Chicken Parmesan

This delicious Chicken Parmesan is cooked to crispy perfection and loaded with flavor. It’s so easy to make your own restaurant quality chicken parm right in your own kitchen… a dinner the whole family will love!

This impressive dish takes less than 45 minutes to prepare, but tastes like you spent hours in the kitchen. Serve it over your favorite pasta with a salad and French bread for a full-on Italian feast!

Ingredients Notes

• You’ll need two (8 ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts that you’ll slice in half horizontally. Try to stay around 8 ounces each – if they’re larger you probably won’t have enough room in your baking dish for all four halves.
• I use a combination of regular and panko bread crumbs, which are necessary for the crispy deliciousness!
• Instead of using seasoned bread crumbs, I control the amount of seasoning that I want in the breading by adding Italian seasoning. You can use Italian seasoned bread crumbs and omit the Italian seasoning, if desired.
• Use your favorite homemade or store-bought marinara sauce.
• I use shredded whole milk mozzarella cheese for topping because it melts beautifully. Feel free to use shredded part-skim or sliced fresh mozzarella.

Helpful Tools

• I use a cooling rack placed over a rimmed baking sheet to drain the chicken after frying; it helps to keep the breading crispy on the bottoms. You can place the chicken on a plate lined with paper towels if need be.
• I use the smooth side of a meat mallet for lightly pounding the chicken to an even thickness. If you don’t have a mallet, here are 10 ways to flatten meat without a meat mallet.
• An instant read thermometer is helpful to ensure the chicken is fully cooked to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees F (after baking).
• A set of tongs for carefully turning the cutlets in the hot oil.
• Three wide, shallow bowls or dishes for preparing the breading ingredients.

How to Make Chicken Parmesan

First, you’ll need to slice each breast horizontally. A helpful tip is to place the chicken in the freezer for 20 to 30 minutes before slicing. This firms up the meat a little, making it easier to slice.

Using the smooth side of a meat mallet, lightly pound each piece of chicken until it is an even thickness of about 1/3 inch. Place a sheet of plastic wrap over the chicken to avoid any splattering of juices while pounding.

Set up a little “breading station” using three wide, shallow bowls or dishes. Dip each cutlet in the flour mixture first to coat, coat in beaten eggs second, and lastly dip in the Parmesan breading mixture.

Fry the breaded chicken in hot oil in a skillet (in two batches) until deep golden brown on both sides (about 1 1/2 minutes on each side). Place on a cooling rack over a baking sheet to drain while you prepare the baking dish for the oven.

The last four steps are so easy!

1. Spread one cup of marinara sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish. Feel free to use more sauce if you like a lot of sauce, but I find one cup is plenty.
2. Place the browned chicken cutlets over the sauce in the dish.
3. Spoon about 1/2 cup of marinara sauce over the chicken (again, more or less sauce depending on your personal preference). I like to spoon it in the center so that a good portion of the chicken remains crispy after baking.
4. Top with shredded mozzarella and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until cheese is melted, sauce is bubbling and chicken is cooked thoroughly.

Sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley and/or basil and serve over your favorite cooked pasta (if desired).

Enjoy!

More Italian-Inspired Chicken Dishes

• One Skillet Italian Chicken
• Easy Chicken Parmesan Casserole
• Italian Roasted Chicken Leg Quarters
• Creamy Tuscan Chicken