Chicken Parm is such a satisfying, nostalgic meal... but not low carb. This Keto Chicken Parmesan is crispy, full of flavour, and fabulous!
As I’ve been navigating this round of doing the keto diet, I’m finding that adapting comfort foods to suit a low-carb diet has been key to my ability to stick to it.
Today’s post is an easy recipe, sure to please the entire family - even the picky eaters.
Good chicken parm is something most would think of as being Italian restaurant food - a crispy breaded chicken breast, topped with pasta sauce and melted cheese, all served atop a bed of pasta.
A fantastic Italian dish... but most restaurants don’t tend to follow a low carb chicken parmesan recipe, when making it!
Good news, though:
I was craving it recently - and had just made a batch of Keto Marinara Sauce - so here I am with an easy keto chicken Parmesan recipe.
As keto recipes go, this is fantastic as a meal. It’s got meat, vegetables, cheese, and fiber (I serve it with Konjac noodles). It’s filling, satisfying, and clocks in at less than 6 grams of net carbs per serving!
Score!
Keto, Gluten Free Chicken Parmesan Ingredients
Like most Italian food, this recipe uses mostly simple ingredients, but I have a few notes on some of them:
Chicken
I like to use large chicken breasts for this recipe - each being split in half.
While I find boneless, skinless chicken breast to be the best piece of chicken for this recipe, you can also use boneless, skinless chicken thighs, if you prefer.
I recommend 4 thighs for 2 people, and there’s enough coating in this recipe to make it happen.
Egg Wash
To marinate the chicken a bit - and provide the glue for the crust - I use whipped eggs that have been flavoured up a bit with garlic powder, fresh parsley, salt, and pepper.
Bread Crumbs
While many recipes include pork rinds for a chicken coating, I prefer this mixture of Super Fine Almond Flour, Kraft Grated Parmesan Cheesee (the shelf stable kind in a shaker, not fresh Parmesan!), and Unflavoured Whey Protein Isolate.
While it has slightly more carbs than pork rinds (zero carbs, there!), it’s still an incredibly low carb count.
I flavour it with Garlic Powder, salt, and Ground Black Pepper. Feel free to add a bit of Italian Seasoning and/or Onion Powder, if you like!
Oil for Frying
I recommend vegetable or canola oil for frying your chicken cutlets. They’re both neutral flavoured oils with a high smoke point.
While I like cooking with olive oil or avocado oil in general, neither is really suitable for deep frying. The olive oil has too low of a smoke point, and avocado is too expensive to use in that way, IMHO.
Marinara Sauce
If you’re using a marinara sauce from a grocery store, be sure to check the label for added sugars. Many store bought tomato sauce options have a shocking amount of carbs in them!
Rao's Marinara Sauce is the gold standard for retail marinara, but making it at home is SUPER easy - be sure to check out my recipe for Keto Marinara Sauce. All you need is a food processor and roasting pan!
Cheeses
I like to use both Mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese for topping my Chicken Parm. I’ll usually shred the mozzarella into larger shreds, and the Parmesan into fine shreds, but that’s not a rule anyone has to live by!
Fresh Basil
I love topping fresh-from-the-oven Keto Chicken Parmesan with some finely chopped fresh basil, both for colour and flavour.
Fresh parsley is another great option, though!
How to Make Keto Chicken Parmesan
The full recipe card is at the bottom of the post, but here’s the pictorial walkthrough and some additional tips
Prepare the Chicken Breast and Ingredients
Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, lightly spray with cooking spray, set aside.
Lay your chicken breast on a large cutting board. Using a sharp knife, split the breast in half, creating 2 thin chicken cutlets.
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, garlic powder, parsley, and just a bit of salt and pepper - a pinch each.
Add chicken pieces to the egg mixture, stirring to coat. Cover with plastic wrap, set aside for a few minutes to marinate a little. (You can cover and chill for a few hours, if you’d like - this helps ensure juicy chicken!)
Over medium-high heat a bit of oil in a large, nonstick pan or large skillet - about ½ - 1 cm deep.
As oil heats, mix together almond flour, garlic powder, salt, and pepper in a separate bowl. (This works best with a shallow bowl)
Note: At this point, I like to have my cheese grated, basil chopped, etc - things move pretty fast, once you bread the chicken!
When making keto chicken parm, I like to have ALL ingredients - including the garnish - prepped and ready to go. Once you get cooking, it goes FAST!
