May 11, 2016 | 74 Comments

Lemon Parmesan Chicken

Yum

Good morning! Good afternoon! Good evening! Regardless of when you are tuning in, I hope you’re having a good whenever and this recipe is about to make it even better!

This is a sunny flavored parmesan encrusted chicken is one of my husband’s favorites. I actually based this recipe off of a parmesan encrusted tilapia recipe in my second book, Come Home To Supper, because he liked that so much. Note: this recipe is pretty far off the path of the tilapia one so if you want to make that, check out the original in my book. This chicken is easy as can be to pull together and most of the “work” is just waiting on it to cook. A great weeknight supper, Saturday lunch, or Sunday dinner to add to your files.

Y’all ready to cook? We gotta eat eventually, so let’s get started…

To make this bright and cheesy chicken you’ll need: Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts*, Mayo, Grated Parmesan, Dried Basil, Lemon (or bottled juice), Salt (not pictured) and Butter.

*Can I make it with other cuts of chicken or bone in chicken? Sure! You’ll need to watch it and adjust the cooking time according to when your chicken gets done. I can’t tell you the cooking time for other cuts because I always just use boneless skinless breasts but you got this!

Cut your lemon and squeeze out the juice.

Now listen, don’t freak out over the size of the lemon. Any lemon will work. If it’s small, you’ll have a little less juice, if it’s big you’ll have a little more juice. No big deal either way. If you don’t want to buy a lemon, you can use bottled juice. Remember, you are the boss of the recipes in your house.

Place chicken and lemon juice in zipper seal bag and seal.

Place this bag in the refrigerator, turning every now and then (when you think about it) for about an hour (or so).

You don’t have to put your lemon slices in the bag but I do because, well because I want to. In my kitchen, that is reason enough. 🙂

Before you get started cooking your chicken place parmesan, mayo, 1/2 of the butter, basil, and salt in a bowl. Stir together until thoroughly combined.

When it’s all stirred up together it will look like this and you may think “That is not enough cheese for all of this chicken” but it is. It really, really is.

Place the remaining butter in large skillet over medium heat and let melt. Add chicken (lemon juice and all) and cook until lightly browned on both sides and no longer pink in the center, turning once during the cooking process. This will take anywhere from fifteen to twenty minutes or so, depending on how thick your chicken is and the temperature of your stove eye.

*Cultural education time: Apparently “stove eye” is a Southern thing and the folks in other areas call them “burners”. I learned this a few years ago from y’all. I could see it being called a burner if the stove was gas and there was an actual fire going on. I’ve always had an electric stove and all my life every cook I’ve ever personally known (mother, grandmothers, aunts) has called it a stove eye so that is what I do.

Here is our cooked chicken. Ain’t it purty?

Once chicken is fully cooked, transfer to a baking dish or rimmed baking sheet. I am using this enamel pan that also happens to be the perfect size for a batch of biscuits. Check it out on my Preston Rolls post if you’d like.

Spread your cheese mixture over the top of each piece of chicken and place this in a 350 degree oven for about ten minutes to finish off the chicken. Now you may be thinking “That cheese is going to melt and go everywhere”. But it really isn’t. This mixture is gonna sit happily, melt, and pretty much stay put. Don’t believe me? See below 🙂

Serve immediately, with lemon slices in case folks want to add a little extra burst of citrus to theirs.