Easy Chicken Parmesan

Lately I have been obsessed with Pinterest.  I know, just what I need... another obsession.  I could stock pile recipes and ideas all day long. Sure, 90% of them will never get done.  Never mind the harsh reality that if I stopped following everyone's blogs and pins there would be actual time to do those things!

My daughter and son-in-love (law just seems so rigid, we have chosen to love this dear man!) were coming over for dinner and I wanted to have a meal that would be fairly easy to manage.  Although there are some things I would change next time I make it, over all it got high flavor scores.
I found this recipe off of Pinterest.  It was originally pinned from Food Wishes  which gives a great video of how to make this easy meal. In fact, this is what he does; Video Recipes.  There are tons of things I want to try out on his blog.. If you do try this recipe please visit Chef John's blog and thank him!

 Notes:  My topping looks burned.  It didn't bother the flavor a bit but does make the picture a bit icky looking.  I would cover this dish with tinfoil for about half the cooking time to prevent this from happening again. Everyone would have like a bit more sauce, so I would actually increase the marinara by another cup.  I encourage you to try the recipe first as is.  It was absolutely delicious!

Easy Chicken Parmesan

Recipe from Foodwishes.com

Ingredients: 

2 tbsp olive oil 

2 cloves garlic, crushed 

hot red pepper flakes, to taste 

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used 5, but they were huge!) 

2 cups marinara sauce 

1/4 cup chopped basil 

8 oz mozzarella, shredded 

4 oz Parmesan, grated 

1 (5-oz) package garlic croutons

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the olive oil in the bottom of a 9-in x-13-inch pan.  Sprinkle garlic and red pepper flakes 

over the olive oil. 

Place chicken onto the olive oil. I cut my chicken breasts in half because they were quite big.  

Pour Marinara sauce over all the chicken pieces

Place chopped basil over chicken. (I had to use dried)

Sprinkle 2 ounces of Parmesan cheese over the top.

Sprinkle 4 ounces of shredded mozzarella.

Cover with the garlic croutons.

Finish off the topping by covering with the remainder of the Parmesan and Mozzarella cheese.

Bake for 30-40 minutes.  It is important to use your meat thermometer to make sure that your thickest piece of breast meat reaches 165 Degrees F.

I served ours with angel hair pasta that was drizzled that was tossed with fresh minced garlic and olive oil.