Chicken Parmesan Casserole

Chicken parmesan has always been a favorite of mine. For years, it was the only thing I'd order at an Italian restaurant. I loved the crunchy chicken paired with pasta and marinara sauce, then covered with ooey, gooey melted cheese.

So when I first got married, I found a recipe for chicken parm and made it at home. My husband ate it, but he wasn't very fond of it. He said chicken parm wasn't one of this favorites and let it go at that. I never thought to ask why he didn't like it, but I never made it again. I just went back to ordering it whenever we went out.

But I found this recipe recently and thought it looked easy and delicious. So I asked hubby what he didn't like about chicken parmesan. I could tell he was taken off guard by my question. It had come out of left field and had nothing to do with anything we were discussing at the time.

It wasn't the combination of chicken and sauce he didn't like. It wasn't the cheese. It was the fact that he had to cut up his chicken while worrying about what to do with the pasta.

Ahhhh, now that problem I could solve! If only I'd asked 15 years ago!

I used the above recipe and simply cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. I also doubled the amount of sauce used because we like things saucy around here. Oh yeah! The croutons (which you could make yourself if you wanted to) on top added the crunch chicken parmesan needs without having to fry the chicken. Easy peasy!

I served this over whole wheat linguine, but any kind of pasta would work. Hubby loved it! Loved! The kids did, too. I was happy!

Here's what you need:

3 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized chunks
1 teas salt
1/2 teas garlic powder
1/4 teas black pepper
3-4 cups spaghetti or marinara sauce, your favorite (depends on how saucy you want it)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated or shredded parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups garlic croutons

Place the chicken pieces in a greased 9x13 pan. Sprinkle with the salt, garlic powder and pepper. Stir to make sure all the chicken is seasoned.

Pour the spaghetti sauce over the chicken. Mix the mozzarella and parmesan cheeses together. Sprinkle about half over the sauce. Spread the croutons in an even layer over the cheese. Top with the remaining cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. I took a fork and dragged a piece of chicken out of the middle of the pan to test it. At 35 minutes, it was perfect!

Serve over pasta and enjoy!

For a printable copy of this recipe, click here.