Chicken Parmesan is made of components I love, like juicy chicken, savory Parmesan cheese, tangy tomato sauce, and spaghetti. So, in theory, I should love Chicken Parm as well, but for all its promise, in most restaurants, it’s an utter abomination that ruins the ingredients that go into the dish. With soggy flaps of mystery meat saturated with old grease and insipid sauce, I’ve never been able to get behind the American interpretation of Pollo Alla Parmigiana.
I think the biggest issue for me is that most Chicken Parm recipes have you douse the crisp fried chicken with sauce before covering it with cheese and then baking it. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems a little silly to fry something to get it crisp, only to cover it with liquid and make it soggy. It’s with that in mind that I set out to make the best Chicken Parmigiana ever!
My quest started with the chicken. Instead of pounding it flat, I used thigh meat (which is juicier than breast meat) and left the thickness as is. The thinking here is two-fold. The first is that pounding the chicken flat tends to make it dry out more easily. The second is that a flat cutlet gives the chicken more surface area, which changes the breading to meat ratio. This is fine for dishes like schnitzel where you want the whole thing to be crispy but does not work so well when you’re dunking the cutlet in sauce, as the bread just gets soggy.
To bread the chicken, I used Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) rather than the European kind because the crumbs are larger, giving your chicken a nice thick, crispy coating. Along with some minced rosemary and thyme, I also added grated Parmigiano-Reggiano straight into the breadcrumbs to make sure you never wonder why the dish is called Chicken Parmesan.
Next, I wanted to see if I could avoid frying the chicken. Not because I was trying to make this healthy, but because deep-frying is a pain. A bit of olive oil drizzled on the cutlets before they go into the oven is all the oil that is needed to get the tops to crisp to beautiful golden brown. The bottom side admittedly didn’t get as crisp, but this doesn’t matter since the bottom of the chicken gets submerged in the sauce.
This brings me to the assembly and what makes my Chicken Parmigiana so good. Instead of pouring the sauce on top of the chicken, I put the sauce in the bottom of the pan, and then set the chicken ON TOP of the sauce. Simple right? Honestly, I don’t get why everyone doesn’t do it this way.
After the chicken then gets covered in cheese, it’s baked in a hot oven, which melts and browns the cheese. The chicken stays crisp and cheesy on top, while the bottom half mingles with the hot bubbly sauce absorbing all of its great flavors.
As for the sauce, I find most places spend more time on the chicken than on the sauce (which isn’t saying much) and the sauce tends to be watery, bland and sour. If you have a good marinara sauce feel free to use that, otherwise I have an excellent basic tomato sauce recipe that makes just enough sauce for this dish.
Serve the Chicken Parmesan on a bed of your favorite pasta (I usually use spaghetti) for a simple, delicious meal that can easily be multiplied to feed a lot of people without much additional effort. Oh, and if you need a party appetizer for the holidays, check out my Chicken Parmesan Nuggets recipe!
I’m not an advocate of buying unnecessary gadgets, but there are a few items that are indispensable. A fast, accurate thermometer is one of them, and I travel with a Thermapen in my chef’s roll. It’s waterproof, easy to read and only takes 2-3 seconds to get a reading. With a temperature range from -58 to 572 degrees F, you can use one Thermapen for everything from roasts to candy-making to deep-frying. If you need a thermometer (or you’re looking for a better one), you can get a Thermapen Mk4 here, or it’s little brother, the ThermoPop here.
Ingredients
Chicken Cutlet
- 550 grams boneless skinless chicken thighs (breasts work too)
- 1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
- 4 grams fresh rosemary (~2 sprigs, stem removed and minced)
- 3 fresh thyme (~3 sprigs, stems removed and minced)
- 40 grams Parmigiano-Reggiano (grated, Parmesan Cheese will work as well)
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Chicken Parmesan
- 4 cups
- 80 grams Mozzarella cheese (grated)
- 320 grams spaghetti
- flat leaf parsley (minced for garnish)
Steps
- Put the oven rack in the middle position and preheat to 350 degrees F (175 C). Place a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet.
