chicken milanese with endive & cambozola.

After such a heavy meal at Brasserie L'ecole on Tuesday, we felt like something yummy-but-light on Wednesday night. And who did we turn to? ... Gwynnie, of course! And again, our girl delivered.

I'm quite pleased with her. Might even consider calling her a friend.

This time, we cooked up a super-easy chicken milanese recipe with a topping of sauteed endives and cambozola cheese (because we couldn't get too healthy here!)

Here's what happened, though. 

The original recipe called for gorgonzola cheese and three large heads of endive. So off my mom went to the grocery store, only to

a) find NO gorgonzola whatsoever, and 

b) get into a near-brawl with a woman at the endive bin who proceeded to get there 0.5 seconds before my mom and grab every single endive in the house but two measly stragglers that she didn't deem fit for her endive-full basket.

Shit!

So, we made some slight adaptations. And if our adapted version is any indication of how good the real version will turn out, then you absolutely NEED to make this. 

Because our adaptation was delicious.

Gorgonzola was swapped for cambozola and we filled out our lack of endives with coarsely chopped, romaine lettuce, making sure to discard any dark, wilted bits and stick with the crunchy, lighter bottoms that were closer in texture to endives.

What we ended up with was a crispy, breadcrumb-coated paillard topped with a warm, slightly-crispy salad of sorts with big hunks of creamy, melty cambozola cheese. 

Obv, we used way more cheese than Gwynnie's original recipe called for. I like to think that if she didn't have to fit into sample-size Oscar gowns, she'd do the same. We also probably used more greens, thus keeping in line with the balance of the toppings. 

The whole family agreed we could have used even more, though. In fact, my dad and I could be seen having a silent fork-battle over the few leaves left on my brother's plate. Sad.

It was just really, really good.

Aiming for some sort of "healthy" we served this without a side of bread, pasta, or mashed starches of any kind. Shocking!
(Don't rain on my parade and tell me that the panko crust qualifies as a carb. I need my moment here.)

And you know what? I didn't even miss them. Whatsoever. It was a satisfying and delicious light dinner on its own. I left feeling virtuous with just a slight yearning for more of that cambozola-endive-y goodness.

 So much so, that I was tempted to lick my own dinner plate at the table.

I forced Henri do this first, to test out the reaction of the crowd.

But didn't get up the courage to go for it, as somehow he made this move look so much cuter than if I were to attempt it. 

Ah, well. Another day.

Make this!

Next time, I'm adding crispy chopped bacon to the endive topping. Mmm-mmm-mmm!

Chicken Milanese with Endive & Gorgonzola

(adapted from My Father's Daughter cookbook)

Serves 4

Need:

For chicken:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, washed and dried

1 cup milk

2 cups panko bread crumbs mixed with 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper and 1 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided

For topping:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

4 large heads endive, roughly chopped into 1/2-inch-wide pieces

1 cup roughly crumbled gorgonzola cheese (or cambozola, like we used!)

To do:

- place chicken breasts between two pieces of baking parchment paper.

- using a mallet, pound the chicken breasts until they're very, very thin - about 1/6 of an inch (we didn't achieve quite this thin and it was still fantastic.)

- Put milk in a shallow bowl and bread crumbs on a large plate. Dip each piece of chicken into the milk and then dredge it in the bread crumbs, tapping off excess to get a thin, even coating. 

- Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a large nonstick skillet.

- Cook each piece of chicken for about 4 minutes on the first side, or until evenly browned and crisp.

- Flip and cook for an additional 2 or 3 minutes or until other side is browned and crisp and chicken is firm to touch.

- Wipe out skillet and repeat with remaining 1/4 cup olive oil and pieces of chicken.

- Meanwhile, for topping, heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. 

- Add endive and saute for 5-7 minutes, or until browned and softened.

- Pull off heat and stir in crumbled cheese.

- Place one piece of chicken on each of four dinner plates and divide the endive and gorgonzola mixture over each piece.

Enjoy!