How To Make Chicken Parmesan

Chicken Parmesan only needs a few things to go from great to excellent — perfectly golden and still juicy chicken is chief among them. Master pounding chicken breast into even pieces, coating them well, and then frying until crisp and cooked through first. The other steps — covering with sauce and cheese — will come easily and only improve the already stand-out chicken. So if you’re looking to master this classic, this recipe will show you how, and it starts with the chicken.

Chicken parm requires thin, crispy cutlets of chicken, so our first step is to make sure they’re of even thickness so they cook at a similar time. If you’re starting with chicken breasts that are on the larger side, cut the breast in half widthwise before pounding.

Gently pound the chicken to a thickness of 1/2 inch so the cutlet is thick enough to stay juicy but thin enough to get crisp. Some folks butterfly the chicken breast and cook the resulting two thin slices, but I find that the chicken’s juiciness suffers. Others cut the breast partway through, lengthwise like a book and open it up to butterfly it and then pound it, but you can end up with a chicken breast that is bigger than a dinner plate and won’t fit in a pan. No matter how you cut the chicken, a gentle pounding is critical for even cooking and tenderizing.

Cut two pieces of plastic wrap or waxed paper that are big enough to cover your work surface or cutting board. Put one piece on it and place a breast half on top. Place the second piece of plastic wrap or waxed paper on top. To pound, you can use the bottom of a small saucepan or the flat side of a meat mallet.

The technique? Just firmly tap the breasts until they are a uniform thickness of 1/2 inch. Start at the middle and work your way out, nudging the chicken down and slightly out, being careful not to tear the meat. The thinner outer edges will need very little pounding. Note that the plastic may suffer a puncture here and there, so once you’re done with the raw chicken, don’t use the work surface for anything else until you’ve washed it with hot water and plenty of soap.

1. Use plenty of oil. Crispy chicken has to be fried in enough oil so that it floats over the cutlet. For a 1/2-inch-thick cutlet, the oil should be 3/4-inch deep. Oil amount is dependent on surface area, so if you have a bigger pan, you’ll need more oil.
2. No thermometer? No problem. If you don’t have a deep-frying thermometer, you can heat the oil over medium heat and carefully drop in a small piece (about 1-inch square) of bread; it should brown in about 40 seconds at the right temperature.
3. Skim the oil between batches. Make sure to scoop out any little pieces of chicken or breading that fall off between batches to prevent them from burning.
4. Keep that cutlet crisp until the last second. Since the goal is to keep the chicken crisp until the last moment, make sure to top with sauce and cheese just before baking and broiling.

Before we talk cheese, a word on the sauce. You can use any marinara you’d like. A favorite jarred variety, the one you make by heart week after week, or the simple version we’re a fan of here. Just make sure you like it. Now, let’s talk cheese.

Your chicken Parmesan doesn’t just need Parmesan for topping. Up the cheese-pull factor by using fresh and part-skim mozzarella along with the grated Parmesan. Thankfully, fresh mozzarella can be found at every grocery store. It tastes milky and fresh, but for melty stretch, nothing works as well as the low-moisture packaged variety, so I use both. Pair them with the rich and salty flavors of real-deal freshly grated or shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano, and you’ve got a formula that can’t be beat.

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