Chicken Parm

I love a thin, crispy chicken cutlet. It’s a bit of an effort to do the full flour, egg wash, and bread crumb process to get that golden brown exterior, but every once in a while its a delicious, cozy treat that is totally worth it. You will go through a lot of dishes and make a mess in your kitchen, but the pay-off is crispy, cheesy, zesty tomato goodness.

For a vegetarian option, you can easily replace the chicken breasts with extra firm, drained tofu. If using a meat substitute like tofu, tempeh, etc. skip to the “Dredge, Dip, and Coat” section!

Ingredients:

• Chicken breasts
• Flour
• Eggs
• Breadcrumbs
• Parmesan
• Garlic powder
• Smoked paprika
• Black pepper
• Cayenne pepper
• Salt
• Marinara/pasta sauce
• Cherry tomatoes (optional)
• Mozzarella

Prepare Your Chicken

Use Your Mallet (or whatever)

The first thing you’ll want to do is get your chicken nice and thin so you can do a quick pan cook on it that crisps the outside and cooks the inside without burning your breadcrumb exterior. If you have a meat mallet, you’re golden, but if not, you can substitute anything heavy (cast iron, hammer, a rolling pin, etc.). Wrap your chicken breast in plastic wrap and pound it out until nice and thin. The plastic wrap keeps your heavy, flattening implement and kitchen surface nice and clean. The thinness you decide on is personal preference.

Dredge, Dip, and Coat

The next step is the messiest— getting a nice breading on your chicken. Before you do anything else, put some salt and pepper on your chicken breasts to give them some direct seasoning.

Next, set out three bowls. In one you’ll want your beaten eggs, in another your flour, and in the last one your breadcrumbs. For reference, I used 2 beaten eggs for my four chicken breasts. Season both your flour and panko with salt and spices to get to #Flavortown. I seasoned with salt, pepper, black pepper, red pepper, smoked paprika, and garlic powder. I also added parmesan to the panko (I mean, this is chicken PARMESAN). The general process is flour dredge, then egg wash, followed by breadcrumbs. Experts will tell you to use one hand for dry ingredients and the other for your egg wash to keep your hands relatively clean (but full disclosure both my hands always end up covered in everything).

You’ll end up with nicely coated chicken that’s ready for frying.

Fry it up!

Heat up a neutral oil with a high flashpoint (avocado, canola, etc.). Cook each piece of chicken until each side is golden and crispy. Luckily your thin cutlets won’t need much more than that to cook through.

Ready for the Oven

Now you’re ready to prepare your chicken for tomato and cheese goodness! Coat the bottom of your casserole dish with about 1/3 of your tomato sauce (and throw in some full cherry tomatoes for fun, see roasting tomatoes). Jarred pasta sauce is a great choice since it’s fully seasoned, but obviously this is dealer’s choice.

Next place your chicken cutlets in your casserole dish and layer with the rest of your tomato sauce. Lastly, top your cutlets with mozzarella and parmesan.

Bake at 400 degrees F for about 30 minutes. I like to cover with foil for the first 20 minutes and then remove the foil for the last ten. This helps prevent a lot of catching of the top cheese while giving you some nice browning at the end. If you feel fancy, garnish with cut parsley or basil. Voila!