Marinated Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Parmesan with Hot Tomato Marinara Sauce & Mozzarella Cheese Blend optionally dressed with Toppings.

The recipe below is for Baked Chicken Parmesan. However, you can cook it up any way you like using the Grilled Chicken Parmesan, or Deep/Pan Frying in oil. No matter how you cook it up. The Marinated Chicken with the Tomato Sauce and Cheese is absolutely fantastic, with a Parmesan taste throughout the entire chicken.

Chicken Parmesan is one version of Panko Chicken and there are all kinds of ways to prepare Panko Chicken, with various Seasonings and Sauces. My version of Chicken Parmesan is a bit different where I pull in flavors from other dishes.

The Marinade comes from the Grilled Chicken. Which acts as the Egg Wash as well.

The Panko crust technique from Panko Chicken to produce a Crispy Chicken Breast Fillet.

The Tomato Sauce from JAH Quick Tomato Sauce. Bringing all of these together results in a wicked good Parmesan Chicken.

With this recipe, Pan-frying in some Oil or Deep Frying is optional and can be skipped altogether. Instead using this oven technique in the recipe, produces almost indistinguishable from deep-fried Chicken Parmesan.

Cutting Chicken Breast

The objective is to get a thin even fillet of chicken breast. This also helps the Chicken breast cook up in the Skillet with some Oil in about 3-5 minutes per side. If you choose to deep fry or fry in oil.

Slice the chicken breast in half horizontally to give you two equal portions of chicken breast. Then pound out to an even thickness.

If they are large chicken breasts. Cut off the narrowing end piece and butterfly for one portion. Then slice the Chicken breast in half horizontally to give 3 portions together.

The other option with larger Chicken breasts is to cut them in half both ways, Vertical and Horizontal for 4 pieces. Then pound them out an even thickness.

No matter the size of the chicken breast, the objective is to get thin chicken breast fillets with an even thickness through the breast. Whether you end up pounding or rolling the chicken breast with a rolling pin to achieve that. Make sure you end up with an even thickness across the entire chicken breast for all Chicken Fillets.

Standard Chicken Parmesan

The Standard Chicken Parmesan is run through a Breading Station. Seasoned Flour, Egg Wash consisting of Eggs, Milk & Parmesan Cheese. Then breaded in Bread crumbs or Panko Flakes, usually with added Parmesan cheese as well.

Cooked in a skillet over medium heat with Clarified Butter until an internal temp of 165 F. About 3-5 minutes per side.

No Breading Chicken Parmesan

The No Breading version uses

• 1 1/4 C of Fresh Parmesan Cheese mixed with
• Herbs & Spices
• Salt & Pepper.

Dip the Marinated Chicken in the Parmesan Cheese Mix and Bake at 350 F until done.

Grilled Chicken Parmesan

The Grilled Chicken is another Healthy version as there is no Breading and Deep Frying. Marinated Chicken Grilled, Pan Fried or Baked. With that Fantastic Tomato Sauce and & Cheese Blend on top.

This version is also really quick. Producing a meal in about 15 minutes once the chicken has been marinated.

Make the Grilled Chicken recipe marinade and marinate the chicken breasts. Then make up the Quick Tomato Sauce.

Grill the chicken until done. Ladle the Sauce on the Plate and/or on top of the Chicken with Cheese and Broil a few minutes in the oven.

Lazy Chicken Parmesan

The Lazy method is to purchase already breaded Chicken breast, premade Tomato Marinara Sauce, and Sliced Provolone and/or Mozzarella.

Cook the Breaded Chicken breast according to instructions. Top with heated Store bought Tomato Marinara Sauce and Mozzarella and/or Provolone Cheese Slice and optionally broil.

Baked Chicken Parmesan

This method takes from the Panko Crumb Topping used often in an Au Gratin topping. It produces almost indistinguishable from the deep-fried method.

Melt Butter or Ghee/Clarified Butter and pour over the Panko Crumb. Mix really well and use this as the final breading for your chicken.

It will bake up quite nicely in the oven. No need for deep frying. Bake at 350 F flipping over halfway through for about 25 – 30 minutes or an internal temp of 157 F followed by a 5-minute rest.

JAH Chicken Parmesan Ingredients

Marinade

The Marinade is the meat of it. You got to have your Chicken Marinated. So many recipes out there concentrate on the breading or the sauce. While this is nice and all, the meat of it is in the Chicken.

