Parmesan Crusted Chicken
on Jan 09, 2023, Updated Jan 29, 2024
This Parmesan Crusted Chicken is an easy meal idea. We use pounded thin chicken breasts, coat in a delicious Parmesan coating, and then fried to make them crispy. Add this chicken idea to your dinner this week.
This is one of our favorite chicken dinner recipes: crispy chicken breast pan-fried to perfection! Serve up with some Garlic Green Beans and The Best Mashed Potatoes.
Why You’ll Love This Parmesan Crusted Chicken
- It requires only a few ingredients and is a quick chicken recipe.
- It is restaurant quality, yet kid friendly.
- This recipe makes for a tender juicy chicken with a crunchy crust.
- It makes for a super simple weeknight meal. No oven, no baking sheet, no Panko bread crumbs or regular breadcrumbs, no flour.
If there’s one thing everybody hates, it’s bland and boring chicken breast. Chicken is a wonderful bit of poultry that- while lacking in flavor- definitely isn’t lacking in promise! You can use all sorts of different chicken seasoning blends and mixes to make a wide range of delicious chicken recipes. However, one of our favorite ways to make chicken taste better for a chicken dinner is to make some Parmesan Crusted Chicken.
You’ll find plenty of other recipes online for stuff like Longhorn Parmesan Crusted Chicken with mayo or ranch. For us, those recipes never worked as well as this one and they’re nowhere near as easy either. Keeping things simple like us ensures perfect chicken every time! Best of all, this recipe is also gluten-free and keto-friendly for all the folks who want some sort of keto breaded chicken.
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Parmesan Crusted Chicken Ingredients
- Chicken – We use a boneless chicken breast for our Parmesan Crusted Chicken.
- Egg – Mixed with some water, this will make an egg wash- kind of like how you make a breaded chicken.
- Salt & Pepper
- Garlic – Feel free to use minced garlic from the jar here. In a pinch, you could use garlic powder.
- Shredded Parmesan Cheese – We are using shredded parm here and not grated parmesan cheese. You can either shred parmesan by hand or you can find this pre-shredded parmesan in the can at the grocery store.
- Butter & Olive Oil – We really like pan-frying our crusted chicken in this blend of butter and olive oil. Feel free to try using all butter or all olive oil for pan-frying, or mess around with other oils and see if you like the flavor!
How to Make a Parmesan Crusted Chicken
We love this Parmesan Crusted Chicken recipe because it’s so easy to prep and make! To make some for yourself, here’s all you need to do:
- Butterfly larger chicken breasts in half before pounding out to 1/2″ thickness.
- Dredge or dip chicken cutlets in egg wash dish before coating thoroughly with shredded parmesan.
- Pan-fry breaded chicken in oil and butter over medium-high heat for 3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Plate and serve.
Variations for this Chicken Recipe
- Try mixing something like Italian Seasoning in with the parm to make something like a Parmesan Herb Crusted Chicken.
- You can also add onion powder to the parmesan cheese.
- Not into breasts… try boneless chicken thighs for instead. They need to be pounded flat and cook slighly longer.
FAQs about Parmesan Crusted Chicken
The simple answer is no. Most of the recipes that claim to duplicate this aren’t fried at all. They prepare a mixture of ranch dressing, cheese and other ingredients. They then coat the chicken with the mixture and breadcrumbs and bake it.
This recipe is not ideally suited for an air fryer. I would be concerned about the parmesan cheese sticking to the air fryer basket. If you are inclined to try this, I would recommend that you spray the basket with cooking spray or olive oil before you air fry, You might also want to add a 1/4 cup of panko breadcrumbs to enhance the crunch.
Technically, yes. The chicken will not come out as crispy or flavorful. You will need to use a baking sheet with a wire rack. Preheat oven to 400. Prepare as directed and place on prepared rack. Lightly spray chicken with olive oil or cooking spray. Bake until internal temperature reaches 165.
Our Parmesan Crusted Chicken pairs great with all sorts of different side dishes. We recommend some good green vegetables- we love a bit of broccoli, some green beans, or some peas. With that, we also recommend a tasty starch or carbohydrate- maybe some macaroni or some mashed potatoes? You don’t even have to serve it up a dinner: grab a good sandwich roll, some marinara and cheese, and serve your chicken up like a Chicken Parmesan Sandwich.
Tips for Making the Parmesan Chicken
- Be sure to use shredded Parmesan cheese. Grated Parmesan will NOT work.
- Use butter because it really adds a great flavor to the chicken and allows it to cook so perfectly.
- If your chicken breasts are thick, butterfly them. Butterflying chicken breast is easy: just cut it in half, kind of like a hamburger bun.
- Pounding the chicken reduces cooking time and is they key to perfectly fried chicken.
- When coating in the cheese, give the chicken a firm press before flipping and repeating. This helps the cheesy crust to stick to the chicken.
- When frying chicken, press lightly with a spatula just before flipping.
- If you attempt to peek and flip them too soon, the cheesy coating will not stick to your chicken.
- Top the finished chicken with chopped fresh parsley leaves to dress it up a bit.
Other Delicious Chicken Recipes
- For another tasty crusted chicken recipe, try our Potato Chip Crusted Chicken. These baked chicken cutlets are tenderized and hit with a thick coating of crushed potato chips. A super easy chicken dinner recipe that you can mix and match flavors in- just change the chips!
