The Ingredient Swap You Need To Make For The Best Chicken Parm

Chicken Parmesan, colloquially known as chicken parm, is a classic Italian-American dish. Chicken breast is seasoned and coated in egg, flour, breadcrumbs, and grated Parmesan cheese, then sautéed until crisp and golden. The chicken is served in a rich tomato sauce and topped with melty mozzarella cheese. It's been around for many years and is served thousands, if not millions, of times a day in restaurants and home kitchens alike. What's not to love?

Well, the breading. After you've gone through all that work to get a nice even coating of breadcrumbs on the chicken, make sure it sticks, and fry it to golden brown perfection, smothering it in tomato sauce and cheese doesn't exactly do the crispness any favors. 

But you just have to accept that, right? Or is there a way to make sure that the luscious crumb coating stays crisp and crunchy to the last bite?

There are dozens of choices anytime you need to add a breadcrumb crust. You can buy a can of dried breadcrumbs, seasoned or unseasoned. You can make homemade crumbs out of white or whole-wheat bread, crumbling them by hand or with a food processor. You can choose panko crumbs, which have little points for added crispness, per MasterClass. You can even crush up crackers or use tortilla chips in place of breadcrumbs. But for the best chicken parm, there's a breading choice you may not have thought of: croutons.

Croutons are little cubes of bread that are tossed in butter or oil and baked or fried in a saucepan. And they're perfect for breadcrumbs, according to eHow. When crumbled, croutons make the perfect chicken parm coating, which gives that coating a fighting chance. And if you use store-bought croutons, you can choose from many flavored varieties, which automatically add more savory intensity to the dish.

There are a couple of ways you can reduce those croutons to crispy rubble. Put them into a sturdy plastic bag, seal it up, and go at it with a rolling pin or meat mallet. Or, you can process the croutons in a blender or food processor. Then, mix them with the cheese and seasonings, and you're good to go.

When you use croutons to make breadcrumbs, you can make just enough for one recipe, or you can process a whole bunch at one time and freeze them. (They'll last for months.) Then, whenever you get a hankering for chicken parm, just pull the bag out of the freezer. 

When you prepare the chicken, be sure to sauté it on each side long enough for the crumbs to turn a toasty brown.

Now that you have the perfect chicken parm breadcrumbs, there are countless recipes you can try. First, you can try a homemade crouton recipe. Then, try a classic chicken parmesan recipe in a homemade red sauce made with onions, carrots, and garlic, or a quick weeknight chicken parmesan recipe. You can make a chicken parmesan sandwich recipe, piled high with tender sautéed veggies. And you can even make a stuffed chicken parm recipe for the ultimate comfort food meal.