Perhaps the all-time number-one most popular Italian-American dish, Chicken Parmesan is often made of thickly breaded chicken cutlets topped with way too much cheese and garlicky tomato sauce. (And in many restaurants, if you can locate the actual Parmesan in the “Chicken Parmesan,” you should win a huge prize.) I wanted to remain true to the heartiness of the dish, but I also wanted to lighten it up a bit. So I don’t bread my cutlets, but instead brown them in a skillet before adding the topping and baking them.

　　

Ingredients

4 main-course servings

　　1 tablespoon olive oil

　　1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

　　1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

　　1 teaspoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

　　4 chicken cutlets (about 3 ounces each)

　　1 teaspoon salt

　　1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

　　3/4 cup Marinara Sauce (page 59)

　　1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

　　8 teaspoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

　　1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into pieces

　　

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. In a small bowl, stir the oil and herbs to blend. Brush both sides of the cutlets with the herb oil and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Heat a large, heavy ovenproof skillet over a high flame. Add the cutlets and cook just until brown, about 1 minute per side. Remove from the heat.

　　

Step 2

Spoon the marinara sauce over and around the cutlets. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of mozzarella over each cutlet, then sprinkle 2 teaspoons of Parmesan over each. Dot the tops with the butter pieces, and bake until the cheese melts and the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes.

　　Reprinted with permission from Everyday Italian: 125 Simple and Delicious Recipes by Martha Stewart Living Magazine. Copyright © 2005 by Giada De Laurentiis. Published by Crown Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved.Giada De Laurentiis is the star of Food Network's Everyday Italian and Behind the Bash. She attended the Cordon Bleu in Paris, and then worked in a variety of Los Angeles restaurants, including Wolfgang Puck's Spago, before starting her own catering and private-chef company, GDL Foods. The granddaughter of movie producer Dino De Laurentiis, Giada was born in Rome and grew up in Los Angeles, where she now lives.