As my Uncle Buck used to say: "true story." You see, I've never really been into chicken parmesan until the past couple of years. I don't have an explanation for this. Crispy breaded chicken smothered in mozzarella cheese with mom's homemade sauce. More fresh parmesan cheese on top and fresh basil on top of that? I love all those flavors! However, I usually would only order this at a restaurant. I began to experiment with chicken parmesan and one thing became clear: you can make outrageous chicken parmesan at home. It's easy guys and it doesn't take much to put it all together.
For Crispy Chicken Parmesan You must have Mis en Place
Being organized with your prep will make for an easy assembly of this classic dish. My undergrad degree was in hotel/restaurant management. One of the first concepts we learned about was mis en place - French for everything in its place. It means get your ingredients together, chopped, divided, sliced - whatever - but have it ready when you need it. You shouldn't be reaching for new ingredients to prep in the middle of the assembly of your final product.
Whether you're using chicken breasts that you cut and pound yourself or already-cut, thin chicken cutlets - have them ready on a plate. Make sure your dredging station is ready - this is key. Once the assembly begins the whole process will go by very quickly.
Everyone loves chicken parm and if you master this recipe you can do anything! Use your favorite jarred sauce or try my killer slow-cooked spaghetti sauce courtesy of my mom. This recipe will not let you down.
Be brave and cook for your loved ones tonight. You're not alone - follow along with my instructional video and I'll be right there with you.
For this Crispy Chicken Parm, here's my mom's big batch spaghetti sauce:
How to Make Outrageous Chicken Parmesan
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 1x
Description
This crispy chicken parmesan is out of this world. So easy to put together and it’s a true gourmet. Cook your favorite pasta or eat the chicken on its own. Treat yourself to this delicious meal and don’t forget to try my spaghetti sauce recipe too. It’s the perfect sauce to complement this dish. You can follow along with my step-by-step video too!
Ingredients
Chicken Cutlets
- 6 thinly cut chicken cutlets
- 3 cups plain Panko bread crumbs
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon onion salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ cup freshly grated parmesan
- 5 eggs
- Vegetable oil for frying as needed
Toppings
- Fresh basil
- Fresh grated parmesan
- 1 8 ounce bag of shredded mozzarella (if you want more - go for it)
- Homemade spaghetti sauce (see my video)
- OR use your favorite homemade sauce or jarred sauce
Instructions
- Heat your chosen spaghetti sauce on low while you prepare your chicken parmesan. I always use my homemade sauce. You can find my big-batch, slow-cooked spaghetti sauce below.
- Start with 6 thin chicken cutlets. I prefer to buy the thin cutlets for this but you’ll still need to pound them down a bit. I put down a piece of plastic wrap, one of the cutlets and then another layer of plastic wrap on top of that. Then I pound it with my mallet until it’s as thin as it can be. Do this for all chicken cutlets.
- Set up your dredging station with your eggs, flour and bread crumbs. The eggs: beat them well in a bowl. To the flour: add salt, garlic powder, onion salt and mix together. To the bread crumbs: add freshly grated parmesan.
- Start the dredging one cutlet at a time. First dip the cutlet in the egg, then coat the chicken with flour, then back into the egg, then the bread crumbs. Egg. Flour. Egg. Bread crumbs. Yes, this is a double egg dip process. It gets the chicken crispier in my opinion. Make sure the cutlet is fully coated in the bread crumbs. You should press down on the bread crumbs a bit. Then take the breaded cutlet and put on a sheet pan. Repeat this for all cutlets.
- Heat vegetable oil, on medium heat, in one pan or two pans if you want to save time. Should be a about a ¼ inch of oil in the pan. I use my egg-finger-flick test to make sure the oil is crackling and ready before placing the cutlets in the pan.
- Using tongs, gently place the chicken cutlets in the heated oil being careful not to splatter any hot oil. Cook for 3-4 minutes on each side. As your cutlets are finished, place them on a sheet pan.
- If using one cooking pan, remove any loose bread crumbs from oil with a fine mesh strainer in between batches. The bread crumbs can burn and attach to the next batch of cutlets and we don’t want that to happen. Add more oil to the pan for the second batch of cutlets if needed.
- Place your cutlets on a sheet pan when finished frying them.
- Prepare your basil. Place 8-10 basil leaves on top of each other. Roll them into a cylinder then slice. We’ll garnish the dish with this. I like to wait and cut this right before the chicken is ready to eat. If basil sits too long it starts turning black.
- Do not put sauce on the cutlets yet. Sauce is going to make the chicken soggy so it’s always the last thing I add. Put lots of shredded mozzarella cheese on the top of all the cutlets. Broil on high in your oven for a few minutes until the cheese is melted. Keep your eye on this!
- Final plating: Put cutlet with melted cheese on a plate. Spoon on your sauce, grate fresh parmesan cheese on top of that, add your shredded basil to the top of that. Start eating.
Notes
- If you can’t find the thinly sliced cutlets at your grocery store, buy three regular chicken breasts, slice them into cutlets so you have six pieces, then pound them out as thin as possible.
- You can use vegetable or canola oil here. Olive oil is possible too and I made it like this for years. However, the bread crumbs tend to burn faster in the olive oil so it gets tricky if you’re cooking a big batch of cutlets. I switched to vegetable oil and there can still be some slightly over-browned crumbs in the pan, but not as much as when I used olive oil. So there you have it!
- As mentioned in the video – do not use parchment paper if you are broiling to melt the cheese.
- One whole piece of this is a pretty big portion. If you’re making pasta to serve with this, you could cut the cutlets in half and it will still be a generous portion.
yum yum
it looks yummy,
★★★★★
Stacey
Hi "yum yum" thanks for checking out my recipe!