5 Easy Chicken Parm Recipes
Chicken parm will always have a place in my heart. Besides it being absolutely delicious it was actually the first dinner I made, plus our go to on date nights back in high school. It never gets old. I used to order it every chance I got, unless I knew it was horrible, then I’d pick something else. And yes apparently even some restaurants can make bad chicken parm. What I love about this is that chicken parm essentially can easily show us how we can change our cooking over time. Keep in mind it doesn’t matter where you are at in this journey, or which one is your favorite. They’re all great and each have something to be said for them. Come check out how easy chicken parm can be.
Chicken parm 5 ways
Now because chicken parm is a dinner that can grow with you. Meaning, no matter what your skill level you can actually get this dish on the table. Let’s look at the ways.
Take Out!
1. Ordering out. No brainer right. Perfect quick solution. Also a great option when you’ve got a place that makes it just right. Nice thing is usually chicken parm actually travels well and as long as they aren’t using cheap cheese you’ll even be able to heat this bad boy up for late night take home or leftovers.
Frozen Dinner
2. Little more effort here, but because chicken parm is so popular you can find all kinds of frozen dinner vers
ions of it. Even better they’ll feed anything from just yourself to a small crowd. Note as much as I try to cut out the processed food. It’s a guilty pleasure because there’s just something about it that just plain tastes good. Which means I’m totally game to indulge once in a while. Especially when cooking for a crowd and everyone loves it. Now this version might not be the best for you from a calorie or ingredient listing (maybe don’t look at this, just saying), but if you can turn the oven on and set a timer you can have dinner. For the record I’ve even had a few of the personal dishes that get tossed in the microwave and some of those are actually pretty good. Throw in some garlic bread and a salad and you’ve got yourself a full blown meal in no time. These have totally saved me during tax season when you’re short on time and just need food. Let’s face it, these are cheaper and quicker than running out to grab some lunch out.
Simple Chicken Parm Concession Stand Chicken Parm
3. What I like to call concession stand chicken parm. This was a staple from my concession stand days.
Never was an official menu item, but it was very popular among the staff. Also fantastic for dorm room cooking. This is easy chicken parm if ever there was one. Honestly it’s still great for a quick go to. Take any prepared breaded chicken tender, chicken nugget (or any type really),top with tomatoes sauce, top with cheese, bake according to package directions then watch the cheese. You really want that to be melted. Now usually prepared chicken tenders have a crunch, but honestly I enjoy it. It’s easy it’s simple and typically I’ll be able to find all the ingredients already at home. Pair it with some pasta, garlic bread, veggie or even a salad and you’ve got a pretty decent meal put together that didn’t take much at all. Extra bonus with this version is that it’s pretty easy to make for one or two people, and just as quickly as you can multiply it for a crowd. Find a type of chicken that you like to keep in the freezer and you’ll be able to whip this one up any time.
Weeknight Meal Easy Chicken Parm
4. Cheat chicken parm. Essentially concession stand chicken parm but with actual breaded chicken breast. Even if this doesn’t seem like much of a difference the texture of the chicken is completely different. so it completely changes the dish in my opinion. Really comes down to personal preference and what you have in the frig and freezer. Now we’ve had to more more towards the Tenders and nuggets because our favorite brand of breaded chicken isn’t carried anymore, and honestly they haven’t even replaced it with something else. The couple places we’ve found that still carry it have it priced so high that’s it’s just not worth it. So we’re temporary back to crispy chicken tenders which isn’t the end of the world for me anyway.
Homemade Chicken Parm
5. From scratch. This is the king of all recipes in my opinion. I love a good chicken parm and I will bow to those that can easily whip this one up and go to town. Personally I just haven’t found the timing. Which grant you is a bit difficult when you’ve got two littles calling your name constantly. This was also my first endevour into homemade chicken parm. I’ve come a long way since that meal. Since then I’ve also found countless ways to season and bread your chicken. I’m a big fan of anything that has cheese in it. I mean can you have too much cheese?
Simple Chicken Parm
So now the question where do you fall? Where would you like to fall. If I’m honest. . . . it’s rare that I even feel the need to jump into the homemade version now a days. I’m more interested in getting tasty food to the table quick. Even making eggplant parm we’ve found that the frozen breaded eggplant is actually better than our homemade (I need to either find a new variety of eggplant or actually peel it, but that’s a story for another day) It also seems to take forever to make even quick dishes with the kiddos around. There always seems to be something going on. Not to mention I’m usually making lunches or doing something else while cooking dinner so even a 20 minute dinner some nights seems to take 40 minutes. But it’s a season in life, but I’m okay with that. I love knowing that I can, but I love knowing I don’t have to even better. I’m sure as I gain more time back I will find it easier, quicker and cheaper for the homemade version, but today is not that day for me.
Looking forward to this journey with you and I hope you’ll stay for the ride. Join our community as we travel together. See you there.