Wednesday nights, I get out of class at 8:30 pm. Naturally, this is always the night I choose to make a multi-step dinner, rather than just pick something up and call it a night. A few days ago, I wrote about the delicious produce I picked up at the farmer’s market. I bought a bunch of beautiful, very fragrant, bright green arugula from Bee Heaven Farm, just ready to be mixed with some of those baby heirloom tomatoes, a squeeze of lemon, and some salt & pepper. Because I generally need (and enjoy) some sort of protein with my dinner, I wanted to place this mixture on top of chicken. AKA, chicken milanese… kinda of. As I have been dealing with some of the “consequences” of being a food blogger, as expounded upon by ahungryartist.com, (aka, maybe my waist has gained a little since my pre-blogging days), I decided to try and tweak the classic chicken milanese to be a little healthier, but without losing any flavor.

Most of the recipes I found myself reading for chicken milanese require your typical dipping of chicken into seasoned flour, then into egg, then into bread crumbs, and then frying into a golden brown. Frying was out. I would not be soaking my chicken in oil, as much as it pained me not to.

Egg was out. Literally. I did not have one egg in my fridge. And I didn’t feel like adding an egg was necessary, anyways. So I decided to brainstorm, and instead thinned out some dijon mustard, which has virtually no calories and packs a punch of flavor, with some water, to work as my ‘stick the breadcrumbs to the chicken’ agent. This worked wonderfully and provided flavor that an egg could not. The dijon kept the chicken really moist, and the breadcrumbs were still able to get quite crispy in the oven. Piling the arugula and tomato salad, along with some onions that I quick pickled before heading to school that morning, on top of the chicken, provided for a really light, delicious dinner. On the side, I simply roasted a delicious pepper, (again from Bee Heaven Farms), skinned and seeded it. Throw some feta on top if you want, as well.

Arugula Salad:

Whatever tomatoes you have

Arugula

Lemon

Salt & Pepper, to taste

Rip arugula. Cut tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Add lemon to your liking. I used about have a lemon, because I enjoy a lot of citrus.

Pickled Red Onion

Red Onion

Red Wine vinegar

1 tsp sugar

Salt

Thinly slice onion. I used about half of an onion, and used equal parts vinegar and water (in which salt and sugar had been diluted) until the onion was only slightly submerged. Let sit for at least one hour.

Chicken:

Chicken Breasts (I buy fairly large breasts from Whole Foods – that’s what she said –  and have them cut them in half for me. I used such to make this meal, to feed two people).

1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard

1/4 cup Water

Flour

Salt & Pepper

Breadcrumbs (seasoned, or season plain breadcrumbs yourself)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Wash chicken. Place chicken breast between two pieces of waxed paper. Pound until thin with a mallet or a rolling pin. Dredge chicken in flour seasoned with salt and pepper, shaking to get off any excess. Mix dijon with water. Dip chicken into dijon mixture, shake off excess. Dip in breadcrumbs. Bake chicken on baking sheet for about 25 minutes.

Place arugula salad and pickled onion on top of chicken. Eat. Enjoy. Have a glass of wine.

-Stef