Chicken Bruschetta from the Pantry

I wrote an article recently about the dependable Italian restaurants in Nashville. When I was first asked to write the article my response was that there are hardly any good Italian (non-chain) places in Nashville and that the list would be quite short. However, I was quite delightfully surprised to find out that I was wrong. Nashville, in fact, has a good number of genuinely good, authentic, and family run Italian restaurants.

I now know where in Nashville to get the go-to cannolis, the go-to fried ravioli, the GO-TO lasagna, and the go-to from-scratch pesto that’s made by first going out back of the restaurant and picking the basil fresh. Once the article is published, I’ll share it here for all of my Nashville friends.

Have I ever mentioned that I’m 1/2 Italian (I’m pretty sure I have)?? My father was born and raised in Sicily and moved to New York with his family when he was ~10-12 years old. Growing up with that little bit of Italian heritage is something that my brother and I have always held onto. In the process of doing research for my article, I talked to quite a few of the people that own these Nashville based Italian restaurants. They all have particularly similar stories to my father and speaking with them reminded me of how much I used to embrace my Italian roots. So, I’m not in the process of convincing my brother to go on a trip around Italy with me once he gets back from deployment.

This Chicken Bruschetta is a play on all of that. Kind of Italian but kind of not (like me!). It tastes standout though and at the end of the day, that’s all we’re truly going for here on B.Britnell.

While seemingly fancy, this is ridiculously unfussy to throw together. And, I recommend serving it on a bed of couscous or quinoa.

Chicken breasts are first dipped in flour, rolled in eggs, and then topped with flavored breadcrumbs before being placed in the oven to bake.

While the chicken bakes, the simple bruschetta is prepared.

Basil, tomatoes, and garlic are chopped up and mixed together with olive oil.

A bit of salt and pepper is added to taste and the bruschetta is done! Unfussy.

Smart people make a little extra bruschetta to eat on toasted bread while they wait for the chicken to finally finish cooking.

Once the chicken is simply cooked through, take it out of the oven and top it with the bruschetta and then bake for an additional 5 minutes to mold all of the flavors together.

I placed mine over a bed of quinoa which I highly recommend!