Caesar Topped Parmesan Chicken
This Caesar Topped Parmesan Chicken is like a reverse Caesar salad where the protein is the star of the show! If you’ve ever tried my Crispy Chicken Caesar Sandwiches, this recipe is extremely similar, just ditching the bun and using larger pieces of chicken to turn it into an entrée. Plus, I added bacon, because who doesn’t want a little bacon? Juicy chicken in a crispy Parmesan panko coating is topped with fresh and tangy Caesar salad and crispy bacon pieces…what’s not to love? Plus, the chicken can be made in the oven or air fryer, so you can use whichever is more convenient for you. This Caesar Topped Parmesan Chicken make a delicious dinner and each piece is just 301 calories, 39 grams of protein, or 4 WW Points on the Weight Watchers program! To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app, click here.
Air Fryer or Oven?
I’ve provided directions for making this Caesar Topped Parmesan Chicken in both the air fryer and the oven in the recipe instructions below. If you have both options available, I personally prefer cooking the chicken in your air fryer because the outside gets a bit crispier. If you don’t have an air fryer, the oven is still a great option and will make delicious chicken.
Do I need to pre-heat my air fryer?
I’ve seen lots of mixed information about this. Some sources say you absolutely must pre-heat your air fryer and some say you needn’t bother. I think it probably depends on the brand of air fryer you own, so you may want to check your manual. I have a COSORI brand air fryer and do not pre-heat for this recipe. I see that Philips (another popular brand) also says you don’t need to pre-heat. If you’re not sure about your particular model, feel free to just run it for a few minutes before you add the chicken to be sure.
Recipe Notes
- Caesar Dressing: I used Marzetti Simply Creamy Caