Chicken Parmesan
Prep Time: 35 minutes | Cook Time: 25 – 35 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes | Serves: 4 – 8
Recipe and photos updated 5.18.26
I have truly fallen in love with Chicken Parmesan. The first time I had ever heard of Chicken Parmesan was when my husband and I were dating as seniors in high school (30 years ago!). His mom made this wonderfully delicious meal of crispy breaded chicken covered in tomato sauce with melted cheese over spaghetti noodles. It was divine. She can be given full credit for opening me up to quite a few different foods!
Having Chicken Parmesan in restaurants, I had to try my hand at it and give it a little flair. I think this recipe is quite amazing, but that makes me biased, right? I added some not-so-traditional spices to the breading mix and made my own marinara, which I think puts this recipe above the rest. Again, biased, right?
Some people add oil to boiling water for pasta, or toss their cooked pasta in some oil to simply keep the pasta from sticking together. I rarely do that because I think the oil keeps the pasta from absorbing the wonderful sauce. Instead, stir the pasta often to keep it from sticking together.
The cheese! Slices of fresh mozzarella are also delicious on Chicken Parmesan, as well as provolone. Or use the common low-moisture mozzarella cheese. Just be sure to shred from a block. Pre-shredded cheese is not good. Period.
I learned about the dry-wet-dry method from Giada de Laurentii’s show back in the early 2000’s on Food TV (now called Food Network). It’s truly worth the few extra steps and dirty bowls to wash later, just to enjoy the crispy, flavorful breading on the chicken. Pie plates/pans work great for the dry-wet-dry method. If you ever buy premade graham cracker crusts, keep the aluminum pie plate for uses like this! Or use your glass pie plates; they work great, too.
The instructions below state to finish cooking the chicken in the oven. However, you can cook the chicken completely on the stovetop (a digital probe thermometer reading 165 degrees F.) Top with the marinara and cheese, then place the chicken on top of the warm, cooked pasta and serve.
In order to cook your chicken evenly, without overcooking, either slice thick chicken breasts into halves longways or pound with the flat side of a meat tenderizer. If you’re going to slice the chicken breasts, account for the number of pieces you end up with (2 chicken breasts could be 4 cutlets/servings, etc.).
If you have individual oven-safe bowls/plates, you may cook individual servings instead of placing all the chicken pieces together in a baking dish.
Enjoy!
Chicken Parmesan
Ingredients
- 1 recipe Quick and Simple Marinara or 24 ounces store-bought marinara
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (fat trimmed), or chicken breasts
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper, or to taste
- 3 eggs, beaten with 1 1/2 tablespoons of water
- 1 1/2 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs
- 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
- 3 - 4 teaspoons lemon pepper seasoning
- 2 - 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more if needed
- 3 - 4 cups Mozzarella cheese, shredded, see Notes
- 4 ounces Parmesan cheese, shredded, see Notes
- 1 pound spaghetti noodles, cooked according to package directions with salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- If you choose to use my marinara recipe, begin cooking the marinara, so it can be simmering while you’re working on everything else.
- If you are using thighs, don’t cut in half, but gently pound the thicker parts to create an even thickness. If you’re using chicken breasts that are thick, use a very sharp knife to cut the chicken breasts in half long-ways through the middle to make 2 thinner breasts. If necessary, gently pound the breasts to even thickness, being careful not to tear them. (If you’re not halving them, you can still pound them to even the thickness as best you can.)
- In one shallow bowl/dish (a pie plate works great), whisk the flour, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper. In another shallow bowl, beat eggs with the water until blended well. In a third shallow bowl, combine bread crumbs, poultry seasoning, lemon pepper seasoning, and ½ teaspoon salt. Be sure to adjust salt if your lemon pepper is salt-free.
- Heat 1 - 2 tablespoons of oil in a skillet over medium to medium-high heat. (You can use a large electric skillet for this and may be able to cook all the chicken pieces at once. Otherwise, you may have to cook in batches.)
- You’ll be using a dry-wet-dry method: Dredge both sides of the chicken breasts into the flour and gently shake off any excess. Then dip into the eggs, both sides again, allowing the excess egg to drip back into the bowl. Lastly, dredge them into the bread crumbs, pressing the crumbs onto the chicken, covering as much of each chicken breast with the crumbs as possible.
- Cook the chicken approximately 3 to 4 minutes per side, until the breading is nicely browned. Add more oil as necessary throughout cooking. Turn the heat down if the crust is browning too quickly.
- As the chicken pieces are browned, gently remove them to a baking dish, nestling them together is fine.
- Pour the marinara sauce evenly over the chicken breasts and top with the cheeses. Place the chicken into the oven and bake until the chicken pieces are cooked through (a digital thermometer reading 165 degrees F), and the cheese is melted with a few golden brown spots, approximately 15 to 25 minutes, depending on the thickness of your chicken.
- Serve over warm spaghetti pasta noodles.
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