Parmesan Crusted Chicken is a quick and easy recipe to add to your chicken dinner repertoire! Chicken cutlets are breaded in parmesan cheese and bread crumbs, and pan fried until crispy. This tasty chicken is the perfect easy dinner to serve on busy weeknights. Kids love it and so do the adults.
Do you make chicken dinners a couple of times a week? Then you and your family will love this easy Parmesan Crusted Chicken! Chicken breasts are super juicy and tender thanks to the fast cooking method. Mm… It’s also good that the chicken is so crispy on the outside!
If you love cooking, you will find that this pan fried chicken recipe pairs up very well with pasta such as Louisiana Chicken Pasta, or Baked Ziti. I also love serving it over Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes. It’s a perfectly easy chicken recipe for a quick and delicious dinner. So delicious and simple!
What kind of chicken works best?
THIN, FLAT AND EVEN CHICKEN BREASTS. The chicken breast that works best is thin, flat and even. If the chicken you bought is thick as it usually is, make sure to half each chicken breast horizontally. Once you do that, you get 4 thin chicken fillets. Just perfect, isn’t it?
CHICKEN TENDERS. You can also use chicken tenders to make parmesan crusted chicken.
Parmesan crusted chicken and cheese
FINE SHREDDED cheese, oh cheese! I used store bought shredded Parmesan cheese. But I do recommend to use the fine shredded cheese or grated cheese. The finer you grate you Parmesan cheese, the better!
SHRED or GRATE YOUR OWN CHEESE! Especially if you happen to own one of those lemon zesters at home. I always use it to shred my cheese! I get such a nice fine shredded texture from my Parmesan cheese block. By the way, thinner cheese texture will also help it stick and stay on the Parmesan crusted chicken better.
How should I season chicken breasts?
ITALIAN SEASONING and GARLIC POWDER. When I make this Parmesan Crusted Chicken I always prepare a special dredging mixture. This delicious mixture includes salt, pepper garlic powder and dried Italian seasoning.
FRESH HERBS. However, when I have fresh herbs available I use those. I love fresh rosemary or thyme and use them instead or along with the Italian seasoning.
How should I coat chicken breasts?
- First, paper towel dry the chicken and then prepare two bowls. One is for the egg, salt, pepper and seasoning. The other bowl is for the parmesan breading mixture. Next, you should whisk the egg slightly.
- Now it’s time to dredge each chicken breast piece in egg mixture. After that place in parmesan mixture and press. Turn to coat the other side of the chicken with parmesan mixture and press again.
- Repeat with remaining chicken pieces and place each coated parmesan chicken onto a plate or a cutting board.
How to reheat parmesan crusted chicken
Do you ever find yourself struggling to reheat chicken the right way? I do too! That’s why I recommend eating this Parmesan crusted chicken fresh out of the skillet. But if I do have leftovers this is what I would usually do.
USE OVEN. I simply heat up parmesan crusted chicken breasts in the oven at 350 F to get the coating crispy once again.
CAN I MICROWAVE? I wouldn’t suggest microwaving them. Microwaving will put too much moisture into the chicken crust and the coating won’t be so crispy any more.
What to serve Parmesan Crusted Chicken with
Before I made this Parmesan Crusted Chicken recipe, I had no idea what an easy chicken recipe that was! And what a a great option it is for a weeknight dinner! I liked it so much that I made this parmesan crusted chicken recipe in various combinations. It’s so versatile! You can use it as a main dish, or accompanied by pasta. You can also slice this chicken and use it in your salad.
I love having a salad with this Parmesan Crusted Chicken. I can slice it up and serve it along this healthy Spinach Salad, or my warm Brussels Sprout Salad. Just make sure to slice the chicken!
You can also serve these chicken breasts with Creamy Pasta or Mashed Potatoes. And finally enjoy it with cooked vegetables, such as spinach or broccoli.
More easy ways you can prepare chicken breasts
Pan Seared Parmesan Crusted Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- salt and pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese, (grated or shredded)
- ½ cup bread crumbs
- ¼ cup flour
- 1 lb chicken breasts, (thin, 4 pieces)
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- First, paper towel dry the chicken and then prepare two bowls. One is for the egg, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Next, you should whisk the egg mixture slightly.
