Chicken Pimento

Alright. This does make a substantial mess, so here we go!

Spread bread crumbs on a plate and sprinkle it with the garlic powder, salt, pepper, and oregano. Mix together with a fork and smooth out flat.

Pour the beaten eggs in another small bowl or Tupperware, big enough to dip the chicken into.

Lay each chicken breast out flat one at a time and pound them with a meat mallet (or I used a can of corn) until they’re much more wide and thin.

Coat first in egg, then in bread crumbs. You may run out of both egg and bread crumbs, in which case just beat another egg and/or make more of the bread crumb mixture..

Heat up the olive oil in a large skillet and place as much of the chicken as you can in the skillet – I tend to only fit two of the breasts in at a time, and have to cook them in two batches.

Cook until the breading is a golden brown. Since you thinned the chicken, by the time the breading is brown, the chicken should be cooked as well. Do this on both sides, then remove from the pan and place on an oven sheet.

Do not remove any drippings or cooked bread crumbs from the skillet, you’ll need those later. Just add more olive oil, and start over with the rest of your chicken until it’s all cooked.

Store cooked chicken on the oven sheet for now. Right before you get ready to serve, pop the oven sheet into the oven set at 350 for about 4 minutes to heat it up without getting dry.

Gather the oil and chicken leftovers in your skillet to the middle and begin to add the flour to make a semi-roux. You’ll need to stir this very quickly to avoid burning the flour.

Add enough flour to soak up the grease, and continue to stir it like mad until it’s a brown color, almost like peanut butter.

Pour in chicken broth, probably about a cup’s worth at first. Let it cook down a bit, and then add the rest. Lower the heat a bit, as you don’t want this to burn.

Add the garlic and salt, and tons of basil and pepper. The sauce is meant to have a distinctly strong basil and pepper flavor.

Once stirred, add in the heavy cream. You might not need both cups of the cream, so judge it by taste.

Continue to heat and stir for about 3 minutes before adding the Parmesan. The cheese is actually what you use to thicken this sauce, so use it liberally and stir it well. If the cheese hasn’t thickened it enough, feel free to add more.

Once the cheese has melted and the sauce is thicker, add the diced pimentos last. Stir those in, simmer for another three minutes.

Pour sauce over the wheat pasta, and top this with the chicken breast. Add a bit more sauce over the chicken, and you’re done!