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This Clean eating chicken parmesan is almost pizza like. With it’s sweet tomato sauce and cheesy parmesan topping, this is one of my kids favorite ways to eat chicken. I’ve made this into a kid friendly version, as a whole chicken breast can be daunting for lots of kids and so the chicken’s thin enough for this to be eaten like…pizza!

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Clean Eating Chicken Parmesan

Chicken is a popular meat all around the world. From a classic British roast to being used in curries, casseroles and just about everything else, chicken rarely fails to make a yummy dinner. And this Clean eating chicken parmesan is no exception, plus it’s super simple to make, takes less than 15 minutes start to finish and rewards you even more by being an awesome lunch box filler for the next day!

I use this Marinara sauce to make this recipe. This sauce in itself is really easy to make, and if you make a whole batch you can then store it in the fridge for another meal.

My kids think of this chicken parmesan as a sort of pizza. And it is, really. Having a cheese and tomato topping turns anything into a pizza type dish and being able to slice it eat with with your fingers only adds to this.

While I don’t generally encourage my kids to eat with their fingers, if the food allows it anything that encourages them to eat healthy foods is fine by me, more so when they were smaller, admittedly. I have been known to use a pizza slice to cut this into pizza slices actually, so I guess the whole ‘pizza’ thing is my fault :)

This recipe cooks really fast. Pounding the chicken before cooking means it’s really thin and so takes no time at all to bake in a hot oven.

I’ve written this recipe using two largish chicken breast for 4 kids. Of course if your kids are bigger and eat more or just want a whole chicken breast each then increase the recipe quantity as you need to.

Adapted For Kids

One thing that might differ slightly from the usual chicken parmesan is that I pound the chicken to flatten it before I cook it.

I do this because littler kids can find a whole chicken breast pretty daunting and to be honest one chicken breast is quite a lot of meat.

It’s really easy to flatten the chicken (see below) and I then also pan fry one side of the chicken to brown it and seal the meat before transferring it to a sheet pan for cooking. You can skip this step but you’ll need to add 5-6 minutes to the cooking time to make sure the chicken’s fully cooked through.

How To Pound Chicken

Take one chicken breast at a time and using a sharp knife, cut the chicken on one side so you ‘open’ out the chicken breast on the underside. Don’t cut all the way through, you want to end up with a chicken breast that’s not to thick but not cut all the way through
Take a large piece of parchment paper and fold it in half on your worktop, giving yourself lots of room to work
Put one chicken breast at a time in the paper so you have the chicken sandwiched between the parchment paper
Using a rolling pin, literally hit the chicken hard enough to thin it out, but not hard enough to actually make a hole in it!
A regular size chicken breast will almost double in size and be about a quarter of an inch thick
Repeat with each chicken breast

Additions

While traditionally this chicken parmesan is topped with a tomato sauce and parmesan you can add anything else on top your kids might like:

Olives
Ham
Pineapple
Roasted vegetables
Anything you’d add to a pizza you can add to this!

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More Clean Eating Chicken Recipes

What To Serve With Chicken Parmesan

For a more substantial meal you could cut this into slices and add them to the top of a pasta dish. This also make a lovely summery dinner when the weathers warm, in which case a green salad’s the way I usually go.

Try serving this with a bowl of fries or wedges, this broccoli casserole, a side of cauliflower cheese or with these crispy potato balls. Or you could simply have this for a snack and have it sliced up as finger food for the kids to dip into.

Leftovers

Don’t you just love leftovers! They’re the gift that keeps on giving as far as I’m concerned.

To store leftover Chicken parmesan just keep it in the fridge for up to 2 days, assuming the use by dates on your chicken have two days left to go. If it doesn’t use that date as a guide to how long your leftovers will last.

Now for my favorite use for these leftovers.

This make an awesome lunch the next day. Cold chicken hardens up as does the cheese and they seal the tomato sauce in so this travels in lunchboxes easily and is perfectly room temperature come lunchtime.

Use some foil or parchment paper to wrap up your chicken leftovers and pop them into lunchboxes the following morning and boom! you’ve got a high protein, healthy homemade lunch that’s going to keep the kids going until they come crashing through the door after school!

How To Make Clean Eating Chicken Parmesan

Ingredients

2 Large Chicken breasts Butterflied and beaten (see post)
¼ Batch Marinara sauce See post for recipe
½ Cup Parmesan Fine grated
1 Pinch Dried oregano
1 tsp Olive oil

Instructions

Heat up your oven to 210° and line a sheet pan with parchment and put to one side ready for the chicken
In a frying pan, heat the olive oil
When the olive oil is hot, sear the flattened chicken on one side only until it’s browned, and then transfer it to the sheet, cooked side down. Repeat with the other chicken breast
Top each chicken breast with half the Marinara sauce on each chicken breast and smooth so the sauce is all over the top of the chicken
Top with the parmesan, half on each breast and then finish with a pinch of dried oregano on each chicken
Pop the sheet pan into the hot oven and bake until the cheese has browned and then chicken is cooked though. This is about 8-10 minutes depending on how hot your oven is. I always cut into one of the chicken parmesans to make sure the chicken is cooked all the way through
Serve!