One of my favorite family-friendly meals to make is Chicken Parmesan. It’s easy, fairly healthy and a crowd pleaser. It’s also a great meal for that special someone this Valentine’s day – whether you’re celebrating just the two of you or making it a family event.
The other nice thing about making homemade chicken parmesan, is that if you make extra chicken you can use it for homemade chicken tenders. I think we all love being able to get a few meals out of 1 recipe.
Another thing we have done with this meal is make the tenders up for the kids at dinner time and then set a few aside for later. Then, once they’re in asleep, we make chicken parmesan for just the two of us.
When I make chicken parmesan, I always buy the chicken already cut in tender slices. I always find it easier to saute small pieces of chicken rather than large. It alleviates the whole is it truly cooked all the way through questions you ask yourself when dealing with chicken. Because, surprisingly, I’m not really a fan of having to worry about salmonella poisoning.
What You’ll Need
The following is the recipe for chicken tenders which are also used for making my chicken parmesan.
12 chicken breast sliced tenders
3 eggs
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder or garlic salt
3-4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
2 saute pans (pans that can go into the oven if you are doing chicken parmesan)
The following is additionally needed if you want to make chicken parmesan. Please be sure to read this whole post first so you know the full directions.
8-10 slices of mozzarella
Jar or homemade marinara sauce
1 box of your favorite noodles
Shredded parmesan cheese
For the chicken tenders:
Prepare one shallow dish with your 3 eggs. Scramble together.
Prepare a second shallow dish with your bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, italian seasoning, cinnamon, cumin and garlic salt/powder. Stir together.
Grab a platter or cutting board. Take your chicken tenders. First, dip them individually in the egg. Completely cover them. Second, dip them in the bread crumb mixture. Again, complete cover them by rolling them around. Pick them up out of the mixture, shake off an excess crumbs and put on your cutting board or platter.
Start warming up the 2 saute pans with a medium high heat. Coat both pans with extra virgin olive oil. Let each pan heat up until it is starting to form a low sizzle.
Once they are both warm, add in your chicken breasts one at a time. Don’t move initially so that the hot olive oil will help form a nice crust.
Once you see a nice crust has formed on one side, flip to the other. Continue cooking until a crust has formed on the other side and the chicken is cooked through. The length of time truly just depends on the heat or your stovetop.
When I cook them, it’s around 8-10 minutes total. Be sure to test a few different tenders by slicing through them and seeing that they are white, not pink on the inside.
TIP: What’s great about making these tenders, is that you can also freeze them and use them at a later date. If you do this, heat them up in the oven on a baking sheet.
Serve with your favorite chicken tender dipping sauce.
Now, if you want to use these tenders for chicken parmesan, you’ll want to do the following.
Before you begin the process above, heat your oven to 350. Simultaneously while you are cooking the chicken, you would also want to be cooking your favorite noodles and heating your marinara sauce over a low simmer.
When the chicken is done from the steps above, take your pan(s) of chicken tenders and coat each one with a spoonful of sauce, a slice of mozzarella cheese and another dollop of sauce on top.
Put the pan into the oven. When I start to see the cheese melt, I turn my oven to broil because I like to get a brown crust on my cheese. If you’d rather just stick to melted cheese, this step isn’t necessary.
Remove the pan from the oven and on a plate serve a few pieces of chicken parmesan, noodles and sauce. Top the whole dish with parmesan cheese. Enjoy.
Twitter: AlisonSWLee
Says:
February 12, 2012 at 10:18 pm
Yummy I like! Your chicken tenders recipe is very close to my chicken schnitzel one, so I can easily adapt this!
February 13, 2012 at 8:34 pm
I love chicken schnitzel! Now I need to add that into the mix and make it sometime soon.
Twitter: KimberlyAMuro
Says:
February 12, 2012 at 11:13 pm
Yum, I love chicken parmesan!
February 13, 2012 at 8:34 pm
So do I! It’s one of my favorite italian dishes.
Twitter: Mytimeasmom
Says:
February 13, 2012 at 3:14 am
Looks yummy! I’ll bring the martinis, you do the cooking.
February 13, 2012 at 8:34 pm
I like the way you think. Just don’t spill them on the flight here.
February 13, 2012 at 8:56 am
Cinnamon??? I would have never thought to put that in my chicken coating for chicken Parmesan.
February 13, 2012 at 8:35 pm
I put cinnamon & cumin in almost all my chicken & steak dishes. It just adds a little something extra. Sometimes I also throw in some nutmeg.
Twitter: galitbreen
Says:
February 13, 2012 at 9:14 am
Oh yum!
Chicken parm is one of my all time FAVORITES (I adore eggplant parm, too! What’s your take on that?)
February 13, 2012 at 8:35 pm
I love eggplant parm as well. I’ve actually never made it because I’m the only eggplant lover in the house. I usually just order it at restaurants.
Twitter: EverythingEvie
Says:
February 13, 2012 at 9:32 am
This looks yummy! You can’t go wrong with chicken parm in my book. I make a lighter version by skipping the breading part, grilling the chicken and using whole wheat pasta. It’s delish!
February 13, 2012 at 8:36 pm
No, you can’t. I’ve done that as well, but the hubs wanted a little bit of comfort food last night.
My favorite whole wheat pasta is Trader Joe’s – so good and my kids don’t even notice the difference.
February 13, 2012 at 2:32 pm
You did make that look really easy! And of course very yummy!
February 13, 2012 at 8:37 pm
It is truly easy! In & out of the kitchen in less than 30 minutes.
February 13, 2012 at 3:13 pm
Look at you being all double-duty with your 2-in-1.
A master, that’s what you are.
February 13, 2012 at 8:37 pm
You never know what you’re going to get from me!
February 13, 2012 at 4:39 pm
I love the spices in your recipe. I need to try this soon!
February 13, 2012 at 8:37 pm
Thanks! I hope you enjoy it.
Twitter: literalmom
Says:
February 13, 2012 at 7:39 pm
I’m getting totally pumped about finding recipes you can make yourself so that I can avoid too much processed junk. So thanks for this!
February 13, 2012 at 8:38 pm
Me too! My kids love chicken tenders, but I always hate buying the store bought ones. I like to make my own and they think it’s fun as well.
Twitter: babspinfrance
Says:
February 14, 2012 at 11:42 am
This just made me so hungry!! This looks delicious and my kid loves chicken tenders!
February 15, 2012 at 3:35 am
This recipe looks great! My kid’s love chicken and this is a much healthier choice to store bought breaded chicken. I will be sure to give this recipe a try. Thanks for sharing.