oscars chicken parm
it's kenergetic
Good morning, Pasta for Breakfast readers, and a happy day after Oscars Sunday to all who celebrate. (Oscars Monday? We’ll work on it.)
I love award shows. I love a topical, roast-y monologue1. I love acceptance speeches that strike a balance between earnestness, breathless surprise, poise, and remembering to thank your publicist, which people seem to be very into this year, even though DaVine Joy Randolph alluded to the fact that this is not normally done. Do people think you just… win an Oscar? Wild. (Emma Stone did this very well. As did DaVine!) I love when co-stars banter or promote their next project. (America Ferrera convincing Kate McKinnon that Jurassic Park was not a documentary? Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in Wicked-perfect green and pink? I’m in. I’m seated. Sign me the fuck up.)
I love first wins and all the wins that come after. I love the bits! I love the lewks! I love when people thank their moms. (Happy mother’s day, Yoko!) This is the award show where Bonnie and Clyde almost let La La Land steal the statue from Moonlight and where John Travolta gave us Adele Dazeem, speaking of Wicked (happy birthday queen). As far as I know, no one got hit in the face this year, though a very sculpted John Cena did present the award for best costumes without wearing much of anything.
I love show business, dammit, and Jimmy Kimmel is the right man for this job. (I guess I should say I love well-produced award shows. Please, dear lord, don’t make us sit through Jo Koy again.) Jimmy and his writers threw in a shoutout to the Hollywood strikes this year, and highlighted the behind-the-scenes workers who make all of our favorite entertainment possible. IATSE and the Teamsters are negotiating their next contracts now — those folks were out of work for most of 2023 and came out in huge numbers to the picket lines during the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. (Jimmy also got in a nice dig at the DGA. Do we think that was improvised? Sound off in the comments!)
I was glad to see performers wearing Artists4Ceasefire pins. Shoutout to protesters in Los Angeles who made Bob Iger an hour late for the red carpet. (Iger is the CEO of Disney, and I can only describe the AMPTP executives’ behavior last year as… Disney villain-esque.)
Wolfgang Puck has catered a big Oscars party for many years and famously serves mini chicken pot pies and chocolate Oscar statues dusted in real gold. My stash of powdered precious metals is running low, but I wanted something hearty, festive and a little bit dramatic: Enter Oscars chicken parm.
I’ll be honest with you. Making chicken parmesan is kind of a pain in the ass. This is not an “easy 30 minute weeknight sheet pan dinner” or whatever other SEO-optimized verbiage so many recipes will have you believe. It’s also pretty impractical to make for just one person, but I only parmesan-ed one chicken and left the other cutlets plain to use throughout the week. From start to finish, it took me about two and a half hours, and most of that time is active. All that said, cutting into a crispy cutlet doused in marinara and melted cheese while Ryan Gosling danced at the Dolby in a pink suit? A nearly Nirvana-like moment.
I didn’t adhere to a recipe for this, though there are plenty out there. I like to use Dan Pelosi’s method as a guide and improvise based on what I have and what I’m feeling. For the sauce, I started with some sliced garlic, chili flakes, salt, pepper and oregano in olive oil. Once the garlic had some color, I added in crushed whole tomatoes, water from the tomato can, more salt and pepper, and a little sugar. I let that simmer while I worked on everything else — you could add whatever else you like in your tomato sauce, like basil, wine or anchovies. (Let them dissolve in the olive oil while you are browning the garlic. You will not regret it.)
Here’s where things get labor intensive: it’s time to filet and bread your chicken cutlets. If you’re buying chicken breasts in a package at the store, you’ll want to cut those in half length wise and then pound them so that they’re a bit thinner and more even, which will help them cook through. You could probably get a butcher to do this for you if you wanted, but the world is a difficult place and we all need to get our aggression out somewhere. Hopefully you have more counter space than I do for your dredging stations. (Flour, eggs, and panko breadcrumbs, in that order. In addition to salt and pepper in each layer, I like to season the panko with parmesan and lemon zest.)
Breading in a Brooklyn kitchen — not for the weak willed!
Fry your cutlets in a neutral oil like canola or vegetable oil — olive oil will burn. Don’t crowd the pan and make sure they’re evenly browned on each side. Invest in a meat thermometer if you’re worried about the chicken cooking through. Let the finished cutlets rest on a wire rack if you have one — it’ll help them stay crispy. Hit them with salt as soon as they come out of the frying pan too. Once you have a fat stack of cutlets, spoon your sauce over as many cutlets as you have hungry people and top with a slice of mozzarella and a shower of parm. Stick that under your broiler for a few minutes until the cheese is bubbly and crisp.
Chicken parm for one, please!
Serve with a tangle of pasta, a scoop of veggies, or whatever you like, really. I wanted broccolini or arugula for a side, but Trader Joe’s on a Sunday night unfortunately had neither. I blanched the veggies for one or two minutes in the water I used to cook the pasta to save myself some dishes, then tossed them with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Here at Pasta for Breakfast, we believe in two important food groups: food that is saucy, and food that is crispy. Oscars chicken parm? It’s both, baby!
Suggested musical pairing
I’ve been on a big nostalgia vibe lately, which feels apt for a dish like chicken parm. I discovered this Spotify playlist of “90s women” at the bar a couple of weeks ago and it really hits. I was also at a party over the weekend where the DJ seemed to be catering to my specific microgeneration of people who were Bat Mitzvahed in 2007, and I tried to recreate what I remembered. (I’m also here to report that Texas Hold ‘Em absolutely goes on the dance floor.)
TTFN!
fk
Highly recommend Aidy Bryant’s monologue from the Independent Spirit Awards, which hits all these points. Bryant for Globes 2025!