Parmesan-Crusted Chicken Breasts w/ Pesto Sauce & Big-Mushroom-Veggie Saute

This is a Rachel Ray recipe from her book "30-Minute Get Real Meals".
4 servings

Ingredients
4T extra-virgin olive oil
4 6 oz boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt & freshley ground black pepper
2 c store-bought shredded domestic Parmesan cheese
3 portobello mushroom caps, gills scraped off with a spoon, thinly sliced
1/2 small Spanish onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 bunch thin asparagus, ends trimmed and discarded, spears chopped into 2-inch lengths
3 T good quality aged sherry vinegar, or red wine vinegar
3/4 c chicken stock or broth
1/2 p cherry tomatoes, whole if small, halved if large
A handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley chopped
6 oz good-quality store-bought pesto (from the dairy aisle)

Instructions
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium to medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons of the EVOO (twice around the pan). Season both sides of the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Dump out the cheese onto a plate and press the chicken into the cheese, covering all the pieces in cheese on both sides. Add the chicken to the hot skillet, allowing it to cook a full 6 to 7 minutes -- DO NOT MESS WITH THE BIRD! The Parmesan is browning and melting together to form an all-cheese, no-bread-crumb crust all over the chicken. After 7 minutes (or when the chicken budges easily), turn and cook the chicken 5 to 6 minutes more.

While the chicken is browning, heat another large skillet over high heat with the remaining 2 tablespoons of EVOO. Add the mushrooms and season with pepper. Brown the mushrooms for 3 minutes. Season the mushrooms with salt and add the onion and garlic. Cooke for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the asparagus, tossing to combine. Add the sherry vinegar and continue to cook until the skillet is almost dry, about 1 minute. Add the chicken stock and cherry tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes, or until the asparagus is tender. Add the parsley, tossing to coat.

Top the chicken with a strip of pesto across each breast. Serve a pile of the big-mushroom-veggie saute alongside each breast.

Rachel's Tidbits
* Removing the gills from the mushrooms is only done for aesthetic reasons. The gills will blacken the other veggies as they cook together. If you don't mind that, then you can skip the scraping.
* Holding off on seasoning the mushrooms with salt will help you get the mushrooms a nice, deep brown color. Salt brings out the water in the mushrooms, so while salting might help them soften faster it will slow their browning.

Adela's Tidbits
* The chicken breasts that I used were really thick. I wish I would have pounded them flatter. Because they were so thick, it was harder for them to cook all the way through in the skillet. I couldn't get the internal temperature above 120 degrees (170 degrees needed for chicken breast), so I popped them in the oven at 400 degrees while the veggie saute finished.
* I skipped the tomatoes and the pesto and it still tasted really good, used a yellow onion instead of a Spanish onion, and store-brand red vinegar instead of aged sherry vinegar.
* Makes plenty for two meals for just the two of us.
* The meal took me 55 minutes from start to finish.