Stace's Favorite Cheesecake Factory Dish - Chicken Costoletta

For Valentines Day this year I asked Jared to do something special. I learned after the first year or two of marriage that Valentines Day was not something my husband put to much effort into and usually that's fine with me after all Valentines Day isn't really a holiday. No one gets off work, no school is ever cancelled because of it. But this year I basically just wanted him to plan the date. I am the one who always plans our dates and I wanted to see if he could plan something nice and he did! 

After the kids went to bed he made me our favorite meal from the Cheesecake  Factory Chicken Costoletta. We had a candlelit dinner while listening to cheesy 80's songs and then played Rummikub (I won), it was awesome.

With cooking normally I like to stick with quick and easy, or at least easy. But every now and then its nice to do something fancy. And we are the type of people that consider Chicken Costoletta fancy. I'm also going to add the ingredients for their mashed potatoes because you can't have one without the other. That would just be silly.

Need For Chicken:

4 - 2 ounce Chicken Tenderloins
1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour
2 Large Egg 
1 cup Breadcrumbs
1 Lemon zest
1/4 cup Romano Cheese grated
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 tbsp Butter

 Need For Sauce:

1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 tbsp All-Purpose Flour

2 Cloves Garlic minced

1/4 cup Milk

3/4 cup Heavy Cream

1/4 cup Fat Free Chicken Stock

1 Lemon juice only

1 tbsp Butter

Instructions For Chicken

Using a meat mallet, flatten the tenderloins so that they are even in thickness. Try to make them as thin as possible.

Get three bowls. One for flour, the second for the eggs and whisk them with a fork. In the third, combine the breadcrumbs, lemon zest and cheese.

Coat each piece of chicken first in the flour, then the eggs, and then the breadcrumb mixture.

Heat a large nonstick saute pan over medium heat and add the oil and butter. Once melted and hot, add the chicken to the pan and fry on both sides until cooked through; approximately 3-5 minutes per side depending on the thickness. You might need to do this in two batches.

Remove chicken from the pan and drain on paper towels to absorb any excess oil. Set aside.

Instructions For Sauce

Melt the oil in a medium saucepan over low-medium heat and add the garlic.

Saute 1-2 minutes then whisk in the flour.

Whisk in the milk, heavy cream, chicken stock and lemon juice and bring to a boil over medium-high heat until the sauce has thickened; approximately 3-5 minutes.

Next, stir in the butter and pour desired amount of sauce over the chicken.

Need For Potatoes

4 cups Red Potatoes
2 Tbsp Horseradish
1/2 cup Butter
1 cup Gouda Cheese
1 Tsp Salt or as needed

Instructions For Potatoes

Boil potatoes. After boiled place in large bowl and mash. Add cheese, horseradish, butter, and salt. Stir until mixed.

So good! Like I said its nice to change it up every now and then. We only make it for special occasions but when we do we are both so happy and always have left overs. Enjoy!