aka unhealthier) stuff. I modified the original recipe for this a little bit since my chicken hadn't defrosted quite enough. I decided to bake mine before throwing them on the skillet. The recipe below is with my modifications. I had to bake my chicken for 30 minutes, and they were just ever so slightly undercooked, so the skillet step finished them right up. The recipe was really good. I was hoping to be able to fully cook them in the skillet as was intended, but I was happy with the results. I served it with some garlic mashed potatoes and honey-butter carrots.

Chicken Schnitzel
adapted from My Recipes

4 thin chicken breasts
1/4 cup flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup low-fat milk
1 cup panko-style breadcrumbs
1-2 tsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. garlic powder

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Set up 3 shallow dishes. One to hold the flour, one to hold the egg and milk mixed together, and one to hold the breadcrumbs, parsley and garlic powder mixed together.
3. Dredge each chicken breast through the flour, then the egg mix, then the breadcrumbs, shaking off any excess. Bake for 25-30 minutes (or shorter if your chicken isn't still frozen like mine!) and remove from oven.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a skillet on medium heat, and cook the chicken 2 breasts at a time for 2 minutes per side, until fully cooked through and the outside is nice and browned.