Chicken with Pepperoni-Marinara Sauce is a great option for a weeknight dinner. Photo by Johnny Autry for Cooking Light
I read cookbooks the way some people read best-sellers. Cooking Light is my magazine of choice. I am always on the look out for family-pleasing dinners that I can throw together quickly when I get home from work.
Rarely am I so exited by a recipe that I jump up to write the ingredients on my grocery list, but this recipe was that exception. My picky eater didn't appreciate it (she won't eat tomato sauce on anything except pizza), but the rest of us loved it.
In almost every recipe I cook, I change a few of things. My changes can include everything from deleting an ingredient that I don't like (Mushrooms? Yuck!) to making a healthy substitution (replacing half of the white flour in a recipe with whole wheat flour).
Here are the changes I made to
Chicken with Pepperoni-Marinara Sauce: We can't get enough garlic, so I added a lot more than what was called for. I substituted turkey pepperoni and halved them (instead of chopping), and I cut the chicken breasts into 1-inch strips. The cooking times and temperatures need a little adjusting too -- medium-high heat was too high, and five minutes to cook the chicken was too little. Experiment with the recipe and see what works for you.
Try serving it over whole wheat fettuccine and with black olives on the side. We also love making homemade garlic bread to eat with it.
Chicken with Pepperoni-Marinara Sauce Cooking spray
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
16 slices pepperoni, coarsely chopped
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1 1/2 cups lower-sodium marinara sauce (such as McCutcheon's)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 1/2 pounds chicken cutlets
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1. Preheat broiler to high.
2. Heat a saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add garlic and pepperoni; cook 2 minutes or until garlic begins to brown, stirring frequently. Add oregano; cook 30 seconds. Add marinara sauce; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in basil.
3. Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil; swirl to coat. Sprinkle chicken with pepper. Add chicken to skillet; cook 5 minutes or until lightly browned, turning after 3 minutes. Spoon sauce over chicken; sprinkle evenly with cheese. Broil 2 minutes or until cheese melts.
Cooking Light, January 2012
Find the original recipe here.
