Chicken Parmesan Lasagna

by Red Gold Tomatoes

Two favorite dishes in one--Chicken Parmesan and Lasagna! This is a winner, courtesy of Red Gold Tomatoes. Selita Reichart (she and her husband are 4th generation owners of Red Gold) showed us how to make this delicious recipe for our One Pan Nan shoot at her home in Elwood, IN years ago. She made an impression on me and so did this recipe. Easy, filling, and delicious, this checks off so many boxes for a lovely dinner idea....feeds a lot of people, you can divide it and freeze the other pan, and it's company worthy. Plus, I made this in a cast iron large rectangular pan so, it is truly is cooked all in one pan! Thank you, Selita for sharing this recipe.

For this and other great recipes from Red Gold Tomatoes, go HERE!

Ingredients

• 2 eggs

• 3 cups panko bread crumbs

• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

• 5 thin-cut boneless skinless chicken breasts, or chicken breast halves pounded to ½ inch

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

• 1 can Red Gold Canned Crushed Tomatoes 28 oz

• OR

• 2 cans Red Gold Canned Crushed Tomatoes 15 oz

• 2 cans Red Gold Diced Tomatoes with Basil, Garlic & Oregano 14.5 oz

• 1/2 cup water

• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

• Salt to taste (or garlic salt to taste)

• 1 (16 ounce) box traditional lasagna noodles, uncooked

• 1 (15 ounce) carton low fat ricotta cheese

• 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350° F. Beat eggs in a shallow bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together panko breadcrumbs and ½ cup of Parmesan cheese. Put chicken breasts onto a piece of tin foil or parchment paper and sift flour onto the chicken on both sides.

Dip chicken breasts in beaten eggs, flipping over and then place into breadcrumb mixture, making sure to press crumbs into both sides. Repeat steps with each breast.

In a large skillet or over safe 9x13, heat oil over medium high heat. Fry chicken until golden brown on each side, about 2 or 3 minutes. Drain on paper towels, let cool and cube chicken. Set aside.

Pour tomatoes, water, Italian seasoning, and salt into a large mixing bowl and stir until well mixed.

Pour 1½ cups of sauce mixture into a 9x13 inch baking dish or drain off remaining oil from the over-safe 9x13 in pan used to fry the chicken and pour sauce as describe. Lay 1/3 of the uncooked noodles on top of the sauce, overlapping a bit. Add ½ of the ricotta cheese, 1/3 of the cubed chicken, 1 cup of mozzarella cheese and 1 cup of sauce mixture. Repeat layers and end with last 1/3 of the noodles, the remaining sauce and the last 1/3 of the cubed chicken. Sprinkle entire pan with the remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

Tightly cover the pan with heavy foil and bake for 1 to 1½ hours or until noodles are tender. If you want the cheese on the top to brown, remove the tin foil for the last 10 minutes of baking. Make sure to let cool for about 15 minutes before cutting and serving. Garnish each serving with fresh basil.

Nan's Notes: Red Gold suggests dividing the recipe and baking in two 9x9 casserole dishes if you want to freeze one for later. That's what I did!! Now I have dinner in the freezer when I'm not in the mood to cook! Also, I like a lot of seasoning (the more salt the better for me :), so I do salt and pepper the chicken when I lay them in the pan to fry. I also hit them generously with garlic salt when I cubed them. You can also use garlic salt, instead of plain salt, when you season the tomato mix. That's what I did. I also found that I didn't need that much panko crumbs so keep that in mind depending on how big your chicken breasts are. You can make up 1/2 the mixture and then make up some more if you need to.