Description
Want to master an outrageous chicken parmesan recipe? Crispy cutlets and mom's spaghetti sauce push this recipe over the top.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Chicken Cutlets
- 6 thin-cut chicken cutlets
- 3 cups plain Panko bread crumbs
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon onion salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
- 5 eggs
- Vegetable oil for frying as needed
Toppings
- Fresh basil, optional but delicious
- Fresh grated parmesan (use for garnish after melting cheese)
- 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.
- 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. Put down a piece of plastic wrap, one of the cutlets and then another layer of plastic wrap on top of that. Pound it with a kitchen mallet, rolling pin or frying pan until it’s around 1/4" in thickness.
- 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.They should be golden brown.
- 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. Use to garnish before serving. 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 to add. Put 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, but I prefer canola.
- As mentioned in the video – do not use parchment paper if you are broiling to melt the cheese. I wasn't thinking when I did that and didn't cut the extra paper around the sides which burned a little.
- 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.