New Look for Salad

We had oven-fried chicken and panzanella (Italian bread-and-tomato salad; pictured at left) tonight. I used chicken cutlets (great for quick cooking). The chicken and croutons for the salad can be cooked at the same time. Dinner was ready in 45 minutes (and I cleaned most of the dishes beforehand—a bonus!). This makes about four servings.
—PHH

• Marinate the chicken in buttermilk with fresh rosemary for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Then dredge the cutlets in a mixture of panko (Japanese breadcrumbs), black pepper, ground red pepper, salt, and herbes de Provence. Cover a jelly-roll pan with aluminum foil, and spray it with cooking spray or drizzle it with olive oil. Place the breaded cutlets on the prepared pan, and spray each piece of chicken with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 20 to 30 minutes or until golden and cooked through.
• Cut sourdough or any kind of rustic bread into bite-size cubes. Cover a jelly-roll pan with aluminum foil. Place bread cubes on the pan; drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 400° for 30 minutes or until golden.
• To finish the salad, seed four tomatoes (cut off the stem end and gently squeeze the whole tomato over the sink; most of the seeds will come out). Cut the tomatoes into chunks, and place in a serving bowl. Sprinkle tomatoes in bowl with salt and pepper to taste. Add in 2 tablespoons minced onions and crumbled bacon (four or five cooked slices). Add in toasted bread cubes. Combine 1/8 cup balsamic vinegar with 1/4 cup olive oil; whisk until blended. Pour over tomato-and-bread mixture in serving bowl, and toss to coat.