Chicken Parmesan (Chicken Parmigiana)

Chicken Parmesan

Chicken Parmesan is a really easy Italian dish to make for dinner – it works well for a casual family meal… or can make a nice main dish to serve at a dinner party. (Pair it with a side of pasta and a garden salad.)

To bread the chicken, you can use the breadcrumbs of your choice. I had leftover toasted garlic crostini… so I pulverized that in the food processor to make homemade garlic breadcrumbs. You could also use panko Japanese breadcrumbs, or seasoned Italian breadcrumbs.

Because Chicken Parmesan is essentially cooked twice – I don’t go through the trouble of deep frying the chicken. I simply pan fry the breaded chicken cutlets, then layer in a pyrex dish to bake with cheese and sauce after. If you prefer to deep fry your chicken cutlets – you could do that, or you could pan fry them like I do. (The nice thing about pan-frying vs. deep frying, is that the chicken doesn’t soak up as much oil, so it is much less greasy!)

Chicken Parmesan (5-6 servings):

Use thin cut chicken breasts and homemade seasoned bread crumbs.

0.75 – 1 lb. chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)
salt, pepper, garlic powder
1/3 c. flour
1 egg
1/2 c. milk
1 c. breadcrumbs
2 T. Parmesan cheese
4 T. canola or olive oil (divided)
1 jar marinara/spaghetti sauce
8 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese
2-3 T. Parmesan cheese
1-2 T. chopped fresh basil

1. Cut the chicken breasts in half. You can see in the photo below that some of the pieces ended up thick, some are thinner. Cut any thick pieces horizontally to make two thinner pieces… or you can butterfly them so you have a larger, thinner piece.

2. With a meat tenderizer, pound the chicken breasts (use either the flat edge or the fine teeth) so that all of the pieces are thin and of even thickness.

3. Sprinkle both sides of the chicken with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

4. Dredge both sides of the chicken into the flour – make sure all of the surfaces are evenly coated. (The flour will help the breading to stick to the chicken.)

5. Beat the milk and egg together. You can add a dash of salt (1/4 tsp.) + a few grinds of black pepper if desired.

6. Mix the 1 c. of bread crumbs with the 2 T. of grated parmesan cheese. (You can use seasoned italian bread crumbs, panko, or what I used here: garlic crostini slices that I pulverized in the food processor.)

7. Dip a floured chicken piece into the egg wash, coating both sides.

8. Immediately move the egg wash coated chicken piece into the bread crumb mixture, and turn to coat. Press the breadcrumbs into both sides of the chicken.

9. Repeat and bread all the remaining pieces.

10. Heat about 1 T. or so of the oil in a non-stick skillet over medium high.

11. Add 2-3 pieces of the breaded chicken in the pan, and cook until both sides are golden brown. (If desired, you can deep fry the chicken instead.) Set the cooked chicken aside on a paper towel to soak up any extra grease, and continue to fry the rest of the chicken.

12. Add about 1 1/2 c. of the marinara sauce into the bottom of a 9″ X 13″ pyrex baking dish. Place the cooked chicken pieces over the marinara sauce.