I happened upon the idea for this recipe while I was trying to find an alternative way to make my daughter’s favorite meal, Chicken Parmesan, gluten-free. I tried many different ways to make the breading, but they all turned out to be either gummy or weird, so I decided to try something more simple…just parmesan cheese…and it worked out really well. (I sometimes use just parmesan cheese and other times I might add in a little Pamela’s baking mix or brown rice flour to give it a thicker dimension, but the parmesan cheese works just as well on its own)
Ingredients
2-3 large chicken breasts, sliced thin
1/3 cup of oil (for frying) **You may need more depending on how big of a skillet you are using. You need to have a thin coating of oil (like a 1/4 inch) on the entire bottom of the skillet.
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups of parmesan cheese (the powdered variety that comes in a shaker) **more may be needed depending on how much breading you prefer, you can also do half parmesan cheese and half rice flour or half parmesan cheese and wheat flour, if you aren’t gluten-free)
1/2 tsp of garlic salt
1/4 tsp of black pepper
2 cups of spaghetti sauce (Classico’s Tomato and Basil has the lowest net carbs of any non-specialty sauce I have seen)
2 cups of mozzarella cheese
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
1. On a large plate or a shallow bowl, mix together the parmesan cheese, garlic salt, and black pepper and set aside.
2. In another bowl, beat 2 eggs and set aside.
3. Make sure your chicken breasts are sliced really thin, less than a half-inch is ideal.
4. Begin to heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
5. While the oil is heating, coat the chicken in the parmesan mixture, then dip into the egg mixture, and then coat the chicken again in the parmesan mixture. (The double coating really helps the breading to stick better)
6. After the chicken is breaded, place into the hot oil. **It should be somewhat sizzling, if it is making a lot of noise and popping sounds, you might need to lower the heat to prevent scorching.
7. After about 3-5 minutes (depends on how thick the chicken is), you can use a spatula and peek at the underside of the chicken to see if its golden brown. **One trick I use when making this recipe, is to make sure the first side is really cooked well before I try to flip it, otherwise the breading might stick to the pan.
8. If the underside is a dark gold color, then use a spatula to flip the chicken over to the other side. **This breading is not like other breadings, so you need to make sure you really scrap the bottom of the pan while flipping the chicken, in order to make sure it doesn’t fall off.
9. After about 3-5 more minutes, you can start to check and see if the inside of the chicken is still pink.
10. Once the chicken is golden on both sides and no longer pink inside, you should transfer it to a large casserole dish. **Some of the breading may have fallen off in the transfer, if so, simply scrape it out of the skillet and place it on top of the chicken in the casserole dish. Trust me the flavor is still there and it doesn’t matter if it is sticking to the chicken or not!
11. Then top the chicken with spaghetti sauce and then finally add the mozzarella cheese on top.
12. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until the cheese is well cooked and slightly golden.
13. Let the dish cool for 5 minutes before you serve it and then enjoy!
**We always serve this with a side salad…yum! Another variation that I sometimes do, is add some pepperoni on top of the cheese before I bake it or even other pizza toppings would work. I hope your family enjoys this recipe as much as my family does. Let me know if you try it out!
The Thrifty Educator 