Healthy Chicken Parmesan made with spiralized zucchini noodles, lightly breaded chicken, Parm cheese and herbs, plus your fave sauce!
20 Minute Healthy Chicken Parmesan
Healthy chicken parmesan? It’s cheesy, saucy, crispy, and sits on top of delicious zucchini noodles.
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Made this last night and it was so delicious! And definitely quick to put together! I could definitely see this becoming a go-to weeknight meal 🙂
What do we want from chicken parmesan? Great question. We need it to be super cheesy and deliciously saucy with crispy golden brown bits peeking through to really bring the whole thing home.
Turn that into a relatively wholesome little veg-party with a bed of fresh zucchini noodles and have the whole thing come together in about 20ish minutes? Okay, you HAVE OUR ATTENTION.
As you know, in general, real noodles have our hearts but this is just a really lovely, really fresh way to health up one of our favorites and we are here for it. It also has a pretty darn short ingredient list and is, like, Monday-night easy to put together, so that’s the type of thing we can always get behind.
In This Post: Everything You Need For Healthy Chicken Parmesan
- Ingredients for Healthy Chicken Parmesan
- How to Make Chicken Parmesan
- What to Serve with This Dish
- Healthy Chicken Parmesan: Frequently Asked Questions
Ingredients For This Healthy Chicken Parmesan
As promised, this is a relatively short ingredient list. We rely on store-bought sauce and though we did spiralize our own zoodles (ugh, equal parts fun and terrible to say!), you can sometimes find those pre-packaged as well!
- zucchini (spiralized or cut into thin strips)
- chicken breasts
- mozzarella cheese
- mixture of whole wheat & panko breadcrumbs
- tomato sauce (we love the DeLallo Creamy Vodka variety, but any fave marinara sauce will do! )
- Parmesan cheese
- dried Italian herbs
How To Make Healthy Baked Chicken Parmesan
Getting that chicken golden-crisp is the most involved process here, but even that is pretty quick and easy. The rest is just kinda thrown together and piled up, especially if you got your hands on some ready-made zucchini noodles. Here we go:
- Chicken: You’ll want to mix up your breadcrumbs plus the parm, & herbs in a bowl and then dredge the chicken in that. Add the chicken to some hot oil in an oven-proof skillet and fry for a few minutes on each side until golden brown (you’re just looking for that crisp, it will finish fully cooking in the oven).
- Zucchini: While your chicken is baking, spiralize the zucchini or, if you don’t have a spiralizer, you can use a food processor attachment or just slice it really thin with a mandoline or knife. We keep our zoodles raw here so that they don’t get watery. We don’t want to be overly reminded that they are not pasta, you know?
- Saucy/Cheesy: Once the chicken is fully cooked, add the sauce and place a slice of mozzarella cheese on top of each piece of chicken. Return to the oven for a few more minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and lightly browned.
After you have achieved maximum bubbly cheese goodness, serve the chicken and sauce over the raw zucchini noodles (they’ll soften but keep a nice crunch), and shower with Parmesan and parsley.
What To Serve with This
It’s already like you’re getting a nice little salad with those raw zucchini noodles but you could certainly also include this simple green salad [link] or maybe you want a hunk of no-knead bread [link] to swoop through any missed saucy cheesy bits. You are eating zoodles here so if you’d like a little extra carb-partner, she’s a good one.
And if you are worried about being too veg-forward, fear not. You are still getting that crispy chicken and bubbly cheese and delicious sauce which is the prize we’re all here for, but if you are absolutely not willing to part ways with pasta for this one (trust us, we get it), you could certainly toss the chicken on top of some spaghetti and that would still be simple and amazing.
Yay for chicken parmesan and yay yay YAY for it being a little healthier and definitely weeknight-simple.
PS. Big love to my bestie, Ang, for sending me a snap of recent chicken parm creation and inspiring this easy, healthy Chicken Parmesan into a blog post! Friends who love food are the best kind of friends.
Healthy Chicken Parmesan: Frequently Asked Questions
I have a lot of extra breadcrumbs in my pan. Is that okay to pop all of that in the oven?
Before baking, if you have a lot of stray crumbs in the pan, I would suggest removing the chicken, draining out the excess oil and breadcrumbs, and then returning the chicken to the clean pan to avoid a burnt breadcrumb situation in the oven.
