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Tender, meaty chicken in delicious stovetop tomato sauce crowned with a crunchy topping of seasoned bread crumbs and cheese. This weeknight Chicken Parmesan Casserole is a cozy and healthy dinner. It’s so good! And so simple to make!
Weeknight Chicken Parmesan Casserole – Dinner is Solved; No Joke!
Years ago, when my kiddos were still little, I remember talking to my sister on the phone, noticing that the dreaded dinnertime witching hour was coming up, and heaving a sigh. “Well, I’d better hang up. The kids are getting hungry, so I’ve gotta go do something to a chicken.”
“I’ve gotta go do something to a chicken” became shorthand for the slog of coming up with yet another weeknight meal, as well as a long-running family joke.
But there’s a lot of truth in that joke. Because even if you love to cook, the daily grind of coming up with a tasty, affordable, and healthy dinner can rob your culinary joy.
That’s why I’m all about one-dish dinners, like this Chicken Parmesan Casserole.
The classic chicken parmesan is always a family favorite, a dish that just about everybody loves. My oven-baked casserole features all the savory, Italian-inspired flavor of the original.
However, my version is easier to make because you pop the whole thing into the oven at once rather than pan-frying individual pieces of chicken. And though skipping the frying helps up the health factor too, this Weeknight Chicken Parmesan Casserole doesn’t skimp on flavor.
In short, this delectable dish is a great weeknight dinner solution. No joke!
Weeknight Chicken Parmesan Casserole – Simple Ingredients for Big Flavor
So, let’s talk ingredients, and preparation.
The first step making a simple and super yummy stovetop tomato sauce.
You’ll cook onions, peppers, and garlic in olive oil until they’re nice and soft and the onions start to caramelize and turn golden brown. Caramelizing the onions helps to bring out their natural sweetness and flavor, so you don’t want to rush that part.
Next, you’ll add plain canned tomato sauce and some canned diced tomatoes. You don’t need to use anything fancy when it comes to the tomatoes and sauce. The generic supermarket brand will work just fine because you’ll be adding lots of flavor with fresh and dried herbs and spices.
The finished sauce goes into an ovenproof casserole dish or baking pan. Then you’ll immerse your chicken in the sauce so it stays nice and tender during baking.
The classic chicken parmesan uses breaded, fried chicken breasts. I prefer to use skinless, boneless chicken thighs for my Weeknight Chicken Parmesan Casserole because I find them to be more flavorful and tender. But if you’d rather use chicken breasts, that’s just fine. You do you!
The last step is making and adding the topping. It’s just a simple mixture of bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, herbs, seasonings, and olive oil that you’ll heap over the chicken pieces. The topping will turn a lovely, crunchy golden brown during baking.
While you could use regular bread crumbs in a pinch, I really do prefer panko bread crumbs here. They’re light and crisp right out of the box, which will help keep that yummy, cheesy, herby topping light and crisp, too.
What to serve with Weeknight Chicken Parmesan Casserole?
With plenty of veggies, protein-packed chicken, that wonderful, cheesy bread crumb topping, and a touch of olive oil, this really does qualify as a one-dish meal. I’ve eaten this Chicken Parmesan Casserole all on its own and been perfectly satisfied.
But it’s also really good served on top of spaghetti, rice, or almost any kind of pasta. A fresh green salad tossed with a simple Italian dressing or balsamic vinaigrette would round out the meal beautifully.
Though this is a recipe I rely on for weeknight meals, I wouldn’t hesitate to serve it to company, especially if I served it with pasta, salad, and maybe some garlic bread.
If we did have guests for dinner, I’d probably wrap it up with a simple dessert of spumoni ice cream – building on the Italian-night theme. But fresh raspberries and vanilla ice cream would be great here too.
Whether you’re feeding the family on a Monday or company on a Saturday night, Weeknight Chicken Parmesan Casserole is a crowd-pleaser. Try it soon!
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Weeknight Chicken Parmesan Casserole
- Yield: 4-6 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 3 T olive oil, divided
- 1 large bell pepper (any color), medium-diced
- ½ large yellow onion, diced
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 1 15 oz can plain tomato sauce
- 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1/2 cup (loosely packed) chopped basil, chopped and divided
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp dried oregano, divided
- 1.5 lbs chicken thighs
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs
- 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- Kosher salt
- Fresh Ground pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle chicken thighs lightly with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, set aside.
- Cook onions in 2 T olive oil on stove for 5 minutes over medium-high, until they just begin to turn golden brown. Add diced peppers and cook for an additional 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook an additional minute.
- Add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, ¼ cup of the basil, ¾ tsp oregano, and red pepper flakes to the pan. Lower the heat and simmer the sauce 10 minutes. Taste sauce and adjust seasonings, adding salt and pepper if desired.
- In a medium-sized bowl, stir together bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, ¼ tsp oregano, 3 T of the chopped basil (reserve one T of basil for garnish). Drizzle 1 T of olive oil in the mixture while stirring, to distribute oil.
- Pour sauce into a large ovenproof casserole or baking pan. Immerse seasoned chicken thighs into sauce, leaving space between each one. Heap generous spoonfuls of the bread crumb mixture on top of each chicken thigh.
- Place baking pan in preheated oven. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove pan from oven, sprinkle remaining T of basil over the casserole, and serve.
