One of the first classic Italian dishes I mastered was a traditional chicken Parmesan. It’s a special dish but does require some serious work. A classic chicken Parmesan recipe will probably take a few hours to fry, bake, and clean up. As a reward, however, it’ll make a huge amount of food.
This Skillet Chicken Parmesan has all the same flavors as the traditional version, but is ready in much less time. Plus, everything is made in one oven-safe skillet! Can you say easy cleanup?!
EASY CHICKEN PARM IN ONE SKILLET
The only thing you need to make this recipe happen is a good oven-safe skillet for cooking everything. I use a cast iron skillet with high sides.
First, I bread and then lightly fry the chicken on the stove top in a little olive oil. You could use any oil you have, but I like the flavor olive oil gives. Just a note though: You may need to fry in batches; if the pan gets overcrowded the chicken may not crisp up to your liking.
Once the chicken is fried, remove the chicken from the pan and pour out the oil (you can save it for a few other fry sessions if you want). Then cook the onions, garlic, and sauce in the same skillet. Not only does this save on cleanup because you don’t need to clean it before re-using it, but you get a lot of flavor by scraping up the bits stuck to the pan from the chicken fry.
Once the sauce comes together, nestle the chicken pieces back in the skillet and bake it quickly in the oven to finish cooking the chicken and melt the cheese on top. Done deal!
LOW-CARB CHICKEN PARM OPTION
I like to bread my chicken cutlets for this skillet version, but if you wanted a lighter option, and one that required even LESS cleanup, here’s what you do.
Eliminate the breading, add a small amount of olive oil to the skillet, and just pan sear the chicken cutlets until they are almost cooked through (four to five minutes per side). Then finish the recipe as listed, and you end up with a low-carb version of chicken Parmesan with no breading!
HOW TO SERVE CHICKEN PARMESAN
I normally serve this Chicken Parmesan over spaghetti, but feel free to experiment with it, as the flavors are great on so many things. You could serve it over rice and be just fine, or with a big piece of crusty bread and a salad.
HOW TO STORE AND REHEAT
Chicken Parmesan keeps really well in the fridge for four to five days, or you could freeze it once it has cooled off.
I find that it reheats the best in the oven with some of the sauce. If the sauce is too thick out of the fridge, thin it out with some water before reheating the dish. In a 325°F oven, heat the chicken for about 20 minutes to warm everything thoroughly and re-melt the cheese.