Very Tomatoey Pan Fried Chicken Steak

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Hope all of you guys are having a fantastic break at the moment,
Hanging out with family and friends, catching up some good TV shows, or sleeping through the days,
As for me, I gonna head over to Vegas and Zion National Park on Monday,
Yes, for money's sake, the vacation time has been moved a few days later,
Can you believe it!?
The plane ticket from CA to Las Vegas is only $29 one way, totally worth it to postpone my days off a wee bit later.

Before leaving for the trip, let me share my latest kitchen experiment so maybe you can give it a try over the break -

Ingredients (2 to 3 portion)?

Simplified salsa -
1 large ripe tomato
2 tablespoon of finely chopped onion
1 1/2 tablespoon of finely chopped cilantro
1/2 lemon juice
1 teaspoon of sea salt

Tomato sauce (bed) -
1 large ripe tomato
2 tablespoon of chopped onion
1/2 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of dried Italian seasoning

Breading -
Some all purpose flour
Some sea salt
Some freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg
2 teaspoons of water
3/4 cup of panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
1 teaspoon of dried Italian seasoning

Avocado layer -
1 ripe avocado
Some lemon juice

During cooking -
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of unsalted butter

Main ingredient -
6 chicken thighs (skinned and deboned)

How?

Salsa part is easy,
Just chop all the ingredients and mix them together -

To make the tomato sauce,
Drizzle some olive oil inside a small/medium pot,
Turn to high heat, toss in chopped onion, sprinkle some salt and pepper,
Cook till the onion turns translucent, add in chopped tomatoes and dried Italian seasoning,
Mix well and cook for about 2 minutes,
Transfer the mixture into a blender and puree it,
Once done, set aside for later use -

At first, I thought the color should be red, but it turned out to be bright orange,
What a surprise, wonder how that happened?

Now let's make an assembly line here for our chicken thighs,
Use 3 bowls or plates,
One with some flour, sea salt, black pepper,
One with the egg and water mixture,
Last one with panko and died Italian seasoning.

Coat the chicken thigh with the flour, shake it a bit to get rid of excess flour,
Drench in egg wash then lastly coat the meat with panko mixture,
Repeat the steps for all the remaining thighs -

For avocado,
Remove the tough outer layer and center pit,
Halve the fruit, slice then fan it out,
Brush with lemon juice to avoid discoloration.

Now we have all the ingredients ready, the final steps should be easy,
Add 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter inside a big pan,
Turn to high heat, once the oil mixture gets really hot, carefully transfer the chicken thighs into the pan,
Sear about 5 minutes on each side then turn to medium low heat and cover with lid,
Let the meat finish cooking with lower temperature for 5 more minutes.

Meanwhile, line a paper tower on a plate,
Once the chicken is done, transfer onto the plate and let it sit for about 2 minutes,
The paper towel will help in sucking up some oil from the coating.

To service the dish,
Shake the tomato sauce first then pour it onto a plate to form a circle,
Layer with avocado slices,
Slice the pan fried chicken and add onto the avocado,
Scoop in a generous portion of fresh salsa, lastly, garnish with cilantro -

Very refreshing taste,
Even though it's pan fried chicken,  with some butter too,
The tanginess from the tomato actually balances out the oily coating,
Maybe it can be a good meal after a whole weekend of binge eating during the holidays?

Cindy's Rating: 8