Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Indulge in the ultimate comfort food – Italian Chicken Parmigiana on garlic mashed potatoes. Easy to prepare and full of deliciousness.
Easy Italian Weeknight Dinner Recipe
Chicken Parmigiana is one of our easy go-to recipes when we want something tasty and warming to the sea.
It’s also not a budget breaker, but we always keep our eyes open for great deals on chicken breasts in our local supermarkets.
Although we like to splurge once a week, In 2013, we decided to keep our kitchen busy with healthy recipes and lots of vegetables.
This baked chicken recipe is simple to assemble and takes about 25-30 minutes in the oven.
For this recipe, you must lightly fast-fry the breaded chicken breasts in extra virgin olive oil, as I prefer super crispy chick.
If you lay the fried chicken on top of the sauce, it will hold up better if it is golden brown and crispy.
This is a reasonably healthy baked chicken parmigiana recipe, but you can bake the chicken in the oven until it is crispy to make this dish even more nutritious.
How To Flatten Chicken Breasts
I used three boneless, skinless chicken breasts for this chicken parm recipe but needed to flatten them out.
Take out wax paper, or you can use cling wrap to wrap the chicken up.
Flatten the chicken breasts with a rubber kitchen mallet, wine bottle, rolling pin, or whatever you have until they are thinned out.
For this recipe, you want them to be thin so they fry up fast and are crispy; the same goes if you bake them in the oven.
Once the chicken breasts are flattened, put them through the three-step flour, eggs, and breadcrum process.
Sson, cook all three dishes before coating; you will need the flavor.
I use breadcrumbs seasoned with Romano cheese and parsley, but I also add pepper, basil, oregano, and paprika to the crumbs and m x.
I also add salt and pepper to the eggs and flour.
Alternatively, you can make your breadcrumbs with day-old bread and seasoning to save even more money.
People also like using panko bread crumbs, which is another option.
Once the chicken is coated, heat 3-4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, and flash fry the chicken breasts on high heat so they are golden brown.
Set them on top of a paper towel to drain on a flat dish while caramelizing the onions and sauté the mushroom.
Italian Pasta Sauce
The pasta sauce I used for this easy chicken recipe was the same for the pasta sauce and meatballs.
You can find the recipe for the pasta sauce here, minus the meatballs, of course.
I take a big batch of this and freeze it so it’s ready when needed.
When your onions and mushrooms are done, layer the bottom of a casserole dish with the pasta sauce.
Top it with the mushrooms and onions, then sit the crispy chicken breasts on top and press down so they are embedded in the sauce and mushrooms.
Top with freshly grated mozzarella and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
Put his chicken dish in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the cheese and sauce are hot and bubbly.
Let it rest while you take it from the oven.
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
While the chicken is in the oven, make your garlic mashed potatoes, which are boiled diced potatoes in salted water, drain, and add the butter, milk, and finely minced garlic.
Sometimes, we chop the head off the garlic, sprinkle it with salt and olive oil, put it inside tin foil, and then bake it.
We then have a sweet roasted garlic for our mashed potatoes.
If you don’t like mashed potatoes, you can serve the chicken with rice, couscous, or pasta, or they can be served independently.
To serve, put a serving of garlic mashed potatoes on a plate, then the chicken parmigiana on top; garnish with fresh basil and a little more cheese.
It’s ooey, gooey good, and don’t forget to serve with a heaping bowl of garden salad!
Enjoy
How To Make Italian Chicken Parmigiana
- Feeds 3-6
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time 25-30 minutes
Ingredients
- 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 2 cups seasoned bread crumbs
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp of paprika
- 1 tsp of dry parsley
- 1 tsp of dry basil or 1/4 cup fresh basil
- 1 tsp of oregano
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of black pepper
- 1 1/2- 2 cups grated mozzarella
- 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Regianno cheese
- 3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (add more if needed)
- 4 cups of Italian pasta sauce – See recipe above
- 2 cups of sliced onions
- 2 cups of mushroom slices
- 1 tbsp butter
- Fresh basil to garnish
Instructions
If you haven’t made your pasta sauce yet, now is the time to make your sauce.
