I know I have mentioned I am sure dozens of time about the local produce markets, but really – I just love them. We went this past Saturday and I was looking for some green onions. As I am now a pro stand shopper, I scoped out a lady on the street who had the best pickings and went to her. I bought two bunches and as she handed them to me I could just smell all the fresh herbs tied up with my onions. I feel as though I have mentioned this practice before, but I really think it is awesome that they do this. It is like fresh herbs for free. When we got home I was taking things apart to store, and noticed that in addition to the typical thyme, there was so much fresh basil and some celery and some other savory leaves that I don’t even know what they were. You can read what I did with the celery and such here. So with my new acquisition of so much fresh basil, I was inspired to try my hand at making one our favorite Italian dishes, Chicken Parmesan, here in Grenada.

What You Need:

2 chicken breasts
fresh basil
1/2 jar pasta sauce
mozzarella cheese
parmesan cheese
thyme
oreganogarlic powder
bread crumbs
flour
1 egg
olive oil
salt and pepper

You start off with a simple breading of your chicken.  I add some pepper into my flour mixture and then add the dried thyme, oregano, and garlic powder to my bread crumbs. Then pat chicken breasts dry, dip in flour and shake off all extra, dip in egg, then coat in breadcrumb mixture. Then saute the chicken breasts in a pan with a little olive oil until golden brown. Then, take a baking dish and cover the bottom with a layer of pasta sauce. Then add lots of fresh basil leaves. Then place your chicken breasts in, top with some more pasta sauce and more fresh basil leaves (and a little sprinkling of thyme if you wish) then top with mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Place the whole thing in the oven (around 400 degrees) for about 15 or 20 minutes until warm and bubbly. And that is all it takes. I usually serve it on top of some angle hair pasta (or spaghetti or linguine – whatever you like) and of course some garlic bread which is a favorite of Tyler’s when I make it with fresh chopped garlic pieces.

It was quite a delicious meal. We have decided that for the next time we get some basil, we might make this dish again and check out the wine shop and see if we can find something suitable there.

Enjoy!