Meals · Skillet & sheet-pan mains

Chicken parmesan

Name: Chicken parmesan
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 4 breasts chicken breast, halved horizontally; 1/3 cup all-purpose flour; 2 eggs egg, beaten; 1 1/4 cups breadcrumbs; 1/2 cup grated parmesan; 3/4 tsp salt; 1 tsp black pepper; 2 tbsp olive oil; 400 g marinara sauce; 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded; 1 tsp dried basil

Breaded chicken under tomato sauce and melted mozzarella — the Italian-American restaurant standard, baked rather than deep-fried because that is how it is actually made at home, and because the frying oil is most of what the score would otherwise be spent on.

Time: 45 min (20 prep + 25 cook)
Servings: 4
Per serving: 621 kcal
Protein: 55 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

4 breasts chicken breast, halved horizontally600 g

Breading

1/3 cup all-purpose flour40 g
2 eggs egg, beaten100 g
1 1/4 cups breadcrumbs100 g
1/2 cup grated parmesan40 g
3/4 tsp salt4 g
1 tsp black pepper2 g

2 tbsp olive oil30 g
400 g marinara sauce400 g
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded150 g
1 tsp dried basil2 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Halve the breasts horizontally so they cook through before the crust burns.
Set up three plates: flour, beaten egg, and breadcrumbs mixed with the parmesan, salt and pepper. Coat each piece in that order, pressing the crumbs on.
Brown in the olive oil in an ovenproof pan, 2–3 minutes a side — colour only, not cooked through.
Spoon the marinara over, top with mozzarella and basil, and bake 15–20 minutes until the chicken is cooked and the cheese is blistered.

Why not deep-fry it?

Breadcrumbs are sponges. A deep-fried cutlet absorbs far more oil than a browned-then-baked one and the eating experience is barely different once the sauce goes on — this is one of the few places where the lighter method is also the easier one.

Alternative

Cottage cheese chicken parmthe unbreaded rebuild72

Why this score

moderately filling

No single route carries this one — a moderate amount of protein, volume and fiber.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

36% of kcal

53% water

6 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

Nothing here converges the way engineered food does — no sugar, no savoury and no alcohol penalty.

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 2484 kcal goes into the pot, 1468 g of ingredients comes out as ~1050 g of food → 237 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 237
Protein: (36%); 21 g
Fat: (40%); 10 g
Carbohydrates: (24%); 14 g
of which sugar: 3 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sodium: 587 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

More meals

Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.