- In a large bowl, combine the panko, rosemary, thyme and Parmigiano Reggiano.
- In a separate bowl, beat the egg until the yolk and white are well incorporated.
- Generously salt and pepper the chicken on both sides, then dust with flour to coat evenly.
- Dip the coated chicken in the egg, making sure to cover the whole surface of the chicken with egg, then transfer the chicken to the bowl with the breadcrumb mixture.
- Coat both sides with a thick layer panko, pressing down on the chicken a bit to ensure an even coat.
- Place the chicken on the wire rack, then drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil evenly over the chicken.
Put the baking sheet in the oven. Bake chicken for 20-25 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer reads 160 degrees F (71 C).
- While the chicken is baking in the oven, make, or reheat the basic tomato sauce.
- Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil.
- After removing the chicken from the oven, increase the temperature to 500 degrees F (260 C).
- Pour the sauce into a casserole dish, then top with the baked chicken.
- Sprinkle with the Mozzarella, and additional Parmesan if you'd like.
- Bake the Chicken Parmesan until the sauce is bubbly and the cheese has formed a golden brown crust on top.
- Boil the pasta according to the package directions, drain, then toss with olive oil.
- Serve the Chicken Parmesan over a bed of spaghetti with a sprinkle of parsley to garnish.
Sounds incredible……a nice variation would be a side of spinach fettucinni alfredo instead . Have you got a recipie for alfredo? Steve.
I really like how you prepared this. Makes more sense and it looks delicious.
Any reason why there’s not a time estimate on the oven time for the chicken?
Never mind–I mis-read it! Sorry about tha
Thanks! No Alfredo recipe, but you can use the sauce from my quick mac and cheese recipe with fettuccine http://norecipes.com/blog/macaroni-cheese-recipe/
Just curious – this is how chicken parm has to be – the chicken has to be breaded? I am asking, because we have a family ricpe since generations for a maccaroni dish: fried chicken cubes in a hearty thick tomatoe sauce (tomatoes, t.paste, garlic, oregano, pancetta diced) inserted in nests of pasta, afterwards everything sprinkled with parmesan cheese and bread crumbs and olive oil and baked in the oven.
I would be totally on board with this as it looks delicious, but chicken and pasta has always seemed weird to me (also chicken on pizza). Perhaps it’s the double-beigeness of it all? Definitely doing that chicken on its own though!
Your dish sounds similar in it’s components, but I’m guessing it’s a different dish. All the versions of chicken parm I’ve ever seen involve a whole cutlet that’s been breaded and fried.
Your reasoning behind putting the sauce on the bottom to maintain the crispness of the chicken makes perfect sense, Marc. I’m going to make my Chicken Parm like this from now on!
Delish and got props from three teenage boys!
This was amazing. I used Italian breadcrumbs instead of panko (what I had on hand) and tomato sauce instead of paste and it was outstanding. I think I will probably cook my chicken on a cooling rack from now on. I love the way you don’t use a recipe that’s the way I cook.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it (and that you’re a fan of winging it in the kitchen)!
Made this for my boyfriends birthday and it was simply AMAZING!!! followed the exact recipe and both my boyfriend and I were very satisfied. I will use this recipe from now on.
This was perfect, my first time making chicken parm for my bf and roommate. Turned out fabulous. I add a think tomato sauce as well I the sauce (we love sauce) lol and fresh parsley as well. Also used a blend of cheeses for the cheese topping, parm, provolone, mozzarella and Romano. I live that everything’s baked and not greasy!! Thanks so much for posting this!
Great recipe! Delish!
I’ve always had the same intuition as you about the silliness of crisping up your chicken only to soggify it immediately afterward with excessive tomato sauce, so when I saw that you’d solved that problem, I was immediately interested. I used this recipe (with a fair amount of modification) as a base for three different parmigianas (chicken, portobello mushroom, and fennel root). The fennel had some trouble sticking together as a coherent patty (I cut it horizontally into about 1/3″ slices, and the layers of the root wanted to peel apart), so I sauteed it with some egg and flour… Read more »
Does the flour go into the breading??
