You knew it was coming – a deliciously tender, fried up chicken cutlet layered with fantastic home-made tasting sauce and melted cheese over the top. Really, you can’t go wrong with comfort food like this – especially when you’re the one making it. Indulge yourself in chicken parmesan one of these weeknights and really see what you’ve been missing out on.
This dish is a little protein-heavy, so make sure that if you’re running high for the day on protein that you sub out the breasts for boneless chicken thighs. You can remove the skin from these and crisp them up yourself in the pan as a snack or as a side dish in itself.
As most of you know, with true homemade tomato sauce, you really have to pack a ton of olive oil into it and let the tomatoes soak it all up. We skip the part of hand-crushing the tomatoes and use a store-bought sauce that’s delicious on its own. Spice it up with some seasoning and oil, and we’ve got ourselves a sauce that tastes like it took all day to make. Little will your guests know, anyway. You can sit there, smiling away at the faces of your family chowing down on a meal that took you under an hour to make.
Bon appetit and enjoy! Let me know your favorite thing to do with chicken parm in the comments below!
Yields 6 servings of Chicken Parmesan
The Preparation
Chicken:
- 816 grams boneless, skinless chicken breast
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
Coating:
- 2 1/2 ounces pork rinds
- 1/4 cup flaxseed meal
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoons chicken broth
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Sauce:
- 1 cup low-carb tomato sauce, such as Rao's
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- salt and pepper, to taste
The Execution
1. Grind up the pork rinds, flaxseed meal, parmesan cheese, and spices in a food processor.
2. Slice chicken breasts in half, or in thirds, and pound them out into cutlets. Season to taste.
3. In a separate container to the coating, crack and egg and whisk with 1 ½ teaspoons of chicken broth.
4. In a saucepan, combine all ingredients for the sauce and whisk together. Let this cook for at least 20 minutes while you are making the chicken.
5. Bread all chicken cutlets by dipping into egg mixture, then dipping into the coating mixture. Set aside on a piece of foil.
6. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and fry up each piece of chicken, 2 at a time. Add more oil as needed (I used ¼cup in total).
7. Set the pieces of chicken into a casserole dish, add sauce on top, and then sprinkle with 1 cup of mozzarella cheese. Bake at 400°F for 10 minutes or until cheese is nice and melted.
8. Serve up with some broccoli and olives on the side! You can alternatively serve up 1 chicken cutlet with olives and broccoli for a smaller serving size.
This makes a total of 6 servings of Simple Chicken Parmesan. Each serving comes out to be 593 calories, 36.5g fats, 3.2g net carbs, and 58.5g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 816 gram boneless, skinless chicken breast | 1346 | 29.4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 253 |
| — salt and pepper | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 cup mozzarella cheese | 336 | 25 | 2.5 | 0 | 2.5 | 24.8 |
| 2 1/2 ounce pork rinds | 405 | 25.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 38.5 |
| 1/4 cup flaxseed meal | 139 | 10.9 | 7.5 | 7 | 0.5 | 4.7 |
| 1/2 cup parmesan cheese | 216 | 14.3 | 2.1 | 0 | 2.1 | 19.3 |
| 2 teaspoon paprika | 13 | 0.6 | 2.5 | 1.6 | 0.9 | 0.7 |
| 1 teaspoon dried oregano | 4 | 0.1 | 1 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.1 |
| 1/2 teaspoon salt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1/2 teaspoon black pepper | 3 | 0 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.1 |
| 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder | 5 | 0 | 1.2 | 0.1 | 1 | 0.3 |
| 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes | 1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| 1 large egg | 79 | 5.2 | 0.4 | 0 | 0.4 | 6.9 |
| 1 1/2 teaspoon chicken broth | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 |
| 1/4 cup olive oil | 477 | 54 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 cup low-carb tomato sauce | 59 | 0.5 | 14.2 | 3.7 | 10.5 | 3.2 |
| 1/4 cup olive oil | 477 | 54 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1/2 teaspoon fresh garlic | 2 | 0 | 0.5 | 0 | 0.4 | 0.1 |
| 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano | 2 | 0 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| — salt and pepper | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 3564 | 219.5 | 33.1 | 13.7 | 19.4 | 351.7 |
| Per Serving (/6) | 594 | 36.6 | 5.5 | 2.3 | 3.2 | 58.6 |
Simple Chicken Parmesan
Ingredients
Chicken:
- 816 gram boneless, skinless chicken breast
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese shredded
Coating:
- 2 ½ ounce pork rinds
- ¼ cup flaxseed meal
- ½ cup parmesan cheese shredded
- 2 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 large egg
- 1 ½ teaspoon chicken broth
- ¼ cup olive oil
Sauce:
- 1 cup low-carb tomato sauce such as Rao's
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ½ teaspoon fresh garlic
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. In a food processor, grind up the pork rinds, flaxseed meal, parmesan cheese, and spices. Transfer the mixture to a shallow bowl.
