Chicken Bellag-almosto

This is my version of the Chicken Bellagio you might find at the Cheesecake Factory. I had this a few weeks ago when I had dinner with friends and it was delicious so I thought I would try to make it on a budget. I think I already posted my ingredients and cost list on another post but I'll edit after posting and add it here as well.

First, you need to get a pan of water on the stove for pasta. Add a dash of EVOO to it and sprinkle in some salt. Set it on medium heat until it comes to a boil, that way you have plenty of time to work on the chicken prep.

I started off chopping the basil (sage, because I apparently picked up the wrong package at the store). You could leave it in stalks and probably make it a little more presentable on the dish, but I chopped mine into confetti sized pieces. And just so you know, I started with the basil so that my chef's knife wasn't contaminated by the raw chicken before using on the basil.





Put that aside and flip the cutting board over to the meat side to work on the chicken. I ran the side of my knife blade over each piece, pressing it down evenly to tenderize it. Flip the chicken over and do the same on the other side, then season with salt and pepper. Start a skillet on medium to medium high heat with 2 or 3 tbsp. of EVOO. Let it heat up while you heavily coat the chicken in flour.




Then, dip in bowl of 2 beaten eggs. Press onto plate of Panko crumbs, and press down with a bit of force to make sure the crumbs stick. Coat both sides with Panko crumbs.



Lay in skillet and let cook. Be sure to occasionally swipe any stray crumbs from your skillet to minimize smoke and burning. Depending on the size of the chicken and the power of your stove, you should turn the chicken between 5-7 minutes. You want the Panko crumbs to be a nice golden brown, but make sure you slice into the chicken to check how done it is.

By this time, your pasta water should be boiling. Turn up to high heat and toss in some pasta. I used whole wheat linguine because that's what we had on hand, but I think Cheesecake Factory uses angel hair pasta because I remember it being much more round and thin. Whatever pasta you have on hand will do, or whatever you prefer. Give a good, quick stir and continue to let boil.

You may need to turn the chicken at this point, and start getting your pesto sauce ready. Mine was just a ready to mix package that called for 3/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup EVOO. Next time I will use a little less of both to get a little thicker consistency from it.

I turned the oven to 400 degrees, greased a cookie sheet and put a few slices of prosciutto on it to crisp. I don't care what you do with your prosciutto. It's delicious as is, but I knew Christian wouldn't eat it if it didn't "look" done. I think I left it in the oven about 7 minutes, but it really depends on how crisp you want it, if at all.



And this was what it looked like when it came out of the oven.



When all is said and done, drain your pasta, toss it back into the pan and pour pesto sauce over it. Mix it together until well blended.



The chicken should look something like this, perhaps a little less crisp on top if you remember to sweep away stray crumbs as you cook and turn.



To serve, toss a good sized helping of pasta onto a plate and sprinkle with the chopped basil, as much as you wish. Place a chicken breast on top of the pasta. Garnish the chicken with a slice of prosciutto and sprinkle with basil again. It should look something like this ....



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It was delicious, and Christian loved it, minus the basil (sage). Also, after doing up the dishes, I put a 1/4 cup vinegar on each side of the sink to help clear out the drains from any stray flour, crumbs, sage that might have clogged it up. I'll let that set for half an hour, pour a tablespoon of baking soda inside and another 1/4 cup of vinegar, then run some hot water and all should be copasetic on the prevention front.

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These are the ingredients for dinner tonight, minus the flour, eggs, and seasoning.

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts ... $4.31
Pesto sauce mix ... $0.58
Basil ... $1.89
Panko Crumbs ... $1.58
Pasta (estimation per serving) ... $0.90
Prosciutto ... $3.98
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Estimated Total Cost ... $13.24
Estimated Total Cost per serving ... $4.42 (3 servings, one for each piece of chicken)
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It's definitely more expensive per serving than I usually serve but was nice to pretend to be a fancy Italian chef for a night!