Why You’ll Love This this Italian Chicken Parmesan
This crispy, golden chicken gets perfectly tender from that quick pan-fry, then transforms into something magical when you pile on the tangy tomato sauce and watch that mozzarella bubble and brown under the broiler.
You’re basically getting restaurant-quality comfort food without the fancy techniques or ingredient list that makes you question your life choices at the grocery store.
Plus, when you serve this over a pile of spaghetti, you’ve got yourself a complete Italian feast that’ll make everyone forget about whatever takeout place they were craving.
Ingredients List
You’ll need these simple ingredients to create this Italian masterpiece that’ll have your kitchen smelling like a warm trattoria.
- 1 lb chicken breast fillet
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup milk
- salt & pepper
- 2 cups breadcrumbs
- 4 tablespoons oil (for frying)
- 2 cups tomato sauce
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
A Few Things to Keep in Mind:
- This recipe does involve frying, so it’s definitely more indulgent than your typical grilled chicken dinner
- You can lighten it up by using whole wheat breadcrumbs or reducing the oil slightly
- The mozzarella adds protein and calcium, which is nice, but it’s also where most of the calories come from
- Consider serving smaller portions with a big side salad to balance out all that crispy, cheesy goodness
Step by Step Directions
Transform your chicken breasts into a restaurant-quality Italian dish with this straightforward preparation method.
- Prep the chicken: Rinse chicken breast fillets and let drain completely.
- Make the dipping mixture: Whisk together egg, milk, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl.
- Set up breading station: Pour breadcrumbs into a separate bowl.
- Bread the chicken: Dip each chicken breast into egg mixture, then coat thoroughly with breadcrumbs.
- Heat the oil: Pre-heat frying pan with oil on medium-high temperature until hot.
- Cook the chicken: Fry chicken breast for 5 minutes on each side until golden brown.
- Add sauce: Place cooked chicken on an oven-safe dish and pour heated tomato sauce over each fillet.
- Top with cheese: Grate mozzarella cheese generously over each sauced fillet.
- Broil to finish: Turn oven to broil setting and place chicken under broiler until mozzarella melts and turns golden brown.
- Serve: Remove from oven and transfer to serving plates, ideally alongside spaghetti with additional tomato sauce.
For an authentic Italian dining experience, consider using fresh pasta made with a professional pasta maker to complement this classic chicken parmesan dish.
Substitutions and Variations
- Make it saucy: Try pesto instead of tomato sauce for a completely different flavor profile, or mix the two together if you’re feeling adventurous.
- Cheese alternatives: Ricotta mixed with a little parmesan creates a creamy topping that’s different from the usual melted mozzarella situation.
- Breadcrumb variations: Panko creates extra crunch, while seasoned stuffing mix adds herbs and flavor – sometimes the shortcut ingredients work better than the “proper” ones.
Additional Things to Serve With This Dish
This chicken parmesan is basically begging for some good company on the plate, and honestly, you’ve got options that go way beyond the obvious spaghetti route.
- Classic pasta pairings: Spaghetti, penne, or rigatoni with that same tomato sauce creates the full Italian-American diner ambiance – though let’s be real, you’re looking at enough carbs to put you in a food coma.
- Lighter sides: A simple arugula salad with lemon vinaigrette cuts through all that cheese and oil, or roasted broccoli if you want to pretend you’re being healthy while eating fried chicken.
- Bread situation: Garlic bread is the move here, but those crusty Italian rolls work too – you’ll want something to soak up any extra sauce because wasting that liquid gold should be illegal.
- Potato alternatives: Roasted baby potatoes with herbs, or even mashed potatoes if you’re going full comfort food mode and throwing caution to the wind.
- Vegetable medleys: Roasted zucchini, bell peppers, and onions bring some color to the plate, plus they cook while you’re dealing with all that chicken prep.
The key is balancing all that rich, cheesy goodness with something that won’t make you feel like you need a nap immediately after dinner.
Cooking Tips & Tricks (Chef’s Notes)
Look, I’m going to save you from the mistakes that turn perfectly good chicken into expensive cat food.
- Pound that chicken flat: We’re talking about getting those breasts to an even thickness, maybe 3/4 inch, because nobody wants one end rubber-tough while the other end is still doing the chicken dance.
- Let the breading stick around: After you coat those babies, let them sit for about 10 minutes before hitting the pan – the breadcrumbs need time to get comfortable with the chicken or they’ll abandon ship the second they hit hot oil.
- Oil temperature is everything: If it’s not sizzling when the chicken hits the pan, you’re basically making soggy chicken-flavored disappointment, but if it’s too hot, you’ll have charcoal on the outside and raw chicken on the inside.
- Don’t flip too early: I know you want to peek, but resist the urge for those full 5 minutes – premature flipping leads to breadcrumb carnage all over your pan.
- Sauce placement strategy: Put the sauce on right before the cheese goes under the broiler, not before, unless you enjoy watching your beautiful crispy coating turn into mush.
- Broiler babysitting: That cheese goes from perfectly golden to burnt sacrifice in about 30 seconds, so don’t wander off to check your phone or suddenly remember you need to fold laundry.
- Rest before cutting: Give it a couple minutes to cool down, or all that melted cheese will stage a great escape the moment your knife hits the chicken.
Nutritional Facts
This hearty Italian-American favorite packs a substantial caloric punch along with quality protein, though the frying method does bump up the fat content considerably.
- Calories: Approximately 650-700 per serving
- Protein: 45-50 grams (mostly from chicken breast and mozzarella)
- Carbohydrates: 35-40 grams (primarily from breadcrumbs and tomato sauce)
- Total Fat: 35-40 grams (from frying oil, cheese, and egg)
- Saturated Fat: 12-15 grams (mainly from mozzarella and frying oil)
- Fiber: 3-4 grams (from breadcrumbs and tomato sauce)
- Sodium: 1,200-1,500 mg (breadcrumbs, cheese, and tomato sauce are the main culprits)
- Calcium: 300-350 mg (thanks to that generous mozzarella topping)
- Iron: 3-4 mg (from chicken and fortified breadcrumbs)
- Vitamin C: 15-20 mg (courtesy of the tomato sauce)
- Cholesterol: 180-200 mg (from chicken breast and egg coating)
Fun “Did You Know?”
Beyond those impressive nutritional numbers lies a dish with some pretty fascinating backstory.
I’ll bet you didn’t know Chicken Parmesan isn’t actually Italian! Italian immigrants created this dish in America during the early 1900s, adapting their beloved eggplant Parmigiana for local tastes.
The original Italian version uses melanzane (eggplant), not chicken.
Here’s another fun fact: those golden breadcrumbs you’re coating your chicken with? They’re called “pangrattato” in Italy, literally meaning “grated bread.”
Most Italian restaurants in Italy won’t serve Chicken Parmesan – it’s considered an Italian-American creation, not authentic Italian cuisine.