- Slice the chicken breasts in half and pound them out into cutlets. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- In a separate shallow bowl from the coating, whisk the egg together with the chicken broth.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, whisk together all of the ingredients for the sauce. Let this cook for at least 20 minutes while preparing the chicken.
- Bread the chicken cutlets by dipping them in the egg mixture and then dipping them in the coating mixture. Set the breaded cutlets aside on a piece of foil.
- Heat about half of the olive oil in a pan and fry each piece of chicken on both sides until crispy, adding more oil as needed. Fry the chicken in batches, so as not to overcrowd the pan.
- Place the chicken in a casserole dish, pour the sauce over the top, and sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the cheese is nice and melted.
- Serve with side of choice. Enjoy!
I made this last night and it was delish, thank you. 😉
Awesome to hear Bonnie – seems to be the consensus so far. Happy you liked it!
I made this last night and it was delish, thank you. 😉
Awesome to hear Bonnie – seems to be the consensus so far. Happy you liked it!
Wow I really, REALLY liked this. Huge hit and just SOO full of flavor! I do have a request – could you put ABOUT how much your 3 chicken breasts weigh? When I get them they weigh anywhere between 7 and 16 ounces EACH and so just telling 3 breasts doesn’t really help. I buy mine in bulk and vaccum seal and freeze them. I weigh them and write that on the package so it isn’t a big deal to grab the right amount weight wise.
I’ll be sure to do that next time Katy. I don’t always measure my meat beforehand, so I make “about” judgements from it. Though in reality if I did these again, I’d use chicken thighs for the extra fats 🙂
Well I just now finished cleaning up the kitchen after a yummy meal. Recipe was easy and very tasty! Thanks!
Haha, glad to hear Joelle 🙂
Loved this! I was concerned that it would taste too much like pork rinds, which I’m not too fond of, but mixed with the spices and parmesan cheese, they make a great breading mix. My husband said it tasted a lot like Shake and Bake, which is a compliment coming from him. I just used the breading recipe on pork, as my husband isn’t a chicken parm kind of guy, but I will be making the whole dish soon for myself. Thanks for another keeper recipe.
Glad to hear it Noelle! I find that pork rinds really absorb flavors well (especially the fats you cook them in), as I wouldn’t really like the flavor to come through either. You can also use flavored pork rinds (spicy and bbq types) to get some different flavor in there, too – depending on the meat.
Glad to hear it Noelle! I find that pork rinds really absorb flavors well (especially the fats you cook them in), as I wouldn’t really like the flavor to come through either. You can also use flavored pork rinds (spicy and bbq types) to get some different flavor in there, too – depending on the meat.
Wow, this was even better than the non low carb chicken parmesan I usually make. I was skeptical about the pork rinds and the flaxseed, but it tasted great.
I made this twice in one week! Partially to use up the rest of my mozz cheese, but mostly because it was so good my husband and I were fighting over who gets the left overs (and I usually am a person who hates eating left overs). This recipe is a knock out. Thanks for another great dinner craig! I love your site.
Any alternative to the pork rinds for those of us who keep Kosher/Halal?
