I just love Parmesan Chicken Bake! It is a tasty, succulent, chicken recipe that can be ready for the oven in about five minutes. This is probably my most-used recipe over the years. I can’t tell you how many times I have served this recipe. Probably hundreds, literally! It is my go-to baked chicken recipe for company as well as just fixing a meal for family. It is a scrumptious main dish that can be paired with so many other casseroles. Over the years I have added or cut back on the butter in the recipe trying to cut out some of the extra calories. Recently, I made it with just cooking spray and it wasn’t too bad, but it does taste a little better with the butter.

Thank you, Ann Bingham, for sharing this with me back when we were in New England and your husband, Yates,  was the director of the New England Baptist School of Ministry (kind of like a satellite campus from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary). Yates has passed on to glory and I haven’t kept up with Ann, but during our years in New England Carolyn Allen and I catered a lot of meals in the school’s kitchen for the convention office and she was a wonderful encourager to both of us. Ann copied this recipe from one of her Texas Junior League cookbooks, but I don’t have the name of the specific cookbook or the person who submitted it for publication. She was from San Antonio so I linked that Junior League for anyone who wants to research. I will be happy to include that information if someone informs me. For now, credit goes to Anne Bingham.

Normally, I wouldn’t have tried to squeeze so many large chicken breasts in a 9×13″ pan, I would have used to roaster pan instead. But this time I squeezed all the chicken in one pan. I cooked the chicken about 20 minutes longer than usual to make sure it was cooked all the way through. 

[photo courtesy of the parents of Shepherd Smith and used by permission]

Here’s a beautiful picture of this delicious chicken.

Here’s what I did.

Start by melting butter in your pan. I think this is about 4 tablespoons. This is really more than you need.

Spread your Italian bread crumbs on a plate, add the Parmesan cheese and seasonings and stir well to combine.

 Dredge the chicken breasts in the bread crumb mixture and pat firmly so crumbs adhere.

Place the chicken breasts in the pan or baking dish on top of the melted butter. Turn right-side up.

 Sprinkle any remaining bread crumbs over top. Place in 350 oven and bake 1 hour. (I baked these about 1 hour and 20 minutes because they were large and a few were not quite defrosted enough).

I have used this recipe so many times changing out the seasonings, you can use gluten-free bread crumbs if you need to, or panko crumbs. You can even use different cheeses although this is probably the easiest. But if you want a little variety, try some  different herbs or spices after you’ve made it this way a few times so you know what to expect.

Here’s the recipe.

PARMESAN CHICKEN BAKE

(Recipe from Ann Bingham, Baptist Convention of New England, Northborough, MA)

½ cup dry Italian bread crumbs (sometimes I use more if the chicken breasts are rather large)

2 heaping tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese (ditto, the above)

1 tbsp. parsley flakes

1 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. lemon pepper

1/8 tsp. thyme

6 skinned, boneless chicken breasts

3 tbsp. melted butter

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine bread crumbs, cheese and seasonings in shallow dish. Dip chicken in crumb mixture. Coat both sides well. Melt butter in 9×13” baking dish in oven. Add chicken, turning to coat both sides with butter. Bake, uncovered, for 1 hour. Serves 6.

I like easy, and this is certainly easy! Yum, yum.