I’ve spoken before about my sadness as I am forced to reject fried chicken. I’d just like to reiterate that giving up fried chicken is sad. Really freaking sad. Please don’t deny that fact. At some point I will attempt to fry some up myself in a gluten free fashion. But for now I’m going to concentrate on small chicken pieces that I’m less likely to screw up. So I tackled one of my favorite pre-diagnosis recipes that I invented when I messed up another recipe from Fresh Direct. I like to call it “Italian Surprise” but really it’s kind of like a chicken Parmesan casserole cum lasagna situation with some delish prosciutto in the mix. The surprise being, I managed to come up with this and I’m not an Italian grandmother from Jersey, nor Eastern Pennsylvania.

The gluten free changes I made include buying Boar’s Head prosciutto because I read it’s gluten-free. Although I really wonder when your read “pork” and “salt” as the only two ingredients — do I still need to worry? I don’t think so, but let’s be careful out there. I used oat flour, but I also love my gluten free panko bread crumbs I found at Whole Foods. (They also work in a gf mac and cheese gluttonous — yet gluten-free –recipe to come.)

Another tip — if you make your own thick sauce, it works far better than thin pre-made stuff. But if you want to save time please feel free to use your favorite jar, it will still be super good.

If you want to go all Jersey Shore, cook up some gf pasta and pile it on. Personally, I think fried chicken with sauce, prosciutto, and cheese is filling enough. But I haven’t had my Ron-Ron juice today.

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 4 chicken breast cutlets (or pound down regular chicken breasts)
• Oat flour or gf bread crumbs (I heart the panko, but use whatever you’ve got)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 jar of pre-made tomato sauce, or grab a 16-ounce can tomato sauce, grill up 3 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 teaspoons oregano and a dash of salt and pepper and simmer.
• 4 strips prosciutto
• 8 thick slices of mozzarella

1. Beat egg and milk together; add salt and pepper. Soak chicken breasts in egg mixture, then drop into bread crumbs or flour. Begin heating olive oil in non-stick frying pan; when hot, drop chicken breasts into frying pan. Cook on medium-high heat until edges are crispy, but don’t cook chicken until completely done in the middle. Let chicken breasts cool to touch.

2. Pour half of tomato sauce into casserole dish. If making tomato sauce, saute garlic in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until brown, add tomato sauce, and season with oregano and salt and pepper. Wrap each chicken breast in prosciutto. Layer on top of sauce and top with mozzarella. Top the layers off with rest of tomato sauce. Cook in 400-degree oven 15 to 20 minutes, until mozzarella is bubbling.

3. Remove from oven, let sit 10 minutes, and serve.

I love to roast up Ina Garten’s Parmesan roasted broccoli recipe with something hearty like this. And doesn’t it look nice and sloppy on the plate? YUM.

Top image via goosmurf/Flickr