Gluten Free Chicken Parmesan

We definitely eat a lot of chicken in our kitchen. I'm somewhat of a picky eater (no red meat for the most part, though I will cook it now and then) and with Scott being allergic to gluten, we usually meet in the middle at chicken or seafood. 

I try to change recipes so that chicken doesn't get boring. You can make it so many ways. Last night I had the idea to make chicken parmesan. I actually went down the health food aisle at Jewel (local grocery store) and found these Schar gluten free breadcrumbs for around $4.00 a bag. 

I do want to add that about a month ago, I wanted to try making chicken parmesan as well, except I could not find gluten free breadcrumbs. Instead I found gluten free croutons in the health food aisle, and I actually had the idea to grind them in a food processor and use those. It worked WONDERFULLY for breadcrumbs. I have also heard of people using toasted Udi's or some other gluten free bread and putting it in the food processor. Sometimes you just have to be a little more creative!

Scott often tells me one of the things he misses most is any sort of "crunch" in his diet. What he really means is things like: croutons in a salad, breading on chicken or meat, etc. I was hoping these bread crumbs would do the trick, and they did! Everything was great.

Gluten Free Chicken Parmesan


What You Need:

3-4 thin chicken breasts (if they are thicker, you can pound them out)
1 egg
1/2 cup gluten free breadcrumbs (I used Schar pictured above)
1/4 cup vegetable oil or canola oil (You CAN use Olive Oil but I have heard this makes it bitter so I never do it)
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp chopped basil
1 tsp Nature's Seasoning (or salt and pepper)
1 jar tomato sauce (I used Trader Joe's Garlic Marinara)
Serve over GF pasta (I used Trader Joe's Brown Rice Spaghetti)
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

What To Do:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and boil a pot of water for the spaghetti
2. Create an egg wash to coat the chicken by beating an egg in a shallow bowl.
3. In separate bowl, mix gluten free breadcrumbs, basil, Nature's Seasoning (or salt and pepper) and parmesan cheese to create breading mixture.
4. Individually dip chicken breasts in the egg mixture, and then coat in the breading mixture. Place on plate once finished. Bread each piece of chicken and set aside.
5. Heat vegetable/canola oil in a medium sized skillet until hot. Add chicken breasts to oil and cook until breading is brown. Make sure to flip the chicken and cook both sides of the breading.

6. Blot with paper towels to remove excess oil and place in an oven safe dish.

7. Top chicken with grated mozzarella and place chicken in oven for about 15 minutes (depending on how thin the chicken is) or until cooked.

8. While waiting for the chicken to cook in the oven, boil GF pasta as directed and drain.

9. Heat tomato sauce in a medium saucepan. I actually added some half-and-half to the tomato sauce. I do not ALWAYS do this, but I had some on hand still from making the Shrimp Scampi last week.

10. When chicken is cooked, take chicken out of the oven and serve chicken over gluten free spaghetti topped with tomato sauce.

Everything turned out great. Even though these breadcrumbs are a little more pricey, they seem like they're going to go a long way. I had plenty leftover and put them in the fridge for future use. I wasn't sure they would cook up as well as regular breadcrumbs, but they did! Enjoy!