Quick Stove Top Chicken Parmesan

As you may know, I love veal parmesan and I love chicken parmesan, too. But while it is not necessarily difficult to make, both dishes are a little time consuming to make. Sometimes you simply don’t have the time to go through all of the steps…breading, frying, baking….you get the idea. Yesterday I made a super big batch of spaghetti sauce and really wanted to use some for dinner. Chicken parm sounded good to me, but I didn’t feel like taking a long time to make dinner. So I came up with a much quicker version, no breading or baking required AND I only dirtied one pan.

Instead of breading and frying the chicken, I just sauteed chicken breasts that I had pounded out so that they would cook up quickly. Then I topped them with sauce that I had already heated and some cheese. Then I popped a cover on the pan and once the cheese was melted, voila, dinner was ready. I served the chicken over pasta and even that was easy. Whenever I have leftover pasta, I toss it with some sauce and put individual portions in ziploc bags and freeze them. They heat up in the microwave in just a couple of minutes. I had some in the freezer last night, so I didn’t even have to boil water. The whole meal took me about 30 minutes to make.

Quick Stove Top Chicken Parmesan

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
1-1 1/2 cups marinara sauce (plus more if you’re serving this with pasta)
1-1 1/2 cups mozzerella cheese
2 tbsp parmesan cheese
cooked pasta (optional)

Place chicken pieces in a gallon size ziploc bag. Pound with the smooth side of a meat mallot, or the bottom of a small skillet until about 3/4 of an inch thick. (trust me, it takes like two minutes)

Season chicken with salt and pepper.

Heat oil over medium high heat in a large skillet. Make sure you let the oil get good and hot. Add chicken to the pan and saute about four minutes until browned, turn over and cook for another four minutes.

Once chicken is browned, top each piece with 1/4 cup sauce, 1/4 cup mozzarella and sprinkle on some parmesan.

Turn the heat down to low and cover the pan until the cheese is melted.