- The second bowl is for the parmesan, bread crumbs and flour.
- Now it’s time to dredge each chicken breast piece in egg/seasoning mixture. After that place in parmesan mixture and press. Turn to coat the other side of the chicken with parmesan mixture and press again.
- Repeat with remaining chicken pieces and place each coated parmesan chicken onto a plate or a cutting board.
- MELT butter and ADD olive oil on medium high heat in a skillet (stainless steel, cast iron skillet or non-stick).
- PLACE COATED CHICKEN in skillet and cook for 3-4 minutes one one side. DO NOT MOVE chicken otherwise the cheese will slide off surface before it adheres! Press down lightly with a spatula.
- TURN WITH TONGS when the first side is golden brown and cook the other side for 3 to 4 minutes. Do not cook for more than a total of 6-8 minutes – just set the timer and flip when it beeps.
- CHECK FOR DONENESS to make sure the chicken is fully cooked and not pink. If not, lower the heat and cook for a couple more minutes.
- SERVE immediately.
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy only. This information comes from online calculators. Although whatsinthepan.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
Carmen C says
I made this and it was delicious, I cooked spaghetti added frozen broccoli and Alfredo sauce with parmesan cheese and put the chicken on top and garlic bread, I do quick 30 min meals. It tasted as good as any restaurant.
Olya says
Sounds like you were cooking up a storm in those 30 minutes!!
Brittany says
I’ve made this twice now and it’s very good. The first time I used shredded parm and it didn’t stay on the chicken very well. This time I took the same bag of parm and put the cup-full in my ninja blender. Much better coverage this time. Thank so much for the recipe! This will be a staple.
Olya says
I think you are absolutely right about grating your Parmesan in the blender! I will add it into the recipe.
Loretta Pennington says
I am going to try this recipe this evening. It looks so delicious. I am also going to make Butter Dip Biscuits with the chicken. I will let u know how it turns out later. Thanks for sharing. Loretta
Olya says
I am looking forward to the results, Loretta!
Christine says
Here is a tip! If you don’t have or don’t want to use egg, lightly coating the chicken in mayonnaise works perfectly! It’s my secret ingredient for oven fried chicken. Works well in a skillet too. You would never know. I despise mayo and I can’t taste it at all!
Olya says
Yes! Mayonnaise is a great substitute for egg – so versatile!
Kat says
**MUST USE** your cast iron skillet for this. It was amazing! Well, to be fair, I did use some chicken breasts that I had marinated. They were pretty thick so I pounded them out with my rolling pin Regardless, this was really easy and super yummy. Totally making it again!
Olya says
Great advice about cast iron pan Kat!
Deborah says
I should have made more! My husband ate 2 pieces. I’m stuck with a breast & a half so I’m going to make a salad with the remaining chicken tomorrow. Will make it again but I will make more! Thanks for a wonderful meal!
Olya says
Yes – I keep telling myself to make more as well!
Nancy says
Awesome recipe! I used large chicken tenders. Best chicken tenders ever. Flavors were great. We used several dipping options including tastefully simple brand raspberry peach chipotle sauce and sweet and sour pineapple sauce as well as sweet baby rays bbq! Awesome flavor palette created with the flavors in the recipe. Husband gave this a “10” rating and I’ve already added it to my recipe book! Thank you!
Olya says
Thank you Nancy for this fabulous review! It truly made my entire week!
Holly Yeatman says
This was amazing!! There are lots of breaded chicken recipes out there but I loved how you combined the flour with the breading and seasoned the egg mixture. Will be making this again and again!
Olya says
Thank you Holly about your comment on combining ingredients!
Terri says
Absolutely delicious! Made it last week and will make again this week. I wouldn’t change a thing!
Olya says
Thank you Terri – glad you will be making this again!!!
Mojoblogs says
Okay, this made me hungry! Good thing I have chicken in my fridge. And another good thing is that the other ingredients aren’t hard to find and are usually present in my kitchen. Thank you so much for sharing this! Looks really yummy! Will try making this now.
Teresa says
Love the idea but seasoning was lacking . Next time I will salt and pepper each cutlet individually and see how that works. Also will try eliminating the flour – i tasted too much flour.