Parmesan Ranch Chicken

This is a fabulous recipe from Lion House Classics. Tory made this for my birthday three years ago and it is definitely one of my favorites. I will admit that I have never made it myself, Tory does just too good of a job! (See those masculine hands preparing this delicious dish, I just love it when he cooks.)

1/2 cup cornflake crumbs

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 ounces dry ranch dressing mix

6 boneless chicken breasts (we use boneless/skinless, it is all we buy)

3/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (there is a difference between grated and shredded I guess)

26 ounces marinara or spaghetti sauce

In a shallow bowl, combine cornflake crumbs, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese and ranch mix. Coat both sides of chicken with mix. Place in 9x13 inch pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray (Tory prefers the the butter flavored style, use whatever floats your boat.) Spray tops of chicken with nonstick cooking spray to keep moist. Bake at 35o degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Just prior to serving sprinkle with remaining Parmesan. Heat Marinara sauce and serve over cooked pasta and chicken. Serves 6

Now what does this picture have to do with anything, well nothing. I just love cheese so I thought I would take a picture of it. Plus this makes for a great place for me to discuss our secret ingredient we tried last night that impressed our guests. I must first explain out predicament. Tory saw of our favorite friends at church and invited them over for dinner. Which I was very excited for, but I planned on just doing simple breakfast for dinner (classic Sunday afternoon dinner). So we are brainstorming on what we should fix and it came to us, this fabulous chicken dinner. The only problem, no corn flakes. We looked in our pantry and tried to brainstorm some more and came up with taking the flakes out of our box of Honey Bunches of Oats. The end product, so much better. It gave the breading a hint of sweetness and cinnamon that was such a great contrast to the ranch and cheese. Needless to say we will probably do it again and again.