Symon Sundays: Veal Chop Milanese with Arugula Salad (but really Chicken Breast Milanese)

I almost didn't participate in Symon Sundays this week, due to a lot going on lately, but here I am sneaking it in last minute. I am so glad I was able to make this because it was so good! I only did one of this week's recipes. I hope to try the other one, Soft Polenta with Mascarpone, sometime soon since I like polenta a lot (and cheese makes everything better.)

For the Symon Sunday dishes so far, I've pretty much stuck to the recipe, but this time I did deviate a bit. For starters, we aren't veal eaters but the book mentions this preparation also works with chicken, pork and beef and most game. Naturally, we went with chicken since its Sage's favorite meat. Another issue we had with the way it was orginally written, was that it was fried. Instead I figured we could bake it, as we have had great success with oven baked panko-crusted chicken tenders. As I suspected, it worked great. My only other change, was omitting the onion from the salad since I can't eat raw onion.

I scaled this back to make 2 servings, using one chicken breast, quartering the breading ingredients, but only halving the salad ingredients. It was an absolutely perfect late Sunday lunch. Meredith chose this recipe this week and she has the recipe posted, using veal, as well as the polenta recipe. Below I am including my version, using chicken and baking it instead of frying.

adapted from Michael Symon's Live to Cook

serves 2

1 chicken breast, pounded to 1/4 in. thickness and cut in half

1/2 cup flour (You could probably use 1/4 cup, I had lots left over)

1 large egg, beaten lightly

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

1 small clove garlic

juice from half a lemon

2 tbsp extra-virign olive oil

1 1/2 cup arugula

1/2 cup grape tomatoes, halved

6 fresh basil leaves

Preheat oven to 375. Set up a breading station. In three separate bowls, put the flour, egg and bread crumbs. Stir parmesan into breadcrumbs.

Season chicken breasts liberally with salt and pepper. Dredge one piece in the flour, shake off the excess, dip it in egg, and last into the bread crumbs to coat. Lay onto baking sheet. Repeat with second piece. Bake for 15 minutes, or until nearly completely cooked through. Remove from oven and turn to Broil. Put back in oven for 3 minutes, watching to make sure it doesn't get too brown. Flip and broil for 2 minutes on other side. Remove from oven.

With chicken is baking, combine garlic, lemon juice and 1/2 tsp salt. Wisk in olive oil. Set aside.

Just before serving, gently toss arugula, tomatoes and basil in dressing. Place chicken breast on plate and top with salad.