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.
Delicious!!! My kids said it’s their new favorite!
I made this Parmesan Crusted Chicken tonight and it was delicious! I used my Graniterock Non-stick pan, making sure it was extremely hot. I followed the directions given and had no problem with the chicken sticking at all. The only thing I did a little different was to mix about 1/4 cup of Grated Parmesan with the Shredded Parmesan before coating the chicken (We love cheese!!) and it was absolutely DELICIOUS!! My family thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you!!
how many servings is this?
Tried this recipe this week, both my husband and I loved it. Thanks for sharing
how do you keep the cheese from sticking to the pan?
I used a teflon skillet. I didn’t add the chicken till the butter was close to the proper temperature to brown the eat. I didn’t try to turn the chicken over for 3-4 minutes. I also used a spatula that the lifting area is longer than normal. Somewhat slowly, work it under the chicken loosen it and turn over. Hope it helps.. I’ve had prety good success!
I made this for dinner tonight, and it’s definitely a keeper!! I did make it in the oven. 350 for 20 mins, then convection bake at 375 for 25 mins. I melted the butter and drizzled it over the chicken before baking. The convection baking gave it a good crisp golden brown finish. And the chicken stayed moist!
I was wondering if I could bake this on low. I have to watch my cholesterol as I am a heart patient. Thanks!
Thank you for that tip for convection ovens.
Great recipe. Please reconsider your website advertiser, the constant pop ups made it very difficult to read. If it wasn’t such a short recipe I would have given up and chosen a different website.
Me too Lars!!
OMGosh! I can’t even describe how much we LOVED this recipe! SO tasty!
Hi, is there anyway I can cook this in the oven? If so, what temperature? Thank you
We LOVE this chicken. After I make it, I put them In a pan & in oven with mozzarella cheese just to melt, then pair with pasta and homemade sauce. Best chicken parmasian! Thank you for the recipe.
Hi Jackie! I am super happy to hear this has become one of your favorite chicken recipes. I have never thought to use it as a base for Chicken Parmesan. What a great idea pairing it with spaghetti! Be sure to rate the recipe with a 5 Star rating if you have a chance (It helps with assisting the readers and also with search engines). I appreciate your great feedback.
This was so simple, but delicious. The only change I made was that I used grated Parmesan rather than shredded. Served with a simple pasta and fresh tomato, basil side dish. Yum!
This recipe called for shredded parmesan and I believe should be grated instead. I am going to try with grated next time and also baked. It does have a very good taste! I will cook again.
Followed direction as written and used a cast iron skillet. The results were amazing and will be making this again!
Is that parsley or basil on the chicken
I made this for Sunday dinner and it was perfect, everyone loved it!!
I made this and it was delish.
Going to be a staple for dinner. Yum, was so delicious and simple.
Made this tonight and everyone liked it. I used a fork help with the sticking cheese and it came out great. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Do you know what the nutritional value is on Parmesan chicken
Yum yum YUM!!!! Thankyou for this recipe. Absolutely love this and so healthy ❤
Hands down the best!!!!!