Baked Chicken Parm

    If you have ever been pregnant you know that when a craving hits, nothing will satisfy you until you get what you want! Honestly, anyone who has had a solid craving can probably relate to this. So when I got a craving for chicken parm the other day I had no choice but to figure out how to get my hands on some! Now, most people would just go to the nearest Italian restaurant or Applebees. The only problem with this is both of those are about a half an hour away for me and with my husband getting off of work around 6:30 recently and bedtime for my toddler at 8, going out for supper this weeknight wasn't really reasonable. That left me with only one option: to figure out how to make it myself. 

    This was going to be an interesting task considering I've really only had chicken parm one other time in my life and one of my least favorite things ever is to deep fry anything. This ment the first step was to figure out what chicken parm even consists of and the second was to figure out how to get that crispy breading without frying it. Luckily this second part was going to be pretty easy because one of the staple recipes in my house is my crunchy honey garlic chicken which is essentially an amazing crispy chicken I make in the oven. 

    After a quick Pinterest search, I discovered that chicken parm is simply fried chicken with parmesan in the breading and topped with marinara and mozzarella. Knowing this, everything came together pretty quick and easy! I first sliced my chicken breasts thin so that they would cook more evenly before dipping them in a milk and egg mixture as an "adhesive" for the breading. Once they were wet I dipped them in a flour, breadcrumb, parmesan, and spice mixture. Whenever I make any kind of crispy chicken, I make sure that the flour mixture covers my chicken VERY well. It's a little messy, but I like to use my hands to really press the flour mixture into the chicken, ensuring the breading will really stick. 

    Once each chicken breast has been breaded, I place each one about an inch apart on a baking sheet and drizzle them with a little bit of olive oil. It is very important they are spaced apart or else they won't get as crispy. Then, I bake them at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes on each side. When I flip them I am also very careful not to scrape the breading off. 

    When the chicken is done baking, they need to sit for about 10 minutes before you cut into them so that they can finish cooking and reabsorb some of their juices so this is when I heat up my marinara. You can use store bought or homemade. I like to use whatever I have on hand. If you don't have any on hand you can whip some up real quick by adding Italian seasoning and a little sugar to some tomato sauce. Once my marinara is steaming, I put my chicken on a plate, pour some sauce over, and top with some mozzarella. I like to make sure that my marinara is hot enough to melt the mozzarella. 

    That's it! Super simple chicken parm! Personally, I think it's necessary to serve this with either garlic bread or some noodles or even both but you can also eat it by itself! As you can see from my picture, I also like to serve this with a salad and some form of potato for a very well rounded meal but you can serve it with whatever your heart desires!

    What did you think of this recipe? Use the comment section below!