How do you keep your chicken crispy?
If you really want the chicken to stay crispy, heat the sauce separately and add it over everything at the end. The chicken loses a little crispy exterior as it bakes in the sauce – I didn’t mind it, but just something to think about if you want the crispy chicken.
Do you recommend cooking the zucchini noodles or leaving them raw?
I leave the zucchini noodles raw because otherwise, I felt like they got too soggy and watery. When you add the warm chicken and sauce, the noodles will soften but keep just enough crunch to still be appetizing.
20 Minute Healthy Chicken Parmesan
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
Healthy Chicken Parmesan made with spiralized zucchini noodles, lightly breaded chicken, Parm cheese and herbs, plus your fave sauce!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1/4 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 4 chicken breasts (about 1 pound)
- 1 1/2 cups DeLallo Creamy Vodka tomato sauce (or any tomato sauce – but that vodka sauce is YUMMY)
- 4 slices fresh mozzarella cheese
- 2 zucchinis
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Toss the breadcrumbs, panko, and Parmesan in a shallow dish with the Italian herbs, salt, and pepper. Heat the oil in a medium ovenproof skillet over medium heat.
- Fry: Cut the chicken breasts into a total of four pieces (for example, if there are two breasts, cut each in half – pound them a little thinner and wider if you want) and dredge the chicken in the breadcrumbs so that they stick all over the surface of the chicken. Add the chicken to the hot skillet and fry for 3-4 minutes on each side. You want the outside to be golden brown – the inside can finish cooking in the oven.
- Bake: Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake for 5-10 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked. Add the sauce and place a slice of mozzarella cheese on top of each piece of chicken. Return to the oven for a few more minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and lightly browned.
- Finish: While the chicken finishes, cut the zucchini into thin shreds or use a spiralizer to create zucchini noodles. Serve the chicken and sauce over the raw zucchini noodles and sprinkle with Parmesan and parsley.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Italian-Inspired
Keywords: chicken parmesan, healthy chicken parmesan
More Easy-To-Make Chicken Recipes
- The Best Chicken Tinga Tacos (spiced to perfection!)
- Best Anytime Baked Chicken Meatballs (easy to prep and throw in the freezer for later)
- Sheet Pan Chicken Pitas with Tzatziki (part bowl, part salad, part sandwich – fully delicious)
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of easy zucchini recipes. Check it out!
Filed Under: All Recipes Dinner Healthy Main Dishes Meat and Chicken Quick and Easy Spring Sugar-Free Summer Tomato Zucchini
July 23, 2021
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
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This looks so good! I love chicken recipes. I’m excited to try your version of it with this Vodka tomato sauce!
You’ve blown me away with this recipe! I love chix parm but don’t indulge too often cause it’s not all that good for you. And there were 3 things I asked for for Mother’s Day 1.) A spiralizer 2.) a venus fly trap or 3) a bonsai tree. And it was a no-go on all 3!
Scrolling down these comments and saw your “no-go on all 3” and literally laughed out loud. Go buy yourself some presents!! 🙂
I second Melissa! Go buy yourself a few things… especially that bonsai tree!
We use our spiralizer all the time! The ribbon spiral is my favorite shape. It just makes everything look beautiful and healthy. We love it!
I have yet to try some of the different blades, but I agree! Everything looks so pretty coming out of that machine. 🙂
I’ve fallen in love with my spiralizer lately, this recipe will def being given a try in my kitchen this week! x
http://www.ellebloggs.com
Awesome! hope you like it!
Amazing and just in time been looking for some good italian recipes, will be giving this a try ! Thanks 🙂
Perfect! Hope you like this one Joe!
It looks delicious. I don’t have a spiralizer, I will try with a julliene cutter. I actually have all the ingredients at home (homemade tomato sauce).
Homemade tomato sauce! YESSSS.
Chicken Parm is MY FAVE! What a great way to start the week, Lindsay! Yum!!
Yay! Thanks Olivia! 🙂
So… no lie I just made my dinner menu for the week and chicken parm is on the list so this post is perfect timing! I want a spiralizer so bad but I don’t know if I’ll be able to get my husband to eat zucchini instead of pasta… we shall see!