Slice the chicken breasts in half inside of parchment paper or a ziploc bag.
Using the back of a heavy frying pan or meat mallet pound out the chicken breasts to 1/4 inch thickness.
Go to your coating station, where you will have three bowls: the first with flour, second with the beaten egg, salt and pepper, and the third with the seasoned breadcrumbs.
Coat each piece of chicken in the flour, shake, dunk it in the egg mixture, and then over to the seasoned breadcrumb coating.
Heat the extra virgin olive oil on medium-high heat in a skillet and fast fry the chicken breasts.
When they are golden brown, set them on a dish lined with a paper towel to drain.
In the same skillet, caramelize the onions with a bit of butter or more oil until they brown, then add the mushrooms.
At the bottom of a large casserole dish, add a layer of pasta sauce, then the mushrooms and onions, and the 6 fried chicken breasts.
Push the chicken gently into the mixture below, top with mozzarella and Parmigiano cheese.
Cover with tin foil and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
Once finished, to plate add one chicken breast with extra sauce on top of garlic mashed potatoes. Garnish with with fresh parsley and more Parmigiano cheese.
Looks good mate, might have to give it a try!
Go for it mate, it’s pretty darn easy and good.
looks darn, amazing.. CBB. especially the garlic mash. very nice choice.
Mmmmm! I think that says it all. 🙂
What?? I don’t get a famous Mary Jingle this time… darn it. Cheers mate.
Looks good….. Depending on the size of the chicken breasts I might only use 2 if big enough to feed the four of us. I like to pick over the packages and get one with nice big breasts in as I usually only use one for stir fry, little meat, lots of veggies…. Foodland has the chicken breasts on sale this week…. I’ll have to look them over to get a good pack. Or two…. Definitely a must try…..
Yes you could easily do that. This is why you will see all the onions and mushrooms in here so I could bulk it out. We could easily have had half a breast each, and a side garden salad. Cheers Christine!!
Oh, Mr. CBB, this recipe looks awesome. Another great one to add to my list.
Cheers mate, enjoy
I’ve never see chicken parm over potatoes, but I guess it would work. The chicken looks great, but I’d probably use pasta instead. You know I can’t do potatoes and noodles in the same meal.
Oh just try the mash… live it up hahaah… ya potatoes and pasta in the same meal is not so good.
nice recipe but tedius to make .. took me 1 1/2 hrs to prep and get in oven. another note .. for some reason i thought my potatoes were going in with everything (my mistake) cooked them way to early. when stuff goes in oven start your potatoes.
Wow, why did it take you that long? Glad you liked it though. It didn’t take me near as long and I time as I go. I’ve also made it quite a few times maybe that helped.
I was just thinking if you made the sauce at the same time that would be why. I didn’t I had it in the freezer as I make one big batch of it.
no i used ragu pasta sauce instead .. i had to smash my old dry bread too lol. also had to cut up the button mushrooms to smaller size. my chicken was on the bone so i had to cut it off. then oops i burnt the chicken a lil bit since i went to check the recipe online for a few minutes had turned burner up so had to scrape some “black” off. next time i will time it better 🙂
Brenda, you have me rolling on the ground laughing. You are hilarious. Yes my dear for all these reasons your time will be off from mine. The button mushrooms If I had them I would have used them whole, they are great. I had the bigger mushrooms. Have a great night my dear and thanks for coming back to tell me you liked the recipe minus your minor setbacks 🙂 Mr.CBB
Looks good. Might have to try and “Veganize” it as eggplant parmagiana.
Oh, my gosh. Pinning. That’s where I store all my new recipes. So excited to try it out.
Love your blog! It’s so practical and useful. Thanks for posting those good recipes and also your openess to looking at issues like homeschooling. Look forward to the posts that I recieve in my e-mail.
Thanks Judy! This blog is very much open to all the issues under the Money Umbrella. It’s a blog for the fans with plenty of personal touch and sharing so we can learn from experiences. Please, join in the conversation.
Cheers,
Mr.CBB