Best dinner recipe I’ve tried here so far. Great that it can be shared with non-keto family members without having to explain any “weird” tastes due to substitutions. Instead of using flaxseed meal, I used almond flour. Worked great; texture was very similar to bread crumbs. I will be using this as my bread crumb substitute for sure.
Next time I’ll cut the olive oil in half that goes into the sauce. A lot of that oil separated from the tomato sauce during baking, so much of it wasn’t eaten anyway. The oil definitely added to the rich taste though. This is easily something I could eat several times a week.
I just made this tonight without the pork rinds (my supermarket doesn’t stock them) and just used the rest of the ingredients. It was absolutely amazing! And the chicken came out nice and crispy from the pan without a problem. Thank you so much for the recipe!
Hi, I’m a bit confused about the servings on this one…you have 3 chicken breasts, cut into 6 pieces, but four servings? Do you just cut them up to serve? Thanks!
That’s correct. You could use 4 smaller chicken breasts, though that’s what I had on hand when I made the recipe. The recipe is very calorie dense, but if your macros allowed for it you could up the servings to 3 servings per. Sorry for any confusion!
I see your a big lover of Raos, which type do you buy for like the pizza/chicken parmesan? Do you usually go with the Basic Raos Marinara?
This looks so good, I’m going to make this tonight. How many breasts or ounces of chicken count as one serving? (I also have to watch calories and 645 kcal is too high for one meal.) Thanks!
The recipe uses about 20 oz. in total, so at 4 servings that would be 5 oz. of meat per person.
For those that don’t eat pork what can you use in place of pork rinds in all the recipes?
You could use a mixture of almond flour, flaxseed meal, and parmesan cheese.
This dish is incredibly tasty! Quick question though, any idea how to fry without having a smoke show? I even tried using coconut oil, which I believe has a higher smoke point.
Turn the heat down on the pan a little bit. Generally I get some smoke, but once you see that smoke point happen, you want to put your chicken in the pan. The reduction of temperature should stop the oil from burning. Other options are to get a deep fryer (they’re around $30 online).
I made this dish today and it was incredibly tasty. I did not use olive oil and never do anymore to fry foods. My doctor told me that turns it into a trans fat when it’s heated beyond it’s smoke point. For this dish I used half avocado oil and half ghee. There was no smoke at all. Thanks for the delicious recipes!
I made this tonight with chicken thighs. Delicious!
So clearly I’ve been stalking your website for weeks now. I can’t help it. Every recipe of yours that I make becomes my “favorite”. I made this chicken parm last night with low expectations, but it was DIVINE! Even my husband liked it (picky eater, and without cheese). This really satisfied a loss I’ve felt over some traditional Italian favorites. I can’t wait to have leftovers tonight. Since every recipe I’ve tried from you has been amazing, I bought your Keto-fied book! Hope to get cooking from that real soon…but your site has so many amazing recipes I need to work my way through.
Haha thank you so much! I hope you keep enjoying all the recipes 🙂
This came out really well with a bit more parm and some extra herbs and spices! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a33367400446490742811e8b1790ecf39a790f51fdd0a804fd2b79e3fc30210e.jpg
http://Instagram.com/anthony.rotio
Omg I’m DROOLING! Thanks for uploading a pic!
This came out really well with a bit more parm and some extra herbs and spices! https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
http://Instagram.com/anthon…
Hi,
Probably a bit late but can I omit chicken brother as I haven’t gotten around to making any yet. This is my week 3 of your 30 day program but I’m mixing it up tonight.
Yes! You can just use water.
Thank you so much! I made this yesterday. Halved the recipe and used 12 oz of chicken, for two lovely portions.
Sounds fantastic – glad you liked it!
I made this last night and it was incredible. I love chicken parm and have been craving it in a huge way. I left out the flaxseed since I didn’t have any. I also didn’t doctor the sauce at all. I used Rao’s arrabbiata sauce which is delicious on it’s own. It was amazing. My husband and I instantly decided we would have this every week. I also didn’t serve it with olives and broccoli. I shaved a few zucchinis and sauteed with a bit of the Raos sauce to make “noodles.” Also, delicious.