I used the spiralizer for the rainbow power salad I made a few weeks ago and that was a little too Veggie for Bjork. But this one he liked! Something about adding golden brown crispy chicken and cheese… 🙂
I love how fresh this looks! The colors totally pop in these photos Lindsay! Beautiful dinner option right here 😉
Thanks Erica!
Hey! Fur baby mommies count just as much as human baby mommies 😉 I am also a spiralizer convert and I looooove it!
I love this combo of the zucchini noodles and the chicken parm! Thanks for sharing!
Jillian
Thanks Jillian! And I might be biased but I have to say – I feel like I’m at least 50% mom these days with Sage around! 🙂
I can never resist chicken parmesan and I love how simple you’ve made it. Perfection!
Thanks Melanie! Appreciate that!
Gorgeous photographs, the colours work together beautifully! You know what they say about eating with your eyes first? I never realised before how true that is!!
Chicken and sauce and cheese together? (oh, okay…and vegetables…) – Yes, please! Pinned!
Thank you Justine! 😀
Thanks for the spiralizer recommendation! I’ve been lusting after them for a while but have been waiting for a solid choice. This looks so colorful and festive! Great ideas going on here!
Yeah – I’ve tried a few different styles and this one just seems to be the easiest to use! Good luck!
Yes to everything that’s in this dish! The color contrast, the texture of these veggie noodles, and the crispy chicken parmesan!I’m gonna have to make this sometime soon!
Thanks Felicia! hope you like it!
I will probably just use my food processor. My kitchen is definitely larger than my last but that just means every kitchen gadget that was stored in the garage is now in my kitchen. Not a lot of room for many more gadgets.
This Chicken Parm looks really good. Great job.
I LOOOOOOVE the food processor! 🙂 Great idea.
chicken parmesan in 20 minutes? You’ve officially won me over!
Thanks Arman! 😀
Yum. So when you say cut the chicken into 4 pieces, do you mean cut each chicken breast into 4 pieces? And then pound if we want? So, each person will end up with 4 pieces of the chicken?
Just making sure I get it right 🙂
That’s a good question Alex – usually when I buy a pound, it will have 2-3 chicken breasts, but since this recipe is supposed to serve 4, I was just saying cut the total amount of chicken into four pieces. Does that make sense? I’ll clarify in the recipe.
Dinner never looked prettier!
Thanks Nicole!
It’s not even 10am here and I am dreaming of chicken parm. Bought a little mini spiralizer months ago and still havent used it. I felt like buying it was the first stage in joining the zoodle crew. Now I’m just waiting for a reason to fully commit. Welllll I gots it right here. Nom.
Awesome! Here’s your reason to commit! 🙂 Enjoy, Melissa!
I’ve always said I never wanted to try veggies made into noodles – but considering how much I respect your opinion – I’m thinking….. maybe. 🙂 Looks delicious!
I actually really do like it. And I’m saying that as a noodle (real noodle) lover. !!!
Hey all good puppy-moms NEED to do some spoiling so toss him ALL the treats – though, am thinking he might do a back flip and bring y’all the newspapers and even fix yalls coffee if yall gave him some of this! I don’t make Chicken parm often because of the time – but this 20 minute version is a gotta try!
Thanks Shashi! Hope you like it!
I’ve been on a mission to eat more veggies so this is a perfect option! As always, your photos are beautiful – Pinned!!
Thanks Kathryn! I second the veggies comment! 🙂
Zoodles!! Was waiting for a zoodle recipe from you, Yay! 🙂
Yep! I’m on the train.
This looks delish! We’ve been searching for a good spiralizer – now we know which one to go with! Thanks Lindsey!
Yeah – after trying three different brands and styles, this one just seems to be easiest to use. 🙂
Do you think I could use turkey breast fillets in place of chicken? I need to use them up, and would love to make this, but don’t want to drasatically change to taste of the dish.
Thanks!
Yes, I do! I don’t usually use turkey so it’s hard to say how the taste might be different but I think the recipe itself should still turn out fine. 🙂 Yummy.
Zoodles! ha that name always brings me back to the Alpha-Ghetti!
I definitely still need practice with my spiralizer, so this is a perfect opportunity 🙂
Yes indeed! Practice makes delicious. Er, perfect. Er, whatever.