Perfect Chicken Parmesan RECIPE + VIDEO | Self Proclaimed Foodie (2024)

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Perfect Chicken Parmesan is full of flavor, takes minutes to cook, and is my favorite chicken dinner recipe!

Boneless skinless chicken breasts are tenderized, lightly breaded, and cooked to crispy perfection. Once they are smothered in your favorite marinara sauce and melted cheese, the most delicious dinner is ready for your consumption!

Why this recipe works:

Any recipe that coats chicken in a wonderful crispy outside like my chicken tenders or buttermilk fried chicken is a winner in my book. And the fact that this is such an easy recipe will have you making it on a weekly basis.

Because the chicken breasts are tenderized before cooking, no knife is required. This recipe is made extra easy by using bottled pasta sauce and you can even use pre-shredded cheese.

Chicken parm is possibly my favorite dinner… especially when served with homemade pasta! If you’re wanting a vegetarian version, you can’t go wrong with eggplant parmesan! Also, if you enjoy this recipe, you’ll want to make myChicken Cacciatore.

Here’s how to make it:

1. First step is to tenderize the chicken (more information on why that is important below) and season with salt and pepper (photo 1).
2. The crumb coating I use when making this easy chicken parmesan is a 2:1 mixture of bread crumbs to parmesan cheese plus some herbs. Dredge the chicken in the flour, then coat with egg, then coat with the bread crumb mixture (photo 2).
3. Brown the chicken on both sides in olive oil (photo 3).
4. To finish off your chicken parm, all you need to do is top those crispy seasoned chicken breasts with a healthy portion of amazing tomato pasta sauce (photo 4) and then top that with some slices of fresh mozzarella (photo 5) along with some grated parmesan. Finish the whole thing off in the oven to get the cheese all nice and melted (photo 6).

Why tenderizing is important:

You want your chicken breasts to be thin for several reasons:

1. First, when you pound the meat with a mallet or roll it with a rolling pin, you break up the tissue and it makes it more tender. So much so that you can easily cut it with the side of your fork. I prefer to pound my meat over rolling it because its fun.
2. Second, you want your chicken to be of uniform thickness so that it cooks evenly.
3. And third, the thinner the meat, the faster it cooks. During school and sports season, we all need meals that can be cooked quickly.

Cooking tips:

• I always choose to put my crumb mixture in a rectangular dish that’s the exact size of the chicken breast. It makes coating the chicken easy.
• If you’re wondering how do you keep chicken parmesan crispy, you must cook the coated breasts in very hot oil in a single layer. This will give them a crispy golden outside and won’t leave them soggy.
• I served my parmesan chicken up with some basil pasta that I tossed in some of the reserved pasta sauce.

Step-by-step recipe video below!

Did you make this recipe? Please leave me a comment below to let me know what you think!

This post was originally created in September 2015 and has been updated with additional photos, cooking tips, and helpful information. Don’t worry – I didn’t change the recipe!