Awesome! Thank you for the kind review.
What type of parmesan cheese do you use? When I enter my store brand into MFP I get 12 g carbs, 18 g fat and 24 g protein for 1/2 cup of it.
Other than that it was delicious! Just didn’t realize my parmesan’s nutrition until after when I was logging it(and already eaten!). I did omit the pork rinds and added a bit of almond flour since I don’t eat pork and it turned out wonderful! Can’t wait to try more recipes.
Hi Melissa. I went through the nutrition tables to double check everything. The information we are using comes from here:
https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/133?fgcd=&manu=&lfacet=&format=&count=&max=50&offset=&sort=default&order=asc&qlookup=parmesan+cheese&ds=Standard+Reference&qt=&qp=&qa=&qn=&q=&ing=
It’s shredded Parmesan. If you bought yours pre-shredded it might have a starch filler to keep it from clumping in the bag. (If this is the case it will be listed in the ingredients.) You can save a lot of carbs by shredding your own cheese. If you shredded your own then I am not sure! Most of them should be similar nutritionally.
Hi Melissa. I went through the nutrition tables to double check everything. The information we are using comes from here:
https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/nd…
It’s shredded Parmesan. If you bought yours pre-shredded it might have a starch filler to keep it from clumping in the bag. (If this is the case it will be listed in the ingredients.) You can save a lot of carbs by shredding your own cheese. If you shredded your own then I am not sure! Most of them should be similar nutritionally.
OMG!!! Are you kidding me?!?!? Beyond KETO or anything else, this dish is freaking AMAZING!!! I followed the recipe and directions to a “T” (with the exception of flaxseed meal — I used some almond flour). Easy to follow, relatively quick and de-FREAKING-LICIOUS!! Thank goodness I made enough for dinner last night, lunch today, dinner tonight and who knows what else. Thank you! I’m in KETO-HEAVEN!!
Hi, this recipe looks amazing. But I’m wondering about the pork rinds which are not available where I live (Australia). There are several recipes that look great but have pork rinds as an ingredient. I suggested previously using pepperoni, drying it out by cooking and then blitzing it in the food processor (but my suggestion wasn’t published). What do you think? Could that be a possible substitute?
Hi Barbara! If you can buy pork skin from your local butcher than you can make pork rinds at home: https://baconsheir.com/pages/how-to-make-pork-rinds
If doing this I would probably just make a ton at a time, because it’s a bit of work. I store crushed pork rinds in my freezer.
I don’t think the pepperoni substitute would work where the crushed pork rinds are being used to absorb, but I bet that would make a delicious topping on some dishes. For this particular recipe I think the easiest substitute would be to use a 50/50 mixture of almond flour and grated Parmesan.
Hi Barbara! If you can buy pork skin from your local butcher than you can make pork rinds at home: https://baconsheir.com/page…
If doing this I would probably just make a ton at a time, because it’s a bit of work. I store crushed pork rinds in my freezer.
I don’t think the pepperoni substitute would work where the crushed pork rinds are being used to absorb, but I bet that would make a delicious topping on some dishes. For this particular recipe I think the easiest substitute would be to use a 50/50 mixture of almond flour and grated Parmesan.
Thank you! I’ll try that.
I made this and loved it. When I import the recipe I get a much different picture of the nutrients. Like it says one serving is 29 carbs. I imported this direct page into my fitness pal.
MFP can be pretty finicky. In my experience this is cause by a few things:
– Sometimes MFP picks the wrong ingredient, or puts the wrong number of an ingredient. (5000 lbs of onions or something for instance.) So double check that it imported correctly.
– Sometimes people forget to subtract the fiber and sugar alcohols from a recipe. (Happens most often with dessert recipes.)
– Sometimes the ingredient is right but in the wrong way. If the recipe calls for 1 lb of raw chicken, but it imports a lb of cooked chicken then the macros will be different. In this recipe we use whole milk mozzarella, but carbs for part-skim are generally much higher.
Do you think one of those things could be the issue?
This was a fantastic recipe, whole family tore it up!