Parmesan Chicken

Lookie what Hadi had for breakfast today. Isn't it adorable??? :D I just *had* to take picture of it, and even now, I can't stop giggling whenever I see it. It is just *too* cute~! Its made of two eggs, with baked beans scattered with cheese. How it became a face, we have now idea. It was some weird coincidence, haha. Besides that, Hadi has also been making okonomiyaki for breakfast. It's healthy (full of cabbage!) and filling too. He also find it really tasty, so its a good option, heh. I am not a fan though. Although I can take little bites, hehe.


Back to the smiley face, I find it so cute, I even tried dressing it up!

To disastrous results, haha. Maybe some of you out there could do better :P


But anyway, let's get back to what was for dinner, shall we?


In my Internet "travels", I've come across a lot of Parmesan chickens. Seems like its a popular dish. I don't quite like Parmesan with pasta, but I've come to like Parmesan with chicken (weirdly enough). I've had it with a few dishes already, such as the chicken with garlic and herb crust, but never have I had it as a proper coating, not as a mere seasoning. So of course, I was curious. So all that's left was to choose one from the myriad of Parmesan chicken out there. That was when I (quite by accident) came across this recipe in AnakBrunei's blog, a local photoblogger. I'm sure many of you have heard of him, hehe. There were a lot more stuff in his recipe than I've seen in some of the other recipes, so I thought I'd give it a try :) So here we go!

What you need:
3 chicken drumsticks
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 tablespoon dried parsley
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons bread crumbs

1/4 cup butter, melted

What you do:

1. In a shallow bowl, combine the Parmesan and the rest of the dry ingredients. Mix well. I got a beautiful orangey powder with specks of green, just so you know. Picture's above, hehe.
2. Dip each drumstick into the melted butter, then straight into the Parmesan mix, turning until all sides of the chicken are coated. Repeat with the other two drumsticks.
3. Place on a shallow baking dish and drizzle any remaining butter over the chicken pieces. Bake in an oven (preheated to 180 C) for about half an hour, or until cooked through.

And tadah~ The cooked chicken looks like the powder. Golden brown, with specks of green. I love using herbs in cooking, hehe. They add a nice splash of colour. ;)


I've more or less stayed true to the original recipe, except for a couple of things. First, I reduced the amount of Parmesan, since we really didn't need so much. I kept the amounts of the herbs and spices the same though. "We like our food strong!" Hadi would say. And second, I added the breadcrumbs. Just to give it a bit of a crunch, hehe.

Also, there's the fact that we used drumsticks instead of wings, but oh well. Wings are cheap here (1 pound per kilo!) but to get them, we have to travel quite a bit, so I usually don't bother. Unless I happen to be in the area. Hmmm... have I mentioned this before??? Sounds vaguely familiar, but oh well.

Anyway, this chicken smelled nicely cheesy while it was cooking, and I was worried that the Parmesan might come off as a bit too strong. But we tasted it, it was surprisingly mild - for Parmesan, that is, haha. Or maybe I really do like Parmesan, just not with pasta sauce. Who knows...? The breadcrumbs didn't actually give much difference in texture, oh well. Maybe I should have added more, but that would have bulked up the mix too much. We would have loads of excess. Plus, it would dilute the Parmesan-y taste, haha.a

One thing that Hadi commented on though was that although the outside of the chicken was flavoursome, the inside was a bit bland. Perhaps the strong flavours on the outside gave a starker difference to the unseasoned inside, meh. So if I make this again, I would probably either rub some of the mix under the skin of the chicken (we did have some extra, but I didn't think of doing that!), or use boneless pieces of chicken, or even wings, haha. Oh well, that's a story for next time, I guess. :D

Quote of the day: In cooking, as in all the arts, simplicity is the sign of perfection.

PS And to those in my family who are reading this, cousins and all... (IF you guys are reading this, which I highly doubt. :P) why have you not signed up??? Yes, you know what I'm talking about, haha. Don't you want cookies? ;)