My girl love pasta. They could eat pasta for every single meal, especially if there is tomato sauce involved. I like a little more variety than that, so recently I decided that I’d give Chicken Parmesan a try. To make things a bit easier on myself, I opted to use the slow cooker instead of the traditional oven method.
When made with the traditional oven method, Chicken Parmesan can really be a pain. There’s a lot of dredging and dipping, and if you’re really wanting it crispy you need to do this a few times. I just don’t have the time (or patience) to do that. So, I broke out my slow cooker, it make a big difference!
What Kind of Chicken to Use in Chicken Parmesan
First, there are different recipes out there for chicken parmesan in the slow cooker, but they all use different types of chicken. You could easily use chicken tenders, but I like to use boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Note that mine were just frozen in a bag from Sam’s Club, and they were huge. Seriously, the size of these chickens… it’s somewhat unreal! Cooking such a large piece of chicken will take forever and just give uneven results.
I cut my chicken breasts in half usually before I cook them. I use a sharp pair of kitchen sheers, and you can see how I cut them in the picture here. You’re try to get a thinner, more evenly sized chicken breast. The scissors are easier than a knife, and likely safer. This step is super fast but makes a big difference!
What Sauce to Use for Slow Cooker Parmesan Chicken?
While I usually make my own spaghetti sauce, I just can’t add that extra step to this recipe. So, I used a jar spaghetti sauce. There are so many sauces to pick from, but the only one I like is Rao’s. It is expensive, but it frequently goes on sale at my local stores. So, I usually keep a few jars in my pantry.
Really, How Much Sauce?
I only add a little sauce on top of the chicken before turning on the crock pot. You can see my chicken just at the start of cooking up above. That’s about 1/2 jar of sauce on 4 pieces of chicken (2 large breasts cut in half). At the bottom that’s about 2 hours later, you can see that a lot of liquid has been released. If I had used more sauce then I’d just be boiling my chicken.
This semi-homemade chicken parmesan is made in the slow cooker, transforming this kid friendly favorite into a weeknight meal!
- 2 Chicken Breasts boneless, skinless
- 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
- 1/2 cup Panko Bread Crumbs
- 1 jar Spaghetti Sauce
- 1 box Angel Hair Pasta
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Start by mixing the parmesan cheese and bread crumbs in a bowl. Cut chicken into even sizes and then dip into the mixture, covering the entire piece of chicken.
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Place the chicken on the bottom of the slow cooker, taking care to not pile pieces up. Cover with spaghetti sauce. Cook for 4 hours on high.
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Serve with Angel Hair Pasta and the remaining spaghetti sauce.
Because this is cooking at home and not in a factory, there might be some variation between how I prepare this recipe and what you create at home. As such, all nutritional information are estimates and may vary. If you like this recipe or find it useful, you can rate it by clicking on the stars above. A 4 or 5 rating would be greatly appreciated!
