Welcome to the Maple Leaf News Recipe Exchange

More Recipes        Click here to return to Main Recipe Page

Pollo Bandera

What’s a Pollo Bandera?  Bandera is Italian for flag and of course you know pollo is chicken, right?  What the heck does a chicken have to do with a flag?  Well, in this recipe the chicken is seasoned and presented with the colors of the Italian flag - Green White and Red!  Green is basil pesto, red is tomato sauce and white is mozzarella.  Here's how...

 

Ingredients

1. Good sized chicken breast; (one for two servings – butterflied and pounded)
2. Italian bread crumbs (I use the Progresso seasoned kind)
3. Olive oil
4. Basil pesto – make your own with fresh basil, recipe here, or buy it in the deli case, or in a jar.
5. Tomato sauce – Italian style of course!  The spaghetti sauce that comes in a jar works well.
6. Mozzarella cheese.  You can use the kind that comes in brine, the regular kind in the cheese case, or shredded.  Slices work best though.

 Preparation

   “Butterfly” the chicken breast by laying it out flat, and cutting if necessary to spread it out.

   Soften and "thin" the cutlet by whacking it with a meat hammer.  Place it on a cutting board, and cover with plastic wrap to reduce splattering.  If you don’t have hammer you could try a rolling pin, or pestle.  You want it about 3/8" thick when done.

   You can either make giant sized cutlets, or cut them in to smaller sized pieces.

   Dredge the cutlets in the bread crumbs, coating thoroughly.

   Pour enough olive oil in a skillet to prevent sticking and to add a little flavor to the crumbs.

   Heat olive oil to medium high – but no so hot that the oil smokes!

   Preheat oven to 325 - 350

   On the stove top gently fry the cutlets until nicely browned – they should not be cooked through!

   Transfer the chicken to a broiler pan

   You can either make every cutlet a “flag” by topping each with a band of pesto, tomato sauce, and mozzarella, or make each cutlet a different color.  Kids may not like one of the toppings, so this might be the safe way to go!  I like all three flavors on each cutlet.

   Place in oven and cook until chicken is done – time depends on the oven temperature and how done they got from sautéing.  If you think the chicken may already be done from the frying, just heat them enough to melt the cheese and heat the sauces.

 

Serve with a tossed salad - Italian dressing, broccoli, and a bottle of Chianti.  Salute!

Click here to enter a recipe!