20 Minute Healthy Chicken Parmesan Recipe

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. comment icon 170 more comments 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 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 cheesemixture of whole wheat & panko breadcrumbstomato sauce (we love the DeLallo Creamy Vodka variety, but any fave marinara sauce will do! )Parmesan cheesedried 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.

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)