Hot bubbly Chicken Parmesan is so good! I made this last night and it has me wondering why I don’t make it more often! It is a family favorite; easy to make comfort food which satisfies.
Chicken parmesan reminds me of visits with my grandmother. She made a mean parm. I used to be totally intimidated because it seemed like a lot of steps to assemble and cook chicken parmesan, but actually it is one of the easier baked dishes to prepare.
This recipe has just a few steps, and calls for five basic ingredients: chicken breasts, seasoned breadcrumbs, egg, tomato sauce, and shredded mozzarella cheese. When I say seasoned breadcrumbs, I usually do this myself. I like to add garlic powder, parmesan, salt, pepper and parsley for better flavor. These are all staples in our kitchen. The seasonings you add are up to you and the chicken will still taste pretty awesome if you just use packaged seasoned breadcrumbs.
This recipe calls for two stages of cooking. First, bread the breasts. You’ll want to brown the breaded cutlets in a sauté pan (or air fryer) prior to transferring them to the oven. Just don’t overcook the chicken during the browning or sautéing. You want the chicken to have that melt-in-your-mouth goodness that it gets when you allow it to cook slowly in the tomato juices. Technically, you could even put the raw breaded chicken right into the oven with the sauce and cheese. This is kind of like what you would do in a slow cooker. However, the sauteéing / browning really adds a great flavor to the chicken. And it speeds up the baking time.
Of course, if you have more mouths to feed, it is super easy to adjust the recipe for more or less people.
Ingredients:
- 4 Medium size chicken breasts
- 1 jar tomato sauce
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups seasoned breadcrumbs
- 2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese (or 4 slices of provolone work really well, too)
Instructions:
1. Bread the chicken breasts
Break two eggs into a bowl and stir vigorously to mix. Put about a cup of breadcrumbs into a second bowl. Add the seasonings (garlic powder, parmesan, salt and pepper) to the breadcrumbs and mix all of the dry ingredients together. Dunk the chicken first in the egg to coat, and then on the breadcrumbs so the chicken is totally covered with breadcrumbs. As you use up the breadcrumbs in the bowl, add the remaining 1/2 cup to the top of the chicken.
2. Sauté the chicken
We have done this both in a sauté pan and also in the air fryer and have enjoyed it both ways. Stovetop in some olive oil is the most traditional way, but air frying keeps the fat content a little lower.
If you do stovetop, just brown the breaded chicken breasts in a little olive oil on medium high heat for a few minutes on each side until they are a nice browned color. The chicken does not need to be cooked all the way through. That will happen when we put it into the oven. At this point we just want to give it that nice brown color and sauté flavor.
If you choose the air fryer, you’ll just need to pop the chicken in the air fryer for about ten minutes. Again, the chicken doesn’t need to be cooked all the way through at this point – but in the air fryer it won’t brown like it does on the stovetop. Just cook the breasts to crisp the edges a bit. The insides will cook when you put it in the oven.
3. Assemble the Chicken Parmesan
Place each sauteed, breaded chicken breast in an oven-safe ramekin baking dish, 10 ounces. (Try these cute ceramic soufflé dishes which come in great colors) Cover each breast entirely with some tomato sauce. (Check out my recipe for homemade pasta sauce). Don’t be stingy – baking in the sauce is what gives the chicken its moistness. Then cover everything with mozzarella cheese. Again, don’t be stingy with the cheese! Gooey cheesy goodness comes from great cheese. You could also substitute a slice of provolone cheese for the mozzarella – this works really well.
I like to lightly cover the ramekins with a piece of aluminum foil for the first 20 minutes or so of cooking so that the cheese doesn’t get too brown.
4. Bake
Place the ramekins in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for about 35 minutes, depending upon the size of your chicken breast. Add more time for larger pieces of chicken or if you are at altitude. When you have about 5 or 10 minutes left to cook, take off the aluminum foil to make sure the cheese melts and gets bubbly. If you like extra cheesy Chicken Parmesan, add some additional shredded cheese in the last few minutes of cooking.
