Keto Chicken Parmesan: Best Easy Italian Recipe

Indulge in the low-carb version of a timeless American favorite with Italian roots: keto chicken parmesan will please your taste buds without compromising health goals.

Imagine sinking your teeth into a tender, juicy chicken breast coated in a crunchy, flavorful breading made without flour. Topped with a rich tomato sauce and melted gooey cheese, each bite is a real treat.

In this recipe, I’ve replaced conventional high-carb ingredients with keto-friendly alternatives without sacrificing flavor. The secret is almond flour, Parmesan cheese, and spices for the perfect crunchy topping.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to make a guilt-free keto bombshell for dinner without spending hours in the kitchen.

Is Chicken Parmesan Keto?

Traditional chicken parmesan is neither low-carb nor suitable for keto. A classic breading with flour contains too many carbs.

A piece of parmesan chicken with conventional breading has 25 g of carbohydrates.

In addition, restaurants use seed oils for frying, which promote inflammation and prevent you from losing weight (Patterson et al. 2012¹; Simopoulos 2016²).

That’s why I developed this recipe for keto chicken parmesan. Not only is it low-carb, but it represents an all-around healthy version of comfort food. It’s the perfect dinner to make when craving comfort without feeling guilty.

This recipe is an absolute stunner. It contains hardly any carbohydrates and is high in fat and protein, making it incredibly filling (Chungchunlam et al. 2015³).

How Many Carbs Are in Keto Parmesan Chicken?

One serving of keto chicken parmesan has only 5.84 g of net carbs. Of that, only 2.24 g comes from the almond flour breading and 3.6 g from the marinara tomato sauce (*; *).

This low-carb recipe thus has only about one-fifth the carbohydrates of a conventional chicken parmesan.

Keto-Friendly Side Dishes

I recommend serving the keto chicken parmesan with steamed broccoli or cauliflower fried rice, which is not only low-carb but also incredibly delicious.

Fans of mashed potatoes will find mashed cauliflower the perfect creamy keto alternative.

If you love an all-Italian vibe, you can also serve keto chicken parmesan with pasta. Organic Shirataki noodles are excellent for this. These miracle noodles are only fiber, so they add no net carbs to the plate at all.

Ingredients

• Chicken Breast: Use four small or two large chicken breasts that you cut down the middle. If you pound the chicken like a cutlet, it will cook evenly and stay flavorful.
• Pink Himalayan Salt: If you’re on a ketogenic diet, you need plenty of sodium. So you don’t have to skimp on high-quality salt in this dish.
• Almond Flour: Blanched almond flour and parmesan are the secret to a crispy cutlet breading without the unnecessary carbs.
• Parmesan: Finely grated parmesan makes a perfect mixture with almond flour, flavoring the dish. We also need a small amount of parmesan for gratinating.
• Garlic Powder: Dried powder adds flavor without peeling and chopping garlic.
• Coconut oil, Ghee, or Clarified Butter: Plenty of saturated fats are best for frying, as they cannot oxidize. Virgin coconut oil is the best choice, but animal fats, such as lard, are also suitable for frying from a chemical point of view. Don’t make the mistake of using cheap seed oils, such as corn, sunflower, soy, or canola oil. Even inhaling vapors of cooked seed oils causes DNA damage (Ke et al. 2009⁴).
• Marinara Sauce: For the classic marinara, you can use any organic tomato sauce without added sugar (no ketchup!).
• Mozzarella: For gratinating, we need whole mozzarella sliced, not pre-grated cheese from the package.

How to Make Keto Chicken Parmesan

The instructions below show you step-by-step how easy it is to make keto chicken parmesan at home.

See the recipe box below for a comprehensive overview, including ingredients, quantities, and temperatures.

Instructions

1. Lightly salt and dust the pounded chicken breasts with almond flour.
2. Whisk the eggs in a small bowl. Mix the remaining almond flour with six tablespoons of grated parmesan and the garlic powder in another bowl. Dip the chicken in the egg mixture and then in the dry mix until it is entirely breaded.
3. Fry the chicken until it is golden brown.
4. Place the fried chicken breasts on a baking sheet. Top them with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and the remaining parmesan.
5. Bake them for 10-15 minutes until the cheese is melted and golden brown.

Alternatives: Air Fryer and Oven

For an extra crispy chicken cutlet, it’s best to fry it in plenty of fat. However, you can also cook the chicken in a hot air fryer or the oven:

• Air fryer: place the breaded chicken in the basket of the hot air fryer and bake it at 400 °F (200 °C) for 5 minutes. Turn the chicken and bake for another 5 minutes on the other side.
• Oven: Preheat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C). Bake the keto chicken parmesan for 10 minutes. Turn it over and bake for another 10 minutes on the other side.

Regardless of your choice, ensure the chicken is well done. If in doubt, bake it longer.

Storage and Freezing

• Store: You can store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
• Reheat: Reheat the keto chicken parmesan in the oven or an air fryer. Microwaving, on the other hand, risks slightly soggy breading.
• Freeze: Place individual pieces of the low-carb chicken in a shallow airtight container or freezer bag and store in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

References

¹Patterson, E., Wall, R., Fitzgerald, G. F., Ross, R. P., & Stanton, C. (2012). Health Implications of High Dietary Omega-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids. Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/539426

²Simopoulos, A. P. (2016). An Increase in the Omega-6/Omega-3 Fatty Acid Ratio Increases the Risk for Obesity. Nutrients, 8(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/nu8030128

³Chungchunlam, S. M., Henare, S. J., Ganesh, S., & Moughan, P. J. (2015). Dietary whey protein influences plasma satiety-related hormones and plasma amino acids in normal-weight adult women. European journal of clinical nutrition, 69(2), 179–186. https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2014.266

⁴Ke, Y., Cheng, J., Zhang, Z., Zhang, R., Zhang, Z., Shuai, Z., & Wu, T. (2009). Increased levels of oxidative DNA damage attributable to cooking-oil fumes exposure among cooks. Inhalation toxicology, 21(8), 682–687. https://doi.org/10.1080/08958370802474728