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This simple slow-cooker chicken parmesan is full of delicious Italian flavors, oozy cheese, and mouthwatering marinara sauce. You’ll be able to throw everything in the crock pot, set it, and forget it—dinner is served!
My kids and I love crock pot meals. Coming home to the fabulous smells and dinner being ready is near perfection! With busy weeknights, I try to make crock pot meals at least a couple of times. Here are some of my tried-and-true crock pot recipes to help you navigate your busy week: Crock Pot Marry Me Chicken, Slow Cooker Italian Chicken and Potatoes, and Slow Cooker Italian Beef.
Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe
- Family Friendly: This recipe is a crowd favorite. Adults and kids alike love the tender chicken and tangy marinara!
- Convenient: Comes together quickly and is perfect for busy weeknights!
- Budget-Friendly: Groceries are costing more and more these days, but the ingredients needed to make this are house staples and won’t break the bank!
- Flavor: Because this recipe has time to cook and meld flavors, you will be blown away at how delicious this tastes! Your family will want you to add this to the weekly meal plan!
Italian Night Dinner Idea with Parmesan Chicken
We had an Italian night at our house last night, and with one bite of this, it was an instant favorite! I love chicken parmesan but hate the hassle of making it. This chicken parmesan recipe was so EASY to throw together, and tastes amazing!
The breading is delicious, and the chicken just shreds apart because it is cooked perfectly. I swear that everything is better in a crockpot. I served garlic parmesan pull-apart bread as a side and my favorite Caesar salad. This meal was a winner!
Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan Recipe
This recipe requires only a few simple ingredients, which I bet you already have in your kitchen. Serve it over some spaghetti, and you’re ready to go! For exact measurements, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Boneless skinless chicken: This is your protein base and the star of the show.
- Eggs: Used to act as a binding agent to get the bread crumbs to stick to the chicken.
- Whole Milk: Keeps the chicken moist while helping the eggs bind the bread crumbs to the chicken.
- Italian Bread Crumbs: Provides a crispy texture while adding Italian flavor.
- Parmesan Cheese: Adds a sharp, nutty flavor and helps create the crunchy texture of the chicken’s breading.
- Salt: Enhances the flavors in the dish.
- Black Pepper: Provides a little spice and enhances flavor.
- Olive Oil: Helps the breading become the perfect golden brown during the cooking process.
- Marinara Sauce: Keeps the chicken moist and adds a robust tomato-based flavor.
- Mozzarella Cheese: Melts over the chicken beautifully and ads a creamy rich flavor.
How do I Make Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan?
Take a few minutes to bread and fry the chicken, then throw everything into your crock pot. That’s really all it takes. Once everything is ready, you can boil some spaghetti noodles or penne pasta, and dinner is served!
- In a bowl, whisk together the egg and buttermilk. In a separate bowl, whisk together the breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper.
- Coat the chicken cutlets in the egg mixture then dredge each one in the breadcrumb mixture.
- Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, sear each breaded cutlet for 3-4 minutes on each side. Just fry the breading on the chicken and par-cook it.
- In the bottom of a crockpot, pour the marinara sauce and place the seared chicken into the sauce. Cover the crockpot with the lid and cook on low for 4-5 hours or high for 3-4.
- In the last 30 minutes of cooking, sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on the chicken. cover and allow the cheese to melt.
- When the chicken is cooked through, serve it over pasta and enjoy!
Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan Tips
Follow my tips below for getting the perfect slow-cooker chicken parmesan!
- Pan-Fry the Coating: Don’t skip pan-frying the coating on the chicken! This is essential to getting that crispy coating like classic chicken parmesan.
- Marinara: You can use a jar of your favorite marinara, or make my Homemade Marinara
- Serve: Serve this dish in shallow bowls with your preferred pasta, or slice the chicken up and make a marinara chicken sandwich. It’s also excellent on its own!
- Garnish: You can garnish this with a few sprigs of fresh basil or parsley.
Storing and Reheating Leftover Chicken Parmesan
You’ll want to double this recipe so you have leftovers for quick and easy lunches throughout the week. Here are storing and reheating instructions.
- Refrigerator: Store leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- Reheat: You can reheat your chicken parmesan in the microwave at 30-second intervals until the desired temperature is reached. You can also reheat it in the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-15 minutes. I love reheating things I want crispy in my air fryer. For this chicken parmesan, set your air fryer to 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 4 minutes.
More Slow Cooker Chicken Recipes
There is just something so satisfying about coming home from a busy day, and your house is filled with the smells of dinner that only a slow cooker can produce. Here are a few recipes that are sure to fill your home with delicious smells and your belly with flavorful food.
