Football Party Food; Part 4

This dish can easily be made with whole chicken breasts and served as a main dish, but since it's the day before the Super Bowl, and I've been doing Football Party Food all week, I'm using chicken breast tenders to make my delicious Italian Dressing Chicken.  One thing I really like about this dish, besides that it's super-easy, is that if you double the recipe (using whole breasts), you can use the leftovers to make make-shift chicken parmesan.  I'll get to that in a minute.

Italian Dressing Chicken Tenders
1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast tenders
1 packet of dry italian dressing mix (we use the fat-free Good Seasons brand)
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs (I always choose panko over regular breadcrumbs, they get crispier)

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with non-stick spray.  On a dinner plate, mix together the dressing mix, cheese and bread crumbs.  Get your stations set up next to the sink: sink, plate of bread crumb mixture, baking dish.  Take each chicken tender, trim any excess fat off rinse under cold running water and let extra water drip off but don't dry, roll the tender in the bread crumb mixture and then place into the baking dish.  Continue until all of the tenders are coated with bread crumbs and in the baking dish.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.  To serve as tenders, serve with some marinara sauce or ranch.

Leftover Make-Shift Chicken Parmesan. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Put the chicken in a baking dish and bake for about 10 minutes or until it's heated through.  While it's heating, heat up about 1 cup marinara sauce and boil some pasta for the base.  When the chicken is hot, top with about 1/4 cup marinara sauce and about a slice of fresh mozzarella cheese.  Put under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly and melty.  Serve on top of a nice pile of spaghetti.

Oh, so delicious!