- If you want something a bit more sweet and spicy, try some Firecracker Chicken- or, as we call it, Red Hot Chicken. Baked chicken strips are basted with a delicious sweet and spicy sauce made from ketchup, sugar, and hot sauce. So simple to make and pretty inexpensive too- this one’s a big family favorite!
- Of course, if you need something warm and comforting, we have to recommend our Chicken Pot Pie Casserole. We keep this recipe simple by using a few choice ready-made ingredients: some canned crescent roll dough, some frozen veggies, and some rotisserie chicken. These ingredients, plus a few others, really help cut down on the prep time and help you get a rich filling meal ready in no time!
Did you make this recipe? If so, be sure to rate with a star rating and drop a comment below.
Parmesan Crusted Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 lb Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
- 1 Egg
- 1 tbsp Water
- 1 tsp minced Garlic
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
- 2 cup Shredded Parmesan Cheese
- 4 tbsp Butter
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
Instructions
- Cut each breast in half and pound to about 1/2″ thick.
- Beat egg and water in a shallow bowl until blended.
- Add garlic, salt and pepper and whisk to blend.
- Place parmesan in another shallow bowl.
- Dip each piece of chicken in egg mixture making sure to coat.
- Allow excess egg to drip off.
- Place in parmesan. Sprinkle more parmesan over top. Gently press, then turn and repeat on other side. Shake off excess. Repeat with remaining chicken.
- Place butter and oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
- Place chicken and do not move until edges brown (so that cheese sticks to chicken, about 3 minutes).
- Lightly press with spatula then turn over and again do not move until browned.
- Lightly press with spatula and remove to serving plate.
Notes
- Be sure to use shredded Parmesan cheese. Grated Parmesan will NOT work.
- Use butter because it really adds a great flavor to the chicken and allows it to cook so perfectly.
- If your chicken breasts are thick, butterfly them. Butterflying chicken breast is easy: just cut it in half, kind of like a hamburger bun.
- Pounding the chicken reduces cooking time and is they key to perfectly fried chicken.
- When coating in the cheese, give the chicken a firm press before flipping and repeating. This helps the cheesy crust to stick to the chicken.
- When frying chicken, press lightly with a spatula just before flipping.
- If you attempt to peek and flip them too soon, the cheesy coating will not stick to your chicken.
- Top the finished chicken with chopped fresh parsley leaves to dress it up a bit.
Very delicious! Everyone loved it. I like how easy it was to make. Step by step instructions and pictures were helpful. Thank you!
Can I make this with grated parmesan cheese instead of shredded?
This looks so crispy and delicious – pinned!
This sounds really good! I definitely want to try this recipe over the weekend. Thanks for sharing your recipe with us at the Talk Of The Town party. Pinned :)
This was great. My family loved it. I was worried about it sticking, but I followed the directions and it came out really good.
Could this recipe be done in a deep fryer Fry Daddy??
Such a delicious flavor! Everyone loves it. The chicken was ultra moist too. I threw in zucchini after chicken was done. Tasted so good in the browned butter and bits of parmesan.
This was so easy to fix and delicious. I would fix again but add to the parmesan cheese some panko breads crumbs. The cheese wanted to stick to the pan more than the chicken.
I made this recipe tonight. Unfortunately, the butter and oil burn too easily on high heat. I cleaned out the pan and used ghee instead (clarified butter). That saved the day. The cheese coating stayed on much better, too. I will definitely make this dish again! Thank you.
This recipe was a hit at my dinner table. My fiance is a SUPER picky eater which makes it hard to find something new & good to cook, and he loved it! It was absolutely delicious and we will definitely be adding it as a regular meal for us!
So easy to make and simply delicious.
Are there air fryer directions for this recipe?
Made this exact to the recipe and it turned out perfect! My family has a new favorite chicken meal.
I cooked this for dinner tonight and we loved it. I will definitely be making this again and again.
Looks delicious! Has anyone tried without egg? I have an egg allergy, wondering if coating it with oil would work? Or butter?
Try with mayo in place of eggs
There are eggs in mayo. Someone with egg allergies cannot use mayo (found that out the hard way myself).
Some alternatives to eggs:
* if you have a can of chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans, use some of the liquid instead of the egg and skip the tbsp of water
* try using plain yogurt, milk or buttermilk instead of egg/water mixture
Want to try this during the weekend.
Most stores, like Walmart, sell the thin sliced chicken breast that
I use for chicken Marsala. No need pounding your chicken
and a great time saver.
Hopefully the cheese sticks. Sounds yummy!
How you made this in an air fryer? Any tips for that?
I love this recipe! this will be in my go to. I have very picky children & they loved it too!
thanks!
how many servings does this make? wanting to make this for 1 and not sure how to divide the amounts of ingredients!
This recipe sounds yummy. However, my tummy doesn’t do well with fried foods. Can and how can it be made in the oven?
I LOVED the recipe as is and honestly there isn’t that much for being used to cook it in the skillet. I am not sure I would consider it fried. It is just cooked on the stove top. Although I haven’t tried this recipe in the oven yet…I always make as recommended first and then play and make it my own. But if you have a nonstick oven mat, I would say use that on your baking sheet, make the recipe as above, but then bake in the oven as you would normally bake your chicken until cooked through. Not sure how long you would need to cook it for as it has been cut in half horizontally, so you wouldn’t want to overcook it. Play around though, watching it carefully, I am sure it will be delicious!