Healthy Chicken Parmigiana

This is the best rendition of chicken parm that I have ever had. Instead of breading and frying the cutlets, you are baking them with Parmesan cheese. No heavy tomato sauce, but roasted cherry tomatoes instead. It's pretty simple. Everything will be cooked on one baking pan. 

The recipe calls for fresh mozzarella (the kind packed in water), I used smoked for an even better flavor and garnished with fresh basil leaves. I also added a splash of balsamic at the end for a nice finish.


Healthy Chicken Parm 
It looks pretty and tastes even better than it looks.

Nutritional Data per serving:
Calories 337
Total Fat 18.0g
Saturated Fat 9.2g
Cholesterol 102mg
Sodium 519mg
Total Carbohydrates 4.1g
Dietary Fiber 0.6g
Sugars 1.7g
Protein 38.4g


Garlic oil:
1/4 cup of olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, minced in a garlic press
a few shakes of red pepper flakes
kosher salt & pepper
a dash of dried oregano

4 boneless chicken breasts (if they are thick, pound them to flatten)
1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
8 slices of fresh mozzarella (I used smoked mozz)
1 pint of cherry tomatoes (I mixed red & yellow)
splash of balsamic vinegar
handful of fresh basil leaves, cut into chiffonade (rolled & sliced thinly)



Make the garlic olive oil in a shallow bowl and set aside.

Lay your cherry tomatoes on the baking sheet and push to one side.
Drizzle a tablespoon of the garlic oil on the tomatoes and shake the pan to coat them.

Dredge each chicken breast in the garlic oil and then coat only one side of each breast with the parmesan cheese.
Season with kosher salt & pepper and lay on the baking sheet next to the tomatoes.

In a pre-heated 500F oven bake the chicken breasts along with the tomatoes for 10 minutes (the tomatoes will be blistering and the chicken will really cook this quickly!).

After 10 minutes is up, pull the pan out of the oven and lay the fresh mozzarella slices overlapping the chicken and put back in the oven about 3 minutes to melt.

Plate the chicken breasts with the melted cheese and pour the roasted cherry tomato sauce on top. Splash with balsamic vinegar and garnish with the basil leaves.

Serves 4 - 6

This is radically simple, and radically delicious!