Lighter Chicken Parm Recipe
Chicken Parm is one of my all time favorite foods! I’m a sucker for Italian and chicken, tomato sauce, and Parmesan cheese are some of my favorites to eat. Although I enjoy a nice authentic Italian Parmesan, I am so excited to have a great go-to recipe for a Lighter Chicken Parm where it still tastes phenomenal.
The way that I have transformed traditional Chicken Parm into lighter Chicken Parm is very simple. The only change that I made was substituting the flour and bread crumbs for almond flour. Also, instead of frying the chicken, I baked them and believe it or not, the chicken still tasted phenomenal.
Avoiding Dry Chicken.
Chicken can be dry when baked and there are several steps you can take to avoid that. One is the quality of your chicken. In my local grocery store where I purchase my chicken, I have found that their antibiotic free chicken tastes so much better than the regular.
Next, it’s important to pound the chicken breasts with a meat mallet so that the muscle fibers break apart and the chicken is softer.
Lastly, don’t over-bake the chicken. If you are not sure how long to bake it for, use a food thermometer and check the internal temperature of your chicken. Remove the chicken from the oven once it reaches 165F.
The Sauce.
The Sauce is important and gives the dish a lot of the flavor. For my marinara, I like to use Passata instead of crushed tomatoes. Passata is simply just tomatoe purée that has been strained from skin and seeds. Passata is also uncooked and is made only from tomatoes, without any additional ingredients. I think it makes sauce taste incredible delicious. To the Passata, I add onion, garlic, and other delicious herbs that give it so much flavor
Pairing Lighter Chicken Parmesan.
I can’t give up pasta and I don’t plan on giving up pasta! Due to that, I like to pair this Lighter Chicken Parm with whole wheat spaghetti or any other whole wheat pasta that I have on hand. Another great option is chick pea pasta.
Lighter Chicken Parm
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts sliced in half
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup almond meal
- ¼ cup Parmesan Cheese
- 1 tbsp parsley flakes
- 2 tbsp oregano
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- salt and pepper to taste
Sauce
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- ½ medium yellow onion chopped
- 3-4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 cups Passata
- ¼ cup water
- 1 bay leaf
- 5 fresh basil leaves chopped
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 1 tbsp parsley flakes
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 430°F.
- In a medium saucepan, add and heat olive oil over medium heat and sauté chopped onions until translucent. Then, add Passata, water, bay leaf, parsley, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Once it begins to boil, reduce heat to low and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
- Slice the chicken breasts in half, lengthwise, and lightly pound with a meat mallet. Season the chicken with salt and pepper on both sides and set aside.
- In one shallow bowl, add eggs and whisk. In a second shallow bowl, add almond meal, oregano, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, Parmesan cheese, paprika, salt, and pepper.
- Coat each chicken slice in egg, shaking off any access, then in the almond flour mixture. Make sure that both sides are fully coated. Add the coated chicken in a single layer in a baking dish lightly coated with olive oil.
- Bake chicke for 20 minutes. After 25 minutes, Add half of the sauce in the baking dish and flip the chicken over to the other side. bake for another 10 minutes. Internal temperature of chicken should reach 165F, so the baking time may slightly vary depending on the thickness of the chicken.
- Once the chicken has cooked all the way, remove from oven and let rest for about 5 minutes. Serve over your favorite pasta add remaining sauce over pasta, if desired.
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