I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t go weak at the knees over a good Chicken “Parmie”! It’s a fairly simple dish … crumbed chicken covered with a tomato-based sauce served with a sprinkling of cheese.
I think the secret is two fold: firstly, cooking the chicken just enough so that it’s not too dry with crispy, golden crumbs and secondly, a generous layer of beautiful, rich tomato sauce. This recipe, that I created many years ago, will produce just that. It’s definitely earned it’s title as “easy peasy” … just chop all the ingredients, add them to a large pot, then stand back and allow it to simmer to perfection. That’s the real trick … a low, gentle simmer to allow the sauce to thicken and the flavours to develop.
This recipe is fairly generous and will make enough sauce for approximately 3 meals for a family of four. I usually double the recipe and freeze as many portions as I can so that I can give myself one night a week off cooking for several weeks. As a serving alternative, this sauce is also delicious spooned over pasta … yum! Enjoy!
- 2 onions, chopped
- 2 sticks celery, chopped
- 2 small red capsicums, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 bottles (700g) passata pureed tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 cups water
- 1 chicken stock cube
- Peel onion, chop finely; chop celery finely; seed capsicum, chop finely and crush garlic.
- Heat the oil in a large pot, add onion, celery, capsicum and crushed garlic and cook gently until onion is transparent.
- Add pureed tomatoes to pot with parsley, basil, sugar, water and crumbled stock cube. Bring to the boil and then simmer gently for approximately 30 minutes or until sauce reduces and is rich and thick. Season with salt.
- Serve over crispy, pan-fried crumbed chicken or veal and top with grated cheese.
- This recipe is suitable to freeze.
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