A classic chicken parm sandwich recipe with crispy breaded chicken, tomato basil sauce, and lots of gooey cheese. The perfect comfort food lunch or dinner for football Sundays!
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Sandwiches are a favorite year round meal as they come in all shapes, styles, and flavors. However, fall is the season of warm, hearty, messy, and comforting sandwiches. If you love sandwiches as much as we do, we’ve got the perfect one for you this time of year: our saucy, cheesy, toasty Chicken Parm Sandwich recipe. The ultimate sub for preparing for hibernation season!
All jokes aside, this sandwich will make you want to cozy up on the couch and do nothing for the rest of the day. That’s why it’s the best lunch or dinner for football Sundays! Whether you’re just chilling at home or inviting friends over for the game, you can easily make a batch of this chicken parm ahead of time for easily throwing on a sub roll. Or prepare it fresh and enjoy 40 minutes of mouth-watering crispy Italian chicken smells wafting through your kitchen as your stomach grumbles 🙂
What Is In A Chicken Parmesan Sub?
Chicken parmesan is classically made with chicken, breadcrumbs, tomato sauce, and mozzarella cheese. You can easily take this straightforward recipe, plus a little bit of parmesan cheese and a soft sub roll, to create the best chicken parm sandwich! Here’s the full list of ingredients you’ll need for making chicken parm sandwiches at home:
- Chicken breast – sliced and pounded thin
- Egg – plus water, to make an egg wash for the chicken
- Italian seasoned breadcrumbs – for coating the chicken
- Vegetable oil – to help crisp the chicken as it bakes in the oven
- Tomato basil sauce – use your favorite store-bought brand for an easy shortcut
- Mozzarella cheese – shredded, for melting over the chicken
- Parmesan cheese – grated, for sprinkling on top of the baked chicken
- Sub rolls – 6-inch Italian style sub rolls are the best bread for a classic chicken parm sandwich
How To Make A Delicious Chicken Parm Sandwich
This sandwich recipe is easy to make – it just takes a little bit of time to prepare the oven baked chicken parmesan. Here’s what you’ll need to do:
- Pound the chicken out so all the pieces are the same thickness (to ensure they cook at the same rate).
- Whisk together egg and water to make an egg wash in a shallow dish and set it next to the chicken.
- Pour Italian breadcrumbs into a separate shallow dish, and put this next to the egg wash.
- Pour vegetable oil onto a large baking sheet, enough for a thin layer across the whole pan.
- Coat the chicken. First, dip one piece in the egg wash and cover completely. Let excess egg drip off, then transfer it to the breadcrumbs. Coat it completely, patting the breadcrumbs into the chicken to help them stick. Then lay flat on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat to coat all pieces of chicken, spacing them out a bit on the pan.
- Bake chicken at 375 degrees until cooked through, flipping halfway to crisp both sides, about 20 to 25 minutes.
- Take the chicken out of the oven and lower heat to 350. Generously top the chicken with tomato sauce, then shredded mozzarella cheese, and bake for another 10 minutes or so to warm the sauce through and melt the cheese.
- Next, slice sub rolls and place them open-faced on a baking sheet. Switch the oven to broil (high setting) to brown the cheese on the chicken parmesan, and put the sub rolls in the oven to lightly toast them, about 3 minutes.
- Finally, assemble the sandwiches. Transfer baked chicken parmesan to sub rolls and sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese before closing and serving.
Preparing Chicken Parm Subs Ahead Of Time
To save some time and have the chicken ready to go for your sub rolls, you can make the chicken parmesan ahead of time 2 ways:
- Make the crispy breaded chicken ahead of time, then let it cool and store it in the refrigerator as-is until you’re ready to make chicken parm subs. Then simply add the sauce and cheese to the cold chicken and heat in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Fully bake the chicken parmesan ahead of time, then let it cool and store it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to make the sandwiches. Simply reheat in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes.
These two make-ahead methods for chicken parmesan are pretty similar and will take about the same amount of time to turn into sandwiches when you’re ready to eat. If you want the chicken to last up to 5 days in the fridge, we recommend going with option #1 and leaving the chicken plain. (The other benefit of this method is that if you have any picky eaters in your house, each person can individually choose how much sauce and cheese to put on their chicken parmesan).
However, if you want to serve these chicken parm sandwiches to a crowd and get ahead on cooking, we’d recommend fully baking the chicken parmesan (option #2) and setting it aside to reheat later that day. With a jar of your favorite tomato basil sauce and a bag of shredded mozzarella, you can easily prepare a giant sheet pan of chicken parm that can be reheated for a tasty build-your-own sandwich station!
Why You’ll Love This Chicken Parm Sandwich Recipe
We can’t get enough of this crispy chicken parmesan, and we know you’ll feel the same once you take a bite of this sandwich! Although it takes a little bit of prep time to bake the chicken parm in the oven, the crispy, saucy, cheesy sandwich it turns into is totally worth the effort. It’s the perfect balance of chicken, sauce, and cheese. And with the right roll, this homemade chicken parm sub tastes even better than the classic Italian sandwich from your local sub shop.
Try the recipe below and don’t forget to rate, comment, and share! We’d love to hear what you think.
Love this recipe? You may enjoy these recipes, too:
- Chicken Parm Sliders
- Sourdough Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese
- Prosciutto & Mozzarella Sandwich
- Crispy Air Fryer Chicken Sandwiches
- Chicken Parm Pizza
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Chicken Parm Sandwich Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- ¼ cup vegetable oil enough for a thin layer on your baking sheet
- ⅔ lb chicken breast sliced and pounded thin
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp water
- ⅔ cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
- ¾ cup tomato basil sauce jarred
- ¾ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2 6-inch Italian sub rolls
- 1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and add vegetable oil to a large baking sheet, enough to cover the whole pan in a thin layer.
- Next, bread the chicken. In a shallow dish, whisk together egg and water and set aside. Fill a separate shallow dish with the breadcrumbs and set aside. Then, working one piece at a time, coat the chicken fully in the egg wash, then the breadcrumbs, and transfer to the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake chicken until crispy and cooked through, about 20 to 25 minutes, flipping halfway to crisp both sides.
- Remove chicken from the oven and lower heat to 350 degrees F. Top each piece of crispy chicken with a generous amount of tomato basil sauce, then a layer of shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake for 10 minutes to warm the sauce through and melt the cheese.
- Slice sub rolls and place them open-faced on a baking sheet for toasting. Once the chicken parm is done baking, switch oven to broil on HIGH. Toast sub rolls on the bottom rack of the oven while the chicken parm browns under the broiler, about 3 minutes.
- Finally, assemble the sandwiches. Transfer 1 to 2 pieces of chicken parm to each sub roll, then sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese before closing. Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
If you have any questions regarding the information presented in this post, please refer to our Nutrition Disclaimer here.
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