Chicken Parmesan à la GI Diet

An Italian classic, creatively tinkered for the GI diet. Radically cut the fat, added a healthy amount of fibre, and didn't lose a bit of the Italian goodness! I just made this for me and my wife last night, and she loved it. A definite repeat and repeat again...

Ingredients

For the Tomato Sauce

1/2 cup white (or yellow) onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
4 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon dried oregano (or 2 TB fresh)
28oz jar of good quality crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup of sun dried tomatoes (packed dry, not in oil), finely minced

For the Chicken

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated fresh parmesan (low-fat if available)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
pinch each of ground pepper and sea salt
2-3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup part skim shredded mozzarella cheese

To Serve

8 oz cooked whole wheat pasta
1/4 cup fresh basil, coarsly chopped

Instructions

Spray large sauce pan with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Add onion, green pepper, and garlic and sauté for 5 mnutes.
If using dried oregano, add now and cook 30 more seconds.
Add tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, bring to a simmer and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Add oregano now if using fresh.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Combine wheat bran, germ, bread crumbs, parmesan, thyme, pepper and salt in shallow dish.
Place chicken on cutting board, place hand on chicken breast and cut in two even halves horizontally (see notes), creating four thin pieces.
Spread both sides of each piece with thin coating of mustard.
Place breats in breading mixture and coat both sides. Place on baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray.
Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes.
In the meantime, start boiling water for pasta and cook al dente according to package directions.
After baking chicken for 20 minutes, remove from oven. Add 2-3 TB of tomato sauce and about 2 TB mozzarella to top of chicken breast.
Place chicken back in oven on middle rack and broil for 5 minutes or until cheeze is slightly browned.
Serve one piece of parmesan chicken with pasta on the side. Top pasta with remaining tomato sauce. Sprinkle chicken and pasta with chopped basil.

Serves 4

Recipe Notes

Cutting it in half horizontally (my preferred way of cooking chicken breasts) makes it cook very quickly and gives it no time to dry out.
The tomato sauce is easy to make in larger batches and freezes well. Double the batch.
The chicken can be frozen after step 9. Defrost in the fridge and simply top with tomato sauce and cheese. Bake for 5 minutes before broiling for 5 more minutes to make sure chicken is heated through.
I prefer fresh herbs, but dried works well in this recipe. Fresh herbs don't stand up very well to a marinade and should be added near the end of cooking. Dried, on the other hand, release their flavour over thyme, so they should be added early.

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