Use the marinade derived from JAH Grilled Chicken Burger with a few changes. Skip the Liquid Smoke or not and add extra Parmesan Cheese to your liking. It’s Chicken Parmesan after all. Also, add an egg, so the Marinade can act as the egg wash as well. Marinate the chicken for at least 1 hour.

Seasoned Flour

Use JAH Seasoned Flour mix with the Standard Seasoning, although you could add in or replace the standard seasoning with other seasonings like Italian Seasoning, Poultry, BBQ, Cajun, or Creole, just make sure you adjust for the Salt & Pepper when using spices that already contain these.

Egg Wash

The Egg Wash in effect is the marinade with an added Egg and Extra Parmesan.

The Chicken will come out of the Marinade and get coated with the Seasoned flour. Go Back into the marinade and coated in the Panko Flakes.

Panko crust

The Last Breading is Panko Flakes. Add additional items if desired. Such as Parsley, Garlic, more Parmesan Cheese, and Salt & White Pepper.

In this recipe, melted butter is added to the Panko Flakes. Which assists in browning and crisping the chicken while it is baking in the oven.

Tomato Sauce

The Tomato Sauce is JAH Quick Tomato Sauce. For Chicken Parmesan replace the beef stock with chicken stock.

JAH Pizza Sauce Base or any other Tomato Marinara Sauce can be used as well.

Toppings

Diced Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Salsa, or a Mix of Tomatoes, Basil, Lemon Juice, Garlic, and Oil. I like Sauteed Onions & Peppers sometimes with Mushrooms. Olives are another good topping.

Optionally a Squeeze of lemon juice to bring some zing.

It’s really open for interpretation. Add what you like.

Cooking Chicken Parmesan

Normally Chicken Parmesan is Pan-Fried over medium heat with some Fat. About 3 – 5 minutes per side. With Chicken Breast aim for an internal temperature of 157 F for optimal juiciness. Followed by a rest.

In this recipe, however, we skip the Pan Frying and do everything within the oven for a Baked Parmesan Chicken version.

When they are finished cooking. They are dressed with Hot Tomato Marinara Sauce & Cheese. Optionally with Toppings.

The residual heat from the Hot Tomato Sauce should be enough to melt the cheese but you could place it under the broiler to assist with melting and color and then place the toppings on if desired.

Doneness

The recommended internal temperature is 165 F. However pulling the Chicken out of the oven at 157 F followed by a rest, will result in Tender, Juicy Chicken breast that is right at the peak of doneness. The carryover temps will rise slightly and even more if you place the cheese on top and cover to rest.

If doing dark meat like thighs for Parmesan Chicken then an internal temp of 175 F is optimal. Followed by a rest.

Cook times vary depending on the cut, thickness, and size of the meat. As well as whether you Pan-fry in oil or not before cooking in the oven. In general, the Chicken is done when the chicken is no longer pink and the juices run clear. Followed by a rest.

Plating

Typically this is plated with Tomato Sauce and Cheese on top. Another option to preserve the crispiness of the chicken is to sauce the plate and place the Chicken Parmesan with Cheese on top of the sauce.

Optionally you can just plate the Chicken with Cheese on top and the Tomato Marinara Sauce on the side to dip the Chicken into.

If you plan on not having the sauce on top of the Chicken. Then Sprinkle Cheese on top of the Chicken as soon as it is finished cooking. Let rest covered. The residual heat should be enough to melt the cheese. Although you can place it under the broiler for a few seconds if you choose.

If you do the Grilled Chicken Parmesan or the Healthy version and miss the crunch. Add Deep Fried Onions or Onion Rings on top. A nice side of Salad can also assist in delivering the missed crunch.

Spicy Chicken Parmesan

Sriracha or Hot Sauce can be included in the Marinade. As well as more Black & White Pepper in the Seasoned Flour.

Other options for an even spicier dish is to add chopped hot peppers into the marinade.

The heat source can also be added to the Tomato Marinara Sauce.

Entirely up to you what type of heat and where you want to place the heat.

Side Dishes

See JAH Side Dish Category for Ideas. Generally, I serve this with Caesar Salad or other Salads, French Fries, Basil Rice, or a Pasta Dish.

Quite a few Pasta Dishes work with Chicken Parmesan. Garlic Pasta, Carbonara, Cacio e Pepe, to list a few. This can also be served up with your classic Spaghetti. Using Ground Chicken and Pork Chops for the meat in the Pasta Meat Sauce or skip the meat and just go with the sauce.