bowl of flour Scoop up some flour and toss it on top of the food, then toss the food around until it’s nicely coated Still using your right hand, pick up the food from the flour, shake it a bit to get rid of the excess, and drop it into the egg bowl This time, use your left hand to move the food around until it’s well coated Still using your left hand, pick up the eggy food, let it drip a bit, and drop it into the bowl with the bread crumbs Here’s the tricky part: If you were to now use your right hand to pick up the food and flip it, you’d get egg on it Use your left hand, and you end up coating it in bread crumbs Here’s what to do: Use your right hand to pick up some extra bread crumbs from around the food and drop them on top, then carefully spread them around until you can pick up the food without egging your hand Flip the food and repeat, pressing it into the crumbs to coat it thoroughly It pays to have more bread crumbs than you need in the bowl Pick up the food with your right hand and transfer it to a plate or a rack, ready to be fried As far as cooking the chicken goes, I found that shallowfrying it in a wide skillet was less messy and easier to clean up than deep-frying it I also used panko-style crumbs, which I seasoned myself—far easier than making your bread crumbs, and much better than the sandy “Italian-style” crumbs from the supermarket (see “Fractals, Panko, and Bread-Crumb Coatings,” here) Next up: the sauce and cheese I opted to use my basic marinara sauce for this dish; its richness and deep flavor stand up nicely to the crunchy chicken For cheese, a grating of fresh mozzarella applied before baking is traditional Despite the nomenclature, Parmesan cheese does not always make an appearance in this dish But that’s not gonna stop us I like applying good-quality Parmesan at three different stages First, I incorporate some into the breading It takes on a sweet, nutty flavor as it fries—much better than bread crumbs alone Next, I mix some in with the mozzarella before topping the chicken with it before baking Finally, I add a handful of grated Parm to the chicken after it comes out of the oven The residual heat of the chicken softens the cheese slightly, but you still get plenty of intense, salty hits as you eat it While many restaurants opt to blanket the entire piece of chicken in a thick layer of mozzarella, that ends up softening the coating too much Instead, I found that laying the chicken cutlets out in a casserole dish, then spooning on sauce in a line down the center and adding a layer of cheese left the ends of the cutlets protruding so that they maintained at least some of that crispness you worked hard to create I’d put this version of chicken Parmesan up against any Little Italy version in the country ... before baking Finally, I add a handful of grated Parm to the chicken after it comes out of the oven The residual heat of the chicken softens the cheese slightly, but you still get plenty of intense, salty hits as you... incorporate some into the breading It takes on a sweet, nutty flavor as it fries—much better than bread crumbs alone Next, I mix some in with the mozzarella before topping the chicken with it before... While many restaurants opt to blanket the entire piece of chicken in a thick layer of mozzarella, that ends up softening the coating too much Instead, I found that laying the chicken cutlets out in a casserole dish, then spooning on sauce in a line down the center and adding a