Italian Potluck!

Dueling Lasagna night was such a hit when Christine was here in January we decided to go for another round of Italian Potluck. With this feast we had meatballs, pizza, lemon spaghetti, parmesan chicken, vegetables, and garlic bread. And can't forget some to-die-for (Italian) desserts. This post features the chefs themselves on how they made their fabulous dishes.

Dig in! (l > r) Chicken Parmesan, Meatballs, Vegetables, Lemon Spaghetti, Meat Pizza, Veggie Pizza, Garlic Bread.

Chicken Parmesan prepared by Chefs Romin & Mimi
"2 lbs of boneless skinless chicken thighs (It's probably better to use chicken breasts, but the thighs were on sale that week at food lion so I figured I'd try them out.  If you're using the breasts I think the cook time might be shorter, so I'd keep a closer eye on that.)
Half a container of panko breadcrumbs (4 ounces? 8? Enough to coat your chicken)
Whole wheat flour - maybe 1/4 cup
Lite shredded mozzarella - 8 oz.
shredded parmesan - 2 oz.
2 eggs
Marinara sauce (jar of your favorite; I used Newman's Own organic tomato basil cause Mimi likes it)
salt
pepper
cayenne

1- Set up the breading station: a) flour seasoned with salt, pepper, and cayenne b) 2 beaten eggs with a dash of water c) panko bread crumbs
2- Clean and chop the chicken into fairly uniform pieces, about 2 ounces each
3- Transfer the chicken from the flour station, to the egg wash, and then bread crumbs last
4- Sear each piece of chicken on a well-oiled pan on medium-high heat until golden brown on both sides (approx. 1 minute each side)
5- Transfer chicken to oven and cook at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes
6- Remove chicken from oven, coat with a generous amount of marinara sauce, cover thoroughly with mozzarella cheese and return to the oven for another 10 minutes
7- Remove again and add shredded parmesan over the melted mozzarella and return to the oven for about 5 minutes or until chicken appears fully cooked and the cheese is melted"

Meatballs prepared by Chefs Tim & Ryan
"http://teriskitchen.com/beef/minimeatballs.html Meatball recipe!!" 
Everyone loves a good food website. :-)

Vegetables prepared by Chef Holly
"I sauteed some onions in a pan, then added broccoli (it was already a little steamed when i added it to the skillet), sauteed this with olive oil and herbs du provence (best herb mix ever - check it out) then added cut up tomatoes for the last few seconds so they would be warm but not mushy."

Lemon Spaghetti prepared by Chef Patrick
Were you able to catch this recipe when it posted 3/8/11?? Well Patrick loved it so much he couldn't wait to try it again. If you missed it go check it out.

Pizzas prepared by Master Chef Richard
"The pizzas are pretty straight forward. You can buy dough from either a pizza shop or from the grocery store. I got mine from the latter, one of which was whole wheat, and the other of which was Pillsbury brand. The veggie pizza consisted of roma tomato slices, baby bell peppers, onions, basil, and mozzarella cheese. I put some olive oil as well. For the meat pizza, there was pizza sauce, pancetta, and an assortment of italian deli meats I found at Trader Joe's (not sure what they were... prosciutto was one, maybe a salami and another pork product...). I topped it with some left over onions and peppers and finished it with some mozzarella cheese. That's all I remember, haha." Bake until the cheese bubbles, I suppose?!

Garlic bread was my addition... unfortunately it was prepared by Harris Teeter. Although it was the take & bake kind!

Also we celebrated a birthday! Here's the birthday boy!

Our dessert consisted of the Chocolate Chip Cookie Coldstone Creamery cake and wonderful Tiramisu from Romin and Mimi. Double whammy especially since we don't usually have desserts on potluck night.