Everyone’s favorite Italian dish, chicken parmesan, adapted for the slow cooker. Uses a convenience ingredient that is the secret to it’s juicy success!
Chicken Parmesan is a meal I tend to make when I don’t want to have an out-of-the-box dinner because I prefer real, home-cooked food. I also call chicken parmesan the original fast food because cooked conventionally, it’s a very quick meal.
The thought of doing it in the slow cooker never excited me. The reason for that is I don’t like chicken parmesan made with anything but chicken breast and I tend to not like chicken breast cooked in the crock pot–it gets dry and stringy.
I got an idea about this one night quite a while ago when I couldn’t get to sleep. Some folks count sheep; I think of food!!! I was thinking about getting another freezer (and I did last month) and what I would stock it with.
One thing I really like to have on hand in my freezers is frozen breaded chicken strips or nuggets. I’ll nuke a couple of pieces lots of times for a quickie snack. But then I got to thinking about using them as the base of a conventionally cooked casserole that had tomato sauce and topped with cheese.
I couldn’t work out the proper formula to do this conventionally because the way I pictured it, there’d be little sauce. I canned that idea because all that would be is the chicken strips mixed together with a bit of dipping sauce. That idea didn’t excite me.
Then just last week I was thinking about maybe doing the same thing, albeit with more sauce, in the slow cooker. I envisioned a nice chunky homemade sauce with the chicken strips and GOBS of mozzarella cheese.
That idea was it. This meal was fantastic! The chicken stayed moist, the sauce was to die for–and you can make the sauce just by itself to use on pasta because it’s the bomb. Rather than use pre-shredded cheese, I used thick-cut slices off a block of mozzarella I’d bought previously. If you can, buy the block and cut off slices. It’s FAR better and gooeyer than the pre-shredded stuff. That baby really strings up nicely (as you can see in one pic).
You can dump this and just go about whatever else you’re doing. Only thing is, add the cheese the last 15 or so minutes before you plan to serve it. Adding cheese at the beginning of cooking in the crock pot seems to make it disappear.
Watch The Video
The Recipe
- 1 bag (26-32 oz) frozen fully cooked breaded chicken strips or nuggets (see NOTES)
- 8 oz sliced mozzarella cheese
- Sauce:
- 1 can (28 oz) petit diced tomatoes
- 1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp basil
- ¼ cup brown sugar (see NOTES)
- Spray the crock with non-stick spray.
- Mix all sauce ingredients in the crock pot. I used a 5 quart round crock pot.
- Cover and cook on low 4-6 hours, high 3-5 hours--add the chicken the last hour of cooking.
- Place slices of cheese on top about 15 minutes before you plan to serve.
Don't use frozen chicken made from "chopped and formed" chicken. Make sure they are real, unprocessed chicken breast meat.
You might want to consider using a liner when making this. I sprayed but still had hard baked-on food that only a Brillo pad would remove.
Yum
Lillian says
June 17, 2016 at 4:38 pmYUM!!! Its against my Italian heritage to use premade breaded chicken cutlets but I’ll do it for you Judith…lol! I’ll be trying this soon…thanks =D
Judith Hanneman says
June 17, 2016 at 4:40 pmLOL Lillian–and it’s kinda light on the garlic too–remembering Garlic Wars!!!! Actually, this is pretty good and the frozen strips–the ones that are actual chicken pieces–work pretty well in the crock pot.
Amy says
July 11, 2016 at 3:48 amDo you bury the chicken strips under the sauce too? Or just lay them on top?
Judith Hanneman says
July 11, 2016 at 3:57 amYou can do either Amy. If you’re going to be around while it’s cooking–start the sauce and give it about 1 hour, then add the chicken. I realize some folks are at work all day and can’t, but if you are home, this will result in even juicier chicken. But it still is nice even added at the beginning.
Jill says
July 14, 2016 at 1:16 pmHow does the breading not get soggy?
Judith Hanneman says
July 14, 2016 at 3:41 pmIt does get soggy, but the chicken is juicy.
Sharyl says
July 18, 2016 at 1:30 amHow many pounds of chicken do you use? We buy the huge bag of strips from Costco.
Judith Hanneman says
July 18, 2016 at 3:13 pmSharyl, the bag I used was about 2 lbs. There’s really no “exact” measurement, because you can use as much (or as little) as you want, but the 2 lb bag will serve about 4 people.
Heather says
July 18, 2016 at 2:50 amI had my doubts, but WOW! Definitely making this again! Soooo easy too! Thanks you
Judith Hanneman says
July 18, 2016 at 3:13 pmI am so glad you liked it!
Patty says
July 18, 2016 at 4:34 amDo you use the uncooked breaded chicken or the ones that are already cooked?
Judith Hanneman says
July 18, 2016 at 3:13 pmIt’s the ones that are already cooked Patty.
Michelle says
July 20, 2016 at 4:17 pmI have the frozen I do believe that they are not precooked can I still use them for this recipe
Judith Hanneman says
July 20, 2016 at 4:28 pmYes, but you will have to cook them longer. Since I didn’t use the uncooked kind, I can only guess at how long they’d take, but if I were going to use them, I’d put them in at the beginning.
Tina says
July 21, 2016 at 3:16 pmCould you do this with fresh boneless skinless chicken breast we don’t by frozen products because my boyfriend has to cut out all sodium.
Judith Hanneman says
July 21, 2016 at 5:13 pmYep you can use it. That’s the way most people make it. I tried these because I find long cooking chicken breast makes it too dry for my taste. If I was going to make it with fresh, I’d add the meat at the beginning.
Tina says
July 21, 2016 at 3:18 pmSounds yummy do you think fresh boneless skinless would work, we don’t buy frozen breaded anything because the boyfriend can’t have sodium.
Judith Hanneman says
July 21, 2016 at 5:16 pmAnswered you in your other comment–that’s the trouble with prepared food. I’m sure these companies could offer a lower-sodium option. My late husband had to watch this too because of heart problems, so I know what you mean. BTW, I have some alternatives to seasonings, especially ranch, where I leave out the salt entirely. I find that tastes even better than commercial. If you use the “search” feature at the top of the page for “ranch seasoning” you’ll find it.
Stephan Cheney says
July 27, 2016 at 12:15 amI tried this. The frozen chicken tenders came out mushy and flavorless. Doing this in a slow cooker probable isn’t the best idea.
Judith Hanneman says
July 27, 2016 at 12:17 amI added mine right at the very end–they were fully cooked and not chopped and formed like a lot of frozen convenience chicken so only had to heat through. Mine were also seasoned coating. Sounds like it was cooked too long or the chicken was that “chopped and formed” stuff. That would get mushy.