Italian Baked Parmesan Chicken Breasts

Chicken is one of those foods that seems easy to cook, but it is easy to end up with it too dry.  The key to my Italian Baked Parmesan Chicken Breast is searing it to seal in the moisture and then finishing it off in the oven to bake.  The added benefit to this is that you end up with a healthier recipe because you are not frying the chicken only searing it.  I used coconut oil to sear which is a healthy fat versus using butter.  Try not to use Olive oil here, because of the high heat the olive oil will heat above its smoke point which refers to the temperature at which a cooking fat or oil begins to break down. The substance smokes or burns, and gives food an unpleasant taste. Another option here would be grape seed oil or avocado oil.

I used Schiavone’s Marinara to top my chicken, which was my Mother-n-law’s favorite.   Her father, my husband’s grandfather use to run an Italian grocery store out of Dayton, Ohio and he sold it in his store because the sauce was made by a local Italian family.  Today I find it in Kroger’s grocery stores in the Spaghetti isle on the top shelf.

Serve the chicken along with the side of a salad and some steamed veggies and you have a complete, healthy and delicious weeknight dinner to please the whole family.