Breaded Chicken Parmesan is a delicious and easy meal for a hassle free weeknight dinner. With oven baked chicken, two cheeses and your favorite spaghetti sauce, it’s impressive enough to serve guests. Serve over pasta with a side of green salad and a delicious dinner awaits!
Reasons to Make Breaded Chicken Parmesan
- This recipe is much healthier than the restaurant version. The chicken is baked rather than fried and has a fraction of the salt and fat you get in restaurant chains.
- Impress your friends and family! Chicken parmesan has a reputation for being fussy, but it’s easier than you think.
- It’s a tasty variation on spaghetti night. You can only eat meatballs so often.
- The leftovers. Pack one of these breaded chicken breasts in your lunch for a treat the next day.
What Goes into Baked Chicken Parmesan
The ingredients for this recipe are pretty straight forward. You probably have everything you need in your pantry right now. You’ll need chicken breasts, water, an egg, garlic powder, cooking spray, bread crumbs, parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, and spaghetti sauce.
I like to use Italian bread crumbs because they already have the herbs. It saves a step. If you have plain breadcrumbs, you can make your own Italian breadcrumbs by adding oregano, basil and thyme.
Before preparing the recipe, the chicken breasts should be pounded to an even thickness. That will improve the texture and cooking times.
How to Make Chicken Parmesan
First of all, I want to let you know that this is my get-dinner-on-the-table version of Chicken Parmesan. The timesavers are:
- Jarred sauce or my quick Marcella Hazan Tomato Sauce
- Italian breadcrumbs
- Shredded mozzarella cheese
- Grated parmesan cheese
That way it’s simply a matter of putting it all together and into the oven.
Once you have your egg and water whisked up, and your bread crumb mixture ready, dip the chicken breasts one at a time thoroughly in the egg, transfer it to the bread crumbs, turning to coat the chicken. Arrange the breaded chicken breasts on a baking pan and spray them with the cooking spray.
Before they’re done baking, drizzle the spaghetti sauce over each breast and top with the cheeses. The chicken breasts should continue to bake until the cheeses have melted and a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees F.
While they’re cooking, boil your pasta. Spaghetti is my family’s favorite but you can use other pastas or spaghetti squash, zucchini noodles or any healthy alternative you’d like. Serve over pasta with my Olive Garden Salad recipe and Homemade Dinner Rolls or Cheesy Garlic Rolls.
More Easy Dinner Recipes
We love breaded chicken parmesan at our house. And I love that it is simple, healthy and doesn’t suck a lot of my energy to get it on the table. For a fun take on spaghetti and meatballs, try my Chicken Parmesan Meatballs recipe. It’s another winner.
If you’re looking for some more easy recipes for weeknight or special meals try these ones:
- Easy Sausage Pasta
- Instant Pot Spaghetti
- Cajun Chicken Pasta (Chili’s Copycat)
- Homemade Chicken Pot Pie
- Easy Shrimp Alfredo
- Southwestern Chicken and Rice
- Easy Ravioli Lasagna
- Crockpot Beef Chili
- Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff
Breaded Chicken Parmesan
Ingredients
- cooking spray
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 egg beaten
- 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
- 6 tbsp grated parmesan cheese divided
- 1 tbsp dried oregano if not using italian bread crumbs
- 1 tsp dried basil if not using italian bread crumbs
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme if not using italian bread crumbs
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 6 chicken breasts boneless, skinless, pounded evenly
- 2 cups spaghetti sauce
- 1 cup mozzerella cheese shredded
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degree F (175 degrees C). Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray
- Wisk together water and egg in a bowl until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, combine bread crumbs, 2 tablespoonfuls Parmesan cheese, and garlic powder. If you are not using Italian bread crumbs also stir in oregano, basil and thyme.
- Dip each chicken breast in the egg mixture, allowing excess egg to drip back into the bowl. Then dredge the chicken in the bread crumb mixture, shaking off excess, then place in the prepared baking dish. Repeat with the remaining chicken breasts.If you start to run out of egg mixture, add a little more water.
- Spray the breaded chicken breasts with cooking spray.
- Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes. Remove the pan and pour spaghetti sauce over each chicken breast and top with mozzerella cheese and the remaining Parmesan cheese.
- Continue baking until the chicken is no longer pink in the center and the cheeses are melted. Approximately an additional 15 minutes. An instant read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 165 F (74 C).
Nutrition
Disclaimer
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Mary says
Delicious and the leftovers were yummy too.
Cat McInroy says
You don’t indicate how much bread crumbs to use in the recipe. Could you please update the recipe ingredients?
Christi Johnstone says
Oh goodness, that’s one heck of a typo to make. It’s updated!