Hi Laura, it’s used in step 4 to coat the chicken before you bread it.
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This sounds just like what I’m looking for. I’m cooking it tonight. Baking on a rack seems ingenious for keeping the chicken from getting soggy. I’m not getting the “no recipe” part, though. The ingredients and steps to take are carefully spelled out, with pictures, no less! Isn’t that a recipe?
Hi John, have a look at the FAQ https://norecipes.com/about/faqs/
I am cooking for a diabetic friend. Can I coat the chicken with rice flour rather than wheat flour?
Hi Norma, do you mean to get rid of the breadcrumbs entirely and only use rice flour or just to substitute the initial coating of flour to rice flour? If it’s the later, it should work fine, but bread crumbs contain wheat flour so if your friend is gluten-free, you’ll need to make sure you’re using gluten-free breadcrumbs.
I just made this recipe for my family last night. Now, I did make a couple substitutions, (i.e.: whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour, & crushed Ritz crackers instead of Panko crumbs) & I always add white pepper to ALL my recipes. And boy was I surprised at my family’s reaction…THEY LOVED IT!! I cook for myself, my husband, my 2 y/o, 6 y/o, & pregnant 17 y/o. So making a dinner that everyone loves or even likes can be very difficult, LOL! This is the 1st time I’ve ever made Chicken Parmesan & we will definitely be having… Read more »
I also have made many different chicken parmesan recipes and veal parmesan but this one is now at the top of my list. Tonight was a practice run with my family for a dinner party next week and by far this is the best recipe ever. Using boneless chicken thighs was the key for a moist, tender result. Also the measurements were exact. Thank-you. Do you have any other “best” recipes you
could share?
Hi Jan, I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it! I have a category dedicated to the best recipes on this site, which you can find under the “recipes” menu at the top of the page, or just click this link http://norecipes.com/type/best/
I make a Chicken Parm a Variety of ways, as well as changing up the Pasta. We both like Alfredo so I do the serve the Chicken and Red Sauce but serve the linguine with a home-made Alfredo Sauce with lots of garlic. I still drizzle a small amount of Red Sauce on the Chix as well as lots of melted Parm… which I spread over the pasta alfredo as well. Everyone I have served it to loves this version,its one of my husbands favorite.
Thank you for such a nice recipe; I made this for date night this weekend and we both thought it was so good. I loved how crispy the chicken was from cooking it separately; it also made leftovers so easy. I just put half the chicken in half the sauce in a dish on the first night, then we cooked it up the same way with the leftover chicken in a new dish with leftover sauce and it made it just as yummy and not soggy since it didn’t sit overnight in the sauce. This is officially our go-to chicken… Read more »
Fantastic. Followed your directions exactly except for the sauce (had some left -over homemade). Your point of not soggifying the nice crispy chicken by drenching in sauce is spot on. The cheese I put on top was also a left over bag of shredded Walmart Italian blend (,mozerella/asiago/provolone/parmigian). Came out delicious. Thanks.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it! Great call using leftover tomato sauce.
How can I make this for 25 people?
You’d need a very large oven, but you could in theory scale this up and it should work better than a deep fried one since you can oven fry a lot more chicken at one time than you can in a fryer.
Would breadcrumbs instead of panko cause the chicken to stay soggy? I normally cook this dish on the stove top and it’s fabulous, (with breadcrumbs) but I wanted to just try a different recipe for a change. My chicken stayed a soggy mess, much worse than normal.. I’ve never really had any issue with sogginess before in my chicken parm.The bread just tore apart and mucked up into the sauce. I let it cook 35 minutes, at 400 degrees during the last 5 ( total of 10 minutes longer than the recipe calls for,) but it never crisped. ? Didn’t… Read more »
Hi Jennifer, I’m sorry to hear it didn’t turn out well for you. To be honest I’ve never made chicken parm before with regular breadcrumbs so I’m not sure if that could be part of the problem, but I do know from other recipes such as schnitzel that panko tends to crisp much better than regular breadcrumbs (which is why I prefer it it). As for the cleanup, I’m not sure how you fry your chicken, but when I deep fry I use the pot I’m frying it, plus a wire rack and tray to drain the chicken after it’s… Read more »
Simply delicious! I didn’t have any eggs, so I used Kroger brand Zesty Italian dressing to coat the chicken.
