Chicken Parmi
It's also easy to adapt this recipe to suit your diet and health goals: read more at the end.
Classic Chicken Parmi
Ingredients
- 1 medium chicken breast, per 2 serves, sliced and pounded
- ¼ cup panko bread crumbs
- ¼ cup wholewheat breadcrumbs
- 1 cup parmesan cheese
- 1 ½ teaspoons of fresh herbs, like oregano, basil and parsley. Use only 1 teaspoon if dried herbs
- Salt and pepper
- 1 ½ cups tomato or pasta sauce, depending on preference.
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200 celsius, and line a ceramic bake dish with oil or baking paper. Heat oil in a skillet or heavy-bottomed frying pan.
2. Mix breadcrumbs, herbs and salt and pepper together. Dredge the chicken breasts so the breadcrumbs stick. If breadcrumbs aren’t sticking, you can include an egg mixture and do the dry-wet hand method, or coat in oil.
3. Cook chicken for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden brown. It will keep cooking in the oven.
4. Add all four cooked chicken breasts to your bake dish, allowing some space. Cook chicken completely, 10-15 minutes. Add the sauce and sprinkle over the cheese. Cook until golden brown.
5. Serve on its own with a side salad, or on top of noodles or zucchini noodles, according to preference.
Note:
If you have an oven-safe skillet, you can use it in place of the bake tray to reduce washing up. Most of the ease of this dish is its cooking time in the oven. There’s also plenty of great tools to transfer this recipe into a slow cooker recipe, including buying the chicken schnitzels breaded and adding on low-cook at the beginning of the day.
The sauce is the basis for flavour of this dish: you can find recipes for parmigiana sauce online. For a healthier version of this dish, you can make your own sauce. Homemade sauce means you can avoid added sugar, preservatives or any other hidden nasties in jar sauce. Fresh crushed tomatoes, organic tomato paste, fresh herbs, and red wine make a delicious, low/no added sugar and packed full of important nutrients from the tomato and herbs. Breading your own breast has the same effect: awareness is the number one trick to a healthy diet. You can add other, soft cheeses like mozzarella, which has high levels of calcium and probiotic bacteria. Parmesan itself contains high levels of calcium, with a higher calorie count. Substituting some parmesan cheese with mozzarella is a great way to improve calcium intake and keep the meal low-carb.
Gluten free breadcrumbs are available to make this dish gluten-free or keto, and lactose-free cheese is also available depending on your dietary needs.