Chicken Parmesan belongs to no region of Italy. It belongs to America. Italian immigrants arriving at Ellis Island adapted their eggplant parmigiana to the abundance they found here, where chicken was cheap and plentiful in ways unimaginable back home. What they created became one of the defining dishes of Italian-American cuisine, served in red-sauce joints from Brooklyn to San Francisco.

The version I'm sharing with you skips the deep fryer entirely. We bake these cutlets on a wire rack, which allows heat to circulate underneath and keeps the breading crisp while the cheese melts on top. You get the same shattering crust, the same stretchy mozzarella, the same satisfaction without standing over a pot of hot oil.

The key to great chicken parm lives in three places: pounding the cutlets thin and even so they cook uniformly, building a proper breading station that adheres without falling off, and using a marinara with enough body to cling without making everything soggy. Get these right and you'll understand why this dish has survived a century of American cooking.

Make extra. This reheats beautifully, and cold chicken parm tucked into crusty bread the next day might be better than the original dinner.