Assemble The Keto Chicken Parm
Dredge each chicken half in this Parmesan cheese mixture / second bowl, pressing to evenly coat the whole surface of each.
Turn oil down to medium heat, fry chicken for a few minutes on each side, until golden brown and crispy.
Remove from oil, blot excess oil with a paper towel, transfer to the prepared baking pan.
Spoon half of the sauce - about 4 tablespoons of marinara sauce - onto each of the cooked chicken breasts.
Leaving it in the baking dish, top each piece with half of the sauce, then half the mozzarella cheese, and half the parmesan cheese.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. The internal temperature should reach 165 F.
Top with fresh basil, serve immediately.
Elrohir was VERY interested in the chicken parm!
Additional Tips & Variations
Serving
As the chicken is baking in the oven, I rinse a bag of konjac spaghetti noodles WELL - like 2 minutes of rinsing - then drain and blot with a paper towel.
Then I fry it in a nonstick pan - dry, no oil - until all visible moisture has dried up.
Finally, I hit it with a splash of chicken broth and a bit of salt, for flavour.
Between the rinsing, frying, and chicken, this ensures the best taste and texture from these noodles.
While I love to serve this recipe on konjac spaghetti noodles - as pictured- there are definitely other options.
Try this recipe on zucchini noodles, cauliflower rice, or with a side salad. My Keto Caesar Salad goes especially well with this recipe!
For Extra Crispy Chicken
If you want to keep that just-fried crispy crust, you can make a minor alterations to the technique. This can be done a couple ways:
1. Rather than topping the chicken with sauce and cheese before baking, just put it in the oven, fresh from the frying oil.
Cook until cooked through, usually about 13 minutes without the toppings. As it’s baking, heat your sauce up.
Once it’s cooked through, remove from the oven and turn your broiler on high.
Blot excess oil with paper towels before topping the chicken pieces with warm sauce and the cheese, then broil until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
2. Deep fry the chicken til it’s cooked all the way through; as it’s frying, heat the sauce up. Heat your broiler to high.
Once the chicken is cooked through, blot excess oil with paper towels, transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet.
Spoon sauce and cheese on top of the chicken, broil until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
Air Fryer Chicken Parmigiana
Want to skip the deep frying? It’s all good.
Once you’ve breaded the chicken, spray both sides with cooking oil. Air fry at 375 until cooked though - usually 13 minutes or so - flipping and re-spraying halfway through.
Top with sauce and cheese, return to the air fryer for another few minutes to let the sauce heat through and the cheese melt.
More Keto Noodle Dishes
Keto Lasagna
Low Carb Shanghai Noodles
Keto Chicken Pasta Primavera
Chicken Enchilada Zoodles
Keto Spaghetti and Meatballs
Pesto Shrimp Palmini
Keto Pad Thai
Pesto Chicken Lasagna
Low Carb Vietnamese Noodle Salad
Singapore Mai Fan Zoodles
Easy Keto Ramen
Chicken Piccata Zoodles
Keto Pad Thai
Peanut Chicken Zoodles
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Keto Chicken Parmesan
Equipment
- Large nonstick pan
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
Ingredients
Marinated Chicken
- 2 Large eggs
- ¼ teaspoon Garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon Finely chopped fresh parsley
- Salt and pepper
- 1 Large chicken breast split in half, crosswise.
Assembly
- Oil for frying - vegetable or canola.
- ¼ cup Almond flour
- ¼ cup Parmesan finely grated
- 2 tablespoon Unflavored whey protein isolate
- ½ teaspoon Garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Black pepper
- ⅔ cup Keto Marinara sauce
- ½ cup Shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2 tablespoon Shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon Finely chopped fresh basil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, lightly spray with cooking spray, set Aside.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, garlic powder, and parsley, and just a bit of salt and pepper - a pinch each.
- Add chicken pieces to the egg mixture, stirring to coat. Set aside for a few minutes to marinate a little. (You can cover and chill for a few hours, if you’d like)
- Heat a bit of oil in a large, nonstick pan - about ½ - 1 cm deep.
- As oil heats, mix together almond flour, whey protein isolate, parmesan cheese, garlic powder, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl.
- Dredge each chicken half in this coating mix, pressing to evenly coat the whole surface of each.
- Fry chicken for a few minutes on each side, until golden brown and crispy. Remove from oil, transfer to the prepared baking sheet.
- Top each piece with half of the sauce, then half the mozzarella cheese, and half the parmesan cheese.
- Bake for 15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.
- Top with fresh basil, serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
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