Frugal Yet Delicious~ Buttery Breadcrumb Chicken

I love when my meals are a success with my kids.  Our three boys, ages 6, 4 and 3 are pretty good eaters to begin with, but when my middle son says "MMMM! I love it, mom!" after he tries a bite of his dinner, my heart warms up instantly!  As I do my weekly meal planning I rummage through my pantry and make my meals according to what I've got stocked.  Bread, of course, is something I always have on hand as I'm sure most of you do.  A few months ago I was making dinner and in need of my breadcrumbs from Trader Joes but, of course, I was all out.  So I tried to make my own.  Success!  Why in the world have I ever been buying breadcrumbs?!  It's so easy to make them and they taste so much better (as do most homemade food items).  I love using them in my chicken parmesan, but for a frugal and less timely alternative for a breaded baked chicken, try this recipe for Buttery Breadcrumb Chicken:

• 1 lb. Free-range, organic, boneless & skinless chicken breast (about 1 whole breast)
• 1 cup homemade bread crumbs
• 1 TBS celtic grey sea salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 1 TBS garlic salt
• 1 pastured egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces

For the breadcrumbs, preheat your oven to 500°.  Toast 3 slices of bread to a medium-brown.  Let cool about 5 minutes.  Break up into small pieces in a food processor and pulse until about pea-sized.

Spread breadcrumbs evenly out onto a cookie sheet.  Bake about 4 minutes, stirring once.  Keep a close eye on the breadcrumbs~ they can burn pretty quickly.

After they come out of the oven, put them back into your food processor and pulse again until nice and fine, or desired consistency.  Ta-Da!

For the chicken, lower the oven temp to 375°.  Place eggs and breadcrumbs in two seperate shallow bowls.  Season breadcrumbs with sea salt, garlic salt and pepper.  Dip chicken in eggs, the dredge in the crumbs.  Arrange in an 8x8 baking dish.  Top chicken with cut-up pieces of butter. 

Bake 30-35 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink and the juices run clear.  I paired this meal with buttered brown-rice pasta and some kiwis and strawberries from our garden.

This post is part of Pennywise Platter Thursday at The Nourishing Gourmet.