Cheesy Ranch Parmesan Chicken

If you're looking for an easy weeknight dinner that feels a bit fancy, this Cheesy Ranch Parmesan Chicken is your solution! It's quick and packed with so much flavor. Your entire family will love this recipe!

I mentioned before that I didn't use to be a huge fan of ranch dressing. It's just never been my thing. But that all changed when I visited a friend in North Carolina and she made this cheesy ranch parmesan chicken. It's not that ranch dressing was inedible to me, I didn't love it. So when she told me what we were making for dinner, I thought, okay, I'll try this. And I'm so glad I did because it's become one of our favorite easy chicken dinners.

I remember so vividly the first time I made breaded "parmesan" chicken. We were living in North Carolina in our townhouse and I wanted to make something different for dinner. We eat a lot of chicken and we used to just bake it with some different spices pretty much every time. Which became so mundane after a while.

So I decided to figure out how to make my own breaded chicken. It may seem overwhelming at first... is it fried, how does the breading stay on, how do you cook the chicken thoroughly without burning the breading, etc. Let me tell you, once you make breaded chicken once, you realize how EASY it is and you'll be able to make it practically from memory the second time.

The process for breaded chicken is straightforward. Are you ready for it? Dip chicken into flour, then egg, then bread crumbs. Bam. So easy, right? The flour helps make the chicken dry so that the egg can stick to it and then the breadcrumbs stick to the egg. I've found that this combination helps the breading to really stay on the chicken and it doesn't just fall off of it as soon as you pick it up.

The main part of this recipe is the breaded chicken, adding the ranch is such an easy second step. So don't let the number of steps scare you away, once you have your breaded chicken ready to go, the recipe is basically done.

This recipe is the perfect go-to dinner. Whether you want to use homemade ranch dressing and homemade bread crumbs or you want to simplify it and use store-bought versions, this recipe is going to deliver so much flavor to your dinner table!

I used to use bowls and plates for each step of the breaded chicken process, but recently I discovered that using a Ziploc bag is much faster and coats the chicken really well!

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Cheesy Ranch Parmesan Chicken

Yield: 3 chicken breasts

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 22 minutes

Total Time: 42 minutes

If you're looking for an easy weeknight dinner that feels a bit fancy, this Cheesy Ranch Parmesan Chicken is your solution! It's quick and packed with so much flavor. Your entire family will love this recipe!

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Ingredients

• 3 chicken breasts, thinly sliced or pounded thin
• 1 egg
• ½ cup flour
• ½ cup of bread crumbs, homemade or store bought
• ¾ cup ranch dressing, homemade or store bought
• ½ cup shredded parmesan cheese, divided
• ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Thinly cut the chicken breast in half or pound it with a meat mallet or rolling pin to about half inch thickness.

3. In a small bowl, whisk one egg.

4. In a gallon-size Ziploc bag, add flour.

5. In a second gallon-size Ziploc bag, add bread crumbs.

6. Put 1 chicken breast in the flour bag, close and shake it up.

7. Dunk the chicken in the egg, coating completely.

8. Put the chicken in the breadcrumb bag and shake it up.

9. Repeat with remaining chicken breasts.

10. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a medium skillet and let the oil heat up on medium heat. Then add chicken to pan. Allow each side to brown/crisp completely, being careful not to let the breading burn. Once the breading is browned (about 5-7 minutes), remove from pan (the chicken will continue cooking in the oven).

11. In a medium bowl, mix together ranch, ¼ cup shredded parmesan cheese and the grated parmesan cheese. You want the consistency to be thick enough that the mixture won't run off the chicken. Add more grated parmesan if the mixture is too runny.

12. Divide ranch mixture and spoon on top of breaded chicken.
13. Bake for 10 minutes.
14. Remove from oven and sprinkle with remaining shredded parmesan.
15. Bake for 5 additional minutes or until parmesan is browned and chicken is cooked to an internal temperature of 165.

Notes

You can also bake this chicken thoroughly, instead of pan-frying. Bake for 22-25 minutes in that case (adding parmesan at the last 5 minutes).

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 538Total Fat: 30gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 20gCholesterol: 147mgSodium: 871mgCarbohydrates: 26gFiber: 1gSugar: 3gProtein: 39g

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Have you ever made breaded chicken? How'd it go?