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Short-Order Kitchen

Chicken Parmesan Casserole

By Wes Ellis2 min read
Breaded chicken parmigiana under browned melted cheese and tomato sauce with spaghetti on a gray plate.
Recipe card
Servings
6
Prep
20 minutes
Cook
25 minutes
Method
Oven
Heat
375°F
Difficulty
Medium
Jump to ingredients & directions ↓

Part 3 of the thread Out of the casserole dish

THE SHORT VERSION4 points
  • Pull the pasta 1 to 2 minutes early. It finishes in the oven.
  • The chicken gets a Parmesan and Italian seasoning coat, pan-seared or air-fried.
  • Layer pasta, chicken, pasta, chicken, then mozzarella.
  • 375°F for 25 minutes, rest 5 to 10 before serving.
THE RECIPE · CHICKEN PARMESAN CASSEROLE

Ingredients

Chicken

Pasta

Topping

You'll need

  • 9x13 casserole dish
  • Large pot and colander
  • Skillet or air fryer

Directions

Prep

  1. Heat the oven to 375°F and lightly grease the dish.
  2. Boil the pasta for 1 to 2 minutes less than the package says, then drain.
  3. Mix the Parmesan, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper on a plate. Spray the chicken with oil and press each breast into the mixture.
  4. Cook the chicken in a greased skillet over medium heat or in the air fryer until it reaches 165°F inside. Rest it briefly, then cut into bite-size pieces.
  5. Toss the pasta with the marinara, 1/2 cup mozzarella and 1/4 cup Parmesan.

Layer and bake

  1. Spread half the pasta in the dish and top with half the chicken. Repeat with the rest of the pasta and chicken.
  2. Scatter the last 1/2 cup of mozzarella over the top.
  3. Bake uncovered 25 minutes, until bubbling and the cheese is lightly golden.
  4. Rest 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
Notes Keeps covered in the fridge for 3 to 4 days; reheat portions in the microwave or oven. Any protein pasta works, but the numbers change if you use regular pasta. Roughly 450 calories and 45 g protein per serving, give or take.

wesellis.com/blog/chicken-parmesan-casserole/

Chicken parm is a weekend project when you do it properly: pound, dredgeTo press or roll something in a dry coating, usually seasoned flour or crumbs, and shake off the extra before cooking.More: Popeyes-Style Chicken Tenders, Baked, fry, sauce, melt, repeat. Here the chicken gets a quick Parmesan coat, gets cut up, and gets buried in pasta and marinara. You lose the big crispy cutlet. You gain a dinner that's done in one dish and reheats well for days.

Undercook the pasta on purpose

chickpea pastaPasta made from chickpea flour instead of wheat. It has more protein than regular pasta and a slightly firmer, nuttier bite.More: Air Fryer Baked Pasta goes from firm to mushy faster than wheat pasta, and it's going to spend another 25 minutes in hot sauce. Pull it a minute or two before the package time and drain it well. It should still have some bite when it goes into the dish.

Heads up

Don't rinse it. The starch on the outside helps the marinara stick instead of sliding to the bottom.

Cook the chicken first

The chicken is fully cooked before it's layered, so the oven is just heating and melting. That keeps the chicken from drying out and means you can check it with a thermometer while it's still whole. If you'd rather not bake a whole dish, Chicken Parmesan Bowl is the single-serving version of the same idea.

Try this

Using the air fryer for the chicken keeps the stove free for the pasta pot. The layering here is close to Easy High Protein Lasagna, which trades the chicken for a meat sauce and a cottage cheese layer.

LINKED FROM4 notes

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