Cheesy Herbed Chicken (Another Version of Chicken Parmegiane)

This dish is the sibling of my entry to Presto Pasta Night. Chicken Parmegiane is one of the dishes that Giada de Laurentiis made together with Lemon Spaghetti. When I saw her layer my favorite food components into her pan, I know this is one dish I certainly can't resist. I love the marriage of herbs and cheese in a poultry. I envisioned a lip-smacking, finger-snapping meal. But since my pantry is limited with some of the ingredients she used, I modified the recipe and made it more to our taste liking. I was just a bit disappointed with the brand of the quickmelt cheese I used in my first try. It's simply not true to its name. It did not melt easily and the fusion of tomato sauce and cheese that I expected did not happen. (I'll just let the photo below talk more about it). Fortunately, it did not completely spoil the dish's overall profile. It still has that rich, cheesy and herby notes. Hence, I know better when I made it the second time around. Complement this dish with your favorite pasta and you'll never go wrong.

What you need:

250 g italian spaghetti sauce, 1/2 kg chicken breast fillet, 1 cup quick melt cheese, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, 5 tbsps extra virgin olive oil, 1 tsp italian seasoning, 1 tbsp chopped fresh basil leaves, 1 tbsp butter, salt and pepper to taste

How to Prepare:

1. Mix together italian seasoning or herb mix, salt, pepper and 2 tbsps of olive oil in a small bowl.

2. Brush the mixture to the chicken fillet (both sides) and pan-fry it in the remaining amount of olive oil until the skin turns brown.

3. Transfer the cooked chicken in a baking dish. Pour over the italian spaghetti sauce. Add the quickmelt cheese and parmesan cheese on top.

4. Spread out butter in the baking dish and bake it in the oven until the cheese melts.

5. Add chopped fresh basil leaves before serving.

*If you want to do it Giada de Laurentiis' way, replace the above ingredients with the following: fresh rosemary and thyme for the italian seasoning, tomato sauce for the italian spaghetti sauce and mozarella cheese for quickmelt cheese.