Rice is far worse for diabetics than wheat. It spikes blood sugar levels like crazy.
I used breadcrumbs- as that was in the house. I made sure the chicken was patted dry before adding any ingredients which helped with the crunch factor.
After a good 25 min of slow cooking put it up to 325 fro 1/2 hr.
The cheese was modified by adding a bit of Romano and Pecorino to the topping.
Cooked again at 325
Sauce only covered the bottom of a Pyrex Dish and was just enough to marry flavors
Would make this again, really great recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it, thanks for sharing your modifications!
Can’t wait to try this using homemade breadcrumbs that I have on hand. Thanks for sharing!
I made this a couple of days ago and it was excellent!! I did have to guess at some amounts because I was too lazy to look up grams versus cups, etc. And I did use Trader Joe’s marinara for the sake of time and I did not have any fresh tomatoes. Even with the variation in sauce, this was an excellent recipe. The panko/flour and baking the chicken is key to the wonderful taste, I’m convinced!
Hi – I’m currently cooking this recipe, but am puzzled why it’s taking my chicken so long to cook! I had it on 350F for about 23 minutes and checked the chicken, and still seemed very pink inside when I cut it in half and looked. I turned it up to 400 and put it in for another 8 minutes, checked it again, still seemed a bit pink and looked very wet and not well done (I prefer my chicken cooked very well). Also used a meat thermometer this time and it was around 150F so not quite there. Now… Read more »
Hi Michelle, the problem is most likely the thickness of your chicken. This recipe is with chicken thighs which are usually quite thin (probably 1/2″ at its thickest point). The other problem was most likely the temperature of your chicken. It could have seemed defrosted, but still be below 32 degrees in parts. Lastly, do you have a thermometer in the oven to verify the accuracy of your oven? I’ve seen ovens that have had thermometers that were up to 30 degrees off in temperature.Next time, you could try butterflying the breast or using a meat mallet to pound it… Read more »
hi- I really love this recipe but would it taste great if I use cheddar cheese instead cause i’m not a fan of cheese and don’t eat a lot of it which result sin me chucking any excess cheese when I buy it just for one recipe. thank you.
Hi Minnie, while it would certainly change the flavor and texture of the dish (the cheese won’t be stretchy), I think cheddar could taste quite good in this. Why don’t you give it a try and let us know how it goes?
Try looking in the deli department instead of the basic dairy section; usually you can find small pieces of cheese or even order it by weight at the counter. Also, hard cheeses like parmesan will keep a long time if you follow the storage advice. Mozzarella is softer so will not keep as long; if your grocery has a salad bar you might even find some there that you could buy in whatever amount you want.
Just made this. It was really delicious. I like the crispness of the chicken from preparing with sauce on the bottom. Will definitely make again.
So, So, So, good. Easy to follow and it came out great.
This is my second time following this recipe, it has been a hit both times! For the sauce I use a can of Hunts Garlic & Herbs, do the onions just like you and add 1-2 tablespoons of brown sugar. Or as much as needed to take away the acidity of the sauce. I also add water as needed (very little). My husband loves to order this dish at restaurants and I have never liked it until I followed your recipe. Thank you very much for sharing!
Hi Yamilka, I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it! Great call on adding a bit of sugar to offset the acidity of the sauce.
This recipe is delicious … I’ve made chicken parmesan and always enjoy it but this recipe is not that different but the method makes it extra good!
I’m going to make this tonight but will be subbing the egg w/mayo as I hate the whole flour, egg, crumb dipping ordeal. I think the idea of using a rack is brilliant, as is placing the chicken on top of the sauce. I had debated it myself, but when I saw it written out I realized how much sense it made. DOH! TY for this recipe!