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Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan
Ingredients
- 4 chicken cutlets, boneless skinless chicken
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup whole milk
- ½ cup Italian breadcrumbs
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese, grated
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 (22-ounce) jar marinara sauce
- ¾ cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
Instructions
- In a bowl, whisk together the egg and buttermilk. In a separate bowl whisk together the breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper.
- Coat the chicken cutlets in the egg mixture then dredge each one in the breadcrumb mixture.
- Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Once the oil is hot, sear each breaded cutlet for 3-4 minutes on each side. Just fry the breading on the chicken and par cook it.
- At the bottom of a crockpot, pour the marinara sauce and place the seared chicken on the sauce. Cover the crockpot with the lid and cook on low for 4-5 hours or high for 3-4.
- In the last 30 minutes of cooking, sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on the chicken. cover and allow the cheese to melt.
- When the chicken is cooked through, serve over pasta and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Should the parmesan be fresh grated or shredded or the dry stuff like Kraft?
I made this with 2 chicken breasts and put it on for four hours found it to be too long a cooking time, the chicken breasts were very dry when I make it next time I will only cook it for 2 hours on low, and also I didn’t have Italian seasoned bread crumbs I just added 1/4 cup of Italian seasoning and it tasted ok.
Manga Bene!! Thank you for this delicious recipe! 5 stars! Even our teens, who have sophisticated and discriminating tastes, raved about this dish! They couldn’t believe it was a “blog recipe” and cooked in a crockpot.
We followed the directions using 6 smaller-sized chicken breasts, being careful to layer them snugged together pretty tightly in a single layer in the bottom of our oval crockpot. We covered the chicken with a little over a cup of fresh mozzarella (that was all we had left) topped with a few torn slices of provolone and a dusting of fresh grated Parmesan. Topped it all with a jar of our favorite marinara, Barilla, set it on high and 4 hours later it yielded the most tender, juicy, delicious chicken. Only 20 minutes to get it in the crockpot and what a marvelously satisfying result! Perfect for a great meal on a busy activity night! Happy family and Happy mom! Thank you so much for sharing!!
Nice easy recipe to convert to Gluten free. Looking forward to trying it. It will go wonderfully with gluten free garlic breadsticks.
What if I have to double this? Will it need to cook longer?
Can you use frozen chicken halves? I just realized my chicken is frozen and this was my meal planned for tonight!!!
Yes! I have had to use frozen before. Just increase the cooking time a little and make sure they are completely cooked throughout! 🙂
The chicken should be defrosted first. Make sure the thermometer hits 160 degrees before you serve it.
I just threw it in the crockpot. Hope it’s alright!
I’m wondering how it couldn’t be soggy? It’s smothered in sauce.
Do you have the nutritional information? I will be trying this next week…
Soogy breading haha breading gone took it out if crock pot and put it in covered roasting pan very dusappointed
I’m sorry it was soggy. It shouldn’t have been at all. This is one of our favorite all time meals!
So, I think the issue would be the size of your crockpot. If your chicken doesn’t fit in one layer on the bottom of the pot (or close to it) and you can’t cover that layer with cheese then it is going to simply steep in the sauce the entire time and not give the breading time to firm up.
Brown it b4 put in crock pot
Lise Batty..A basic understanding of the english language( how to spell) and recipe following skills would have gotten you great results. ( just like everyone else who has made it). this is killer recipe not deserving of this misinformed one star rating.
I followed this recipe to a T (and have a basic understanding of the English language) and mine still came out very soggy. Maybe it has to do with the crock pot instead of the recipe? It might help to see photos of others’ results.
This will be dinner tonight!! Will you try making more “skinny” meals??? Everything you have that we have tried is AMAZING!!
I will use 3 chicken breast halves,you didn’t indicate how big a jar of sauce to use.
I have to say this was just okay. The breading was kind of soggy, but the taste was fine. I don’t think I’ll be making this again.
I am totally making this next week for my boys!! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
~Jen
We love parmesan chicken, too. You’ve got some great recipes on here! You should stop by sometimes and link up to my Must Try Monday party each week. I’d love to have you. Stopping by to thank you for joining in on the Bloglovin’ Blog Hop!
I am for sure going to try this exact meal, with the garlic parmesan pull aparts too!
We’re big fans of Chicken Parmesan in our house. I’m loving the idea of using a slow cooker, especially in this awful summer heat! Thank you for sharing this brilliant recipe!