School is back in full swing with conferences, traveling, and after school events! With Thanksgiving coming up, things are finally starting to slow down and I can do some catch-up here. The meal I’m featuring this week is a great weeknight meal, because of how quickly it comes together! I take care of prepping the salad ingredients and the dredging station, while the hubs pounds out some chicken breast fillets, peals pistachios, and grates cheese. By the time he’s frying the chicken, I’m cleaning up the kitchen and everything is done in less than an hour.

Chicken Milanese

• 3 large eggs
• salt/pepper
• 1 1/5 cups panko
• 1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (we use our micro-plane to grate, that way it incorporates well into the breading and cooks evenly)
• 1 1/2 lb chicken cutlets, pounded thin
• 1/2 cup oil for frying (we use canoloa)

Arugula Salad

• 1 1/2 tsp finely chopped red onion
• juice from 1/2 a lemon
• salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 cups arugula
• 1/4 cup parsley, torn
• 1/4 cup basil, torn
• 3 tbsp chopped pistachios
• pepper
• lemon wedges

Before starting on the chicken, combine the red onion, lemon juice, and salt into a bowl. This is the base of the salad dressing, and soaking the red onion in the lemon cuts some of the sharpness out of the onion.

Begin heating oil in a large dutch oven. We put enough oil in to cover the top of the chicken, which speeds up frying. The frying temperature will be on the bottle of oil you’re using.

In a large dish, whisk eggs with salt and pepper. In a second large dish combine the panko and cheese. Pound out your chicken cutlets until thin, and then dredge them in the egg mixture. Let the egg drip off, and then coat in the bread and cheese. I press the chicken firmly into the breading, while pressing more into the top and then flip and repeat. Shake to remove loose breading. Fry until golden brown and internal temp is 165.

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While chicken is frying, combine the arugula, tomatoes, parsley, basil, and pistachios with a generous helping of pepper. Right before the chicken is done, add olive oil to the red onion and lemon juice, whisking to combine. Add dressing to salad, and toss to combine! I serve this with extra lemon on the side for the chicken.

Now I’ve got to go yell at my tv for the next few hours. Roll Tide y’all.