Have you seen the Nationwide Insurance commercial with Peyton Manning singing the jingle? If you have, you know that Peyton, in all his perfect-ness, sings 🎶"chicken parm you taste so good" 🎶 as he takes a huge bite of his sub. While it is pretty clever advertising, it's not a secret, chicken parm really does taste that good.
The picture above is a classic chicken parmesean. I literally got the recipe from the back of the breadcrumb container, and it was just as you would expect it would be, yummy. But the hubby and I like some variety, so I took this classic and spun it into something modern. I present to you.... the chicken parm burger (ta-daaaa)
These little guys are winners all around. You get the deliciousness of chicken parm, the satisfaction of a burger, and the health benefits of swapping out ground beef for lean chicken and veggies all in one.
Try it for yourself!
Ingredients:
- 1-1 1/2 pounds of skinless chicken breast cutlets
- 1 cup Italian breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium red bell pepper
- 1 small white onion
- 1 tablespoon dried basil
- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
- Healthy pinches of salt & pepper
- Cheese of your choice
- Buns of your choosing (I always go with whole grain)
Step one: Place a small skillet on medium heat with one tablespoon of olive oil. Cut your red bell pepper and onion into small pieces and add to the oiled pan. Allow them to "sweat" (as my mom would say) until they're tender and the onions are translucent.
In theory, the picture below would have onions as the recipe calls for, but I was out, so the peppers were flying solo. Whoops.
Step two: Using a food processor, grind your chicken cutlets. I guess you could purchase ground chicken, but I never have that on hand.
Step three: Set the ground chicken to the side and toss your veggies from the stove into the processor. Pulse until you have a pepper and onion mix with the consistency of salsa. Add to your bowl with the chicken
Step four: Add your remaining ingredients, except the buns and cheese (duh) and mix until all the ingredients are incorporated.
Step five: Form into equal sized patties. This recipe makes about 4-5 burgers. I usually use my ice cream scoop as a measurement to make them semi-equal in weight and size. Add the remaining olive oil to your pan and place your burgers on the heat.
Step six: Brown the burgers about 3-4 minutes on both sides. The goal is to get that crispy, charred outside.
I would bet these would be pretty good on the grill if you wanted to skip the stovetop technique. Jared and I currently have a non functioning grill...that's another project for another time.
Step seven: Transfer the burgers onto a baking sheet and place them in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of your burgers.
Step eight: Go ahead and melt some cheese on there. Naturally, as the name implies, parmesean is a good choice, but I went with mozzerella. The hubby chose pepper jack for some spice, but I say no bueno to that. Ick
Step nine: Next, dress up that burger however you like! Here's mine with some marinara sauce instead of the traditional ketchup. I bet fresh basil would be good, too!
Okay, now let's all sing it together...
🎶chicken parm you taste so good🎶
Happy cooking, happy eating!