Chicken Parmigiana

Yummy Yummy Yummy.

Chicken Parmigiana is one of my favorite dishes of all time.

It's a bit labor intensive...especially if you make your own marinara sauce (which I did), but totally worth it.

It's comfort food that is fancy enough for company.

Come to mama.

Make this very soon.

If you have leftovers, you could make it into a Chicken Parmigiana hoagie!

I didn't include a marinara sauce recipe below because I'm still tweaking it.

You can use your own favorite recipe, a jar of premade, or below are a couple of my tomato sauce recipes that would also work:

Roasted Tomato Sauce (this is yummy and probably the closest thing to my marinara sauce that I have on the blog)

Spaghetti and Meatballs...from scratch (this is a little more labor intensive, but a yummy recipe to make for someone that you love)

Also - this recipe will give you a generous amount of coating for the chicken breasts...you could easily make 6 breasts with this amount of egg wash, flour and bread crumbs. Or you could cut the recipe in half if you were only making 2 or 3 breasts.

Chicken Parmigiana (serves 4)

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon fresh cracked pepper
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 2 eggs, beaten with two tablespoons of water
• 1 cup of crushed croutons (I used cheese and garlic croutons, Italian would also work well), you could also use Italian style breadcrumbs, but the croutons have a wonderful texture
• 2 cups Panko breadcrumbs
• 6 cups of your favorite marinara sauce (see above recipes)
• 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning (thyme, oregano, etc.)
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1 pound spaghetti or angel hair pasta
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Place chicken breasts in a large zip-top bag. Using the flat side of a meat mallet, pound breasts until they are thin. This will help them cook uniformly (is uniformly a word?). 

In one bowl (I use a pasta bowl) or plate, combine flour, salt, pepper and garlic powder .

In a second bowl/plate, put eggwash (beaten eggs plus water).

In a third bowl/plate, combine crushed croutons, Panko breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning and basil.

Dip each chicken breast first in the flour mixture, then in the eggwash, then in the breadcrumb mixture, making sure to coat both sides. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Warm your marinara sauce on the stovetop in an oven-safe pot or dutch oven (I used my Le Creuset).  Make sure that the pot is large enough to fit all of the chicken breasts because this will be the vessel that you will be using to finish the dish.

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Heat olive oil in a large frying pan to medium heat. Add the coated chicken breasts to the hot oil (working in batches if necessary), and cook until the bottom of the breast is starting to get nice and brown. Flip over and repeat on the other side.

Place browned chicken breasts on top of the marinara sauce in an oven-safe pan, sprinkle each breast generously with Parmesan cheese. Place the dish uncovered into the oven and bake for 10 minutes or until sauce is hot and cheese is melted and bubbly.

Plate by adding some noodles, topped with a chicken breast and some extra sauce. Finish with more grated Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Enjoy!

Printable Recipe