Chicken Parmesan with Spaghetti
- Daniel
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
Chicken Parmesan, or Chicken Parmigiana, is one of those dishes I used to make every now and then when my kids wanted pasta, especially on the weekends. Despite how impressive it looks on the plate, there's really nothing particularly complicated about it.
You're frying a breaded chicken cutlet, cooking some spaghetti, and bringing everything together with tomato sauce, mozzarella and Parmigiano Reggiano. This recipe is written for one serving, but when the whole family is home, I usually make four.
Despite its Italian-sounding name, Chicken Parmigiana as we know it is largely an Italian-American creation. Its roots can be traced back to southern Italian dishes such as melanzane alla parmigiana, where eggplant is layered with tomato sauce and cheese.
Italian immigrants in America eventually adapted the idea using meat, with breaded chicken becoming one of the most famous versions.
Serving Chicken Parmesan alongside spaghetti is another Italian-American tradition rather than something you're likely to encounter in quite the same form in Italy. And honestly, that's perfectly fine. Food changes as people move, adapt and cook with what they have.
My version does one thing a little differently. Rather than covering the freshly fried chicken with tomato sauce and mozzarella and baking everything together until that beautiful crust becomes soft, I melt the mozzarella directly into the tomato sauce and spoon it over the chicken just before serving.
You get crispy panko underneath, melted mozzarella on top and plenty of tomato sauce without completely drowning the cutlet.
Better yet, if you have cheesy tomato sauce left over, don't throw it away. Chill it, cover it with stale bread the next morning, add some olive oil and Parmesan, and broil it until crisp. One dinner quietly becomes tomorrow's brunch.
Ingredients:
(Serve 1)
Chicken:
Skinless Boneless Chicken Breast, 1
Rapeseed / Sunflower / Canola / Peanut Oil, For Frying
Unbleached All Purpose Flour, For Dredging
Sea Salt, Pinch
White Pepper, Pinch
Smoked Paprika, Pinch
Egg Lightly Beaten, 1
Dijon Mustard, 1 Heaped TBSP
High Quality Japanese Panko, For Dredging
Pasta:
Spaghetti, 100g
Sea Salt, Pinch
Tomato Sauce Homemade, 2 TBSP
Italian Parsley Coarsely Chopped, A Handful
Chicken Parmesan:
Tomato Sauce Homemade, 1 Recipe
Fresh Mozzarella Sliced, 1 Ball
Parmigiano Reggiano Freshly Grated, For Topping
Equipment:
Cast Iron Skillet / Pan
Directions:
Please visit my "How To Make Tomato Sauce" page for the recipe.
Prepare the Chicken
Butterfly the chicken breast by carefully slicing horizontally through the thickest part, stopping just before cutting completely through. Open it like a book.
Place the chicken between sheets of cling film or baking paper.
Using a meat mallet, rolling pin or the bottom of a heavy skillet, gently pound the chicken until it is an even thickness throughout. Don't worry about making it extremely thin; the important thing is eliminating thick and thin spots so the chicken cooks evenly.
Set it aside while you prepare the breading station.
Prepare the Breading Station
Set out three shallow bowls or plates.
Combine the flour with salt, white pepper and smoked paprika in the first.
Mix the beaten egg with Dijon mustard in the second.
Place the Japanese panko in the third.
Coat the chicken completely in the seasoned flour and shake away any excess.
Dip it into the egg mixture, making sure the entire surface is wet.
Finally, press it firmly into the panko until both sides are thoroughly coated.
Fry the Chicken
Pour enough cooking oil into a skillet to reach approximately 1 inch deep.
Heat over medium heat.
To test the oil without a thermometer, dip the end of a wooden chopstick into it. A steady stream of small bubbles around the chopstick indicates that the oil is ready.
Carefully lower the chicken into the oil away from yourself to reduce the chance of splashing hot oil towards you.
Shallow-fry until the underside is crisp and deeply golden.
Flip and cook the other side until equally golden and the chicken is cooked through. For certainty, the thickest part of the chicken should reach 74°C / 165°F.
Transfer to a wire rack to drain. A wire rack is preferable to kitchen paper because air can circulate underneath, helping the breading remain crisp.
Cook the Spaghetti
Add the hot water to a skillet over medium heat.
Add the spaghetti and gradually coax the strands into the water as they soften. Don't force dry spaghetti, as it may snap.
Once the pasta is completely submerged, season lightly with salt and stir occasionally to prevent the strands from sticking together.
Continue cooking until the spaghetti is al dente and most of the water has been absorbed or evaporated.
If the skillet becomes dry before the spaghetti is cooked, add a small splash of hot water and continue cooking.
Add some of the homemade tomato sauce and chopped parsley.
Toss thoroughly until the remaining starchy pasta water and tomato sauce form a light coating around the spaghetti.
Transfer the pasta to your serving plate.
Place the crispy chicken cutlet alongside it.
Prepare the Mozzarella Tomato Sauce
Add the remaining tomato sauce to the same skillet over medium-low heat.
Scatter the sliced fresh mozzarella over the sauce.
Cover the skillet and allow the trapped steam to gently melt the cheese.
Once the mozzarella begins to soften, gently swirl the skillet to help distribute the melting cheese through the sauce. There's no need to aggressively stir it; leaving some pockets of mozzarella gives the sauce a lovely texture.
Remove from the heat once the mozzarella is completely soft and melted.
Assemble the Chicken Parmesan
Spoon some of the hot cheesy tomato sauce over the centre of the crispy chicken.
You don't have to cover every centimetre of the cutlet. Leaving some of the edges exposed helps preserve that panko crunch.
While everything is still hot, finish with chopped parsley and freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano.
Serve immediately.
Don't Waste the Remaining Sauce
If you have leftover cheesy tomato sauce, let it cool, then refrigerate it promptly. Yes, the entire skillet.
The following day, scatter parsley and some slices of stale bread over the sauce.
Drizzle the bread lightly with olive oil and grate Parmigiano Reggiano over everything.
Place under the oven broiler/grill on high until the sauce is bubbling and the bread becomes crisp and golden.
Because broilers vary enormously in temperature and intensity, stay nearby and watch it closely rather than relying on a fixed cooking time.
Eat while hot.
Succulent...
Make use of the leftover cheesy tomato sauce...
Tips
Don't drown the chicken. You've gone through the trouble of creating that crispy panko crust. Spoon the cheesy tomato sauce mainly over the centre and leave some crispy edges exposed.
Pound the chicken evenly. This matters more than pounding it extremely thin. An even thickness means the centre cooks at roughly the same time as the breading becomes golden.
Scale it easily. The recipe is written for one, but the components scale naturally for a family meal. Bread all the chicken first, fry in batches, and keep the cooked cutlets on a wire rack while you finish everything else.
Yesterday's dinner becomes today's brunch...
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