When I was younger, there were not very many homemade meals that I would like to eat. I was what you might call a picky eater. However, there was one meal in particular that I would eat whenever it was made, and it did not take long for it to become my favorite food to eat. My dad has one signature dish he would make that everyone always enjoys. My dad describes it as a “delicious baked creamy parmesan chicken”. Though the meal did not originally come with a name, we decided to call it mayo chicken. It is a very simple dish to cook, and it allows for small changes to be made, but it always turns out amazing. Mayo chicken is not only my favorite meal because it is delicious, but because it has a special significance to me and my family.

Mayo chicken is a meal that is prepared a little bit differently every time but always ends up tasting delicious. It is a thin piece of chicken breast that is slathered in a creamy mixture of mayonnaise, parmesan cheese, Italian breadcrumbs (these cannot be panko breadcrumbs), garlic salt, onion powder, and a random assortment of Italian seasonings. The combination of seasonings that are put in the sauce is different every time that my dad makes the dish, even though the flavor never really changes. He puts in different seasonings to see what he likes and what compliments the other flavors of the dish. However, he has yet to find the exact combination that he is looking for, even though nobody else notices a difference. My dad always adds a thin layer of breadcrumbs on top of the mayonnaise spread as well to make the meat crispy when it comes out of the oven. When he makes mayo chicken, it is always served with rice pilaf and some type of vegetable on the side. I am not sure how my dad makes the rice, but it always turns out buttery and perfectly fluffy. My favorite is when my dad makes his garlic-roasted green beans as a side dish. However, the vegetable varies depending on the season and what is available. In the summer my dad tends to go with corn on the cob instead.

While I was growing up, whenever he would make mayo chicken, I would be standing in the kitchen watching, learning how to make it. Unfortunately, I could never figure out what he did that made it so special. When I asked my dad what the secret to making the meal is, he said, “The key is to butterfly the chicken. This will create an even roast and will provide consistency between each piece. It is best to have a similar meat to sauce ratio.” This step, I have learned, is crucial to making the meal perfect.

Mayo chicken is a recipe that my dad got from his mother, and then shaped the dish into his own. When I asked him where my grandmother got the idea for the chicken, he said, “It might sound a little weird, but she stumbled upon the basic recipe on the back of a mayonnaise jar. She tried it out and fell in love with the flavors. Then she adapted it into her own recipe.” It was a meal that my grandmother continues to make quite often because it was easy to cook, cheap to buy, and always a family favorite. My dad learned how to make mayo chicken from her when he was younger, but never really started to make it himself until about 15 years ago. Now he will make it on request, however, it is usually a dish saved for a special occasion or as a birthday dinner. I think the reason that my dad enjoys making this meal as much as he does, is because he can do whatever he wants with it. It is a dinner that has a basic recipe, but he knows that he does not need to follow it. “I like being able to do my own thing with a meal without people worrying that it will not taste good.” No matter what my dad does to change the chicken, it always has the same result. My dad taught me how to make it when I was younger, and even though it usually tastes pretty good, I can never make it exactly the same as he does. However, that does not stop me from trying to perfect the meal.

I never really thought about how much the meal meant to me, other than being my favorite until I was learning to make it myself. There are not very many special homemade recipes that are passed down through my family, but mayo chicken is one of them. It is a dish that was only discovered by my family a few decades ago, but it is one that will stay with us for a very long time. I hope to be able to adapt the recipe into something of my own one day and to share it with my future family, like my grandmother and dad both did. I remember that some of my favorite birthdays ended with my dad making mayo chicken for dinner, and I believe that it is one recipe that will always bring my family together, no matter how far apart we actually are. I do not get to see my grandmother very often anymore, because she lives on the other side of the country, but when I do get to go to visit I know exactly what she is going to be making. One of my favorite things to do with her is help out in the kitchen while she makes this dinner. When I am in the kitchen with her, I get to see where my favorite meal came from, and how much mayo chicken has evolved from a recipe on the back of a mayonnaise jar into one of my family’s favorite, and most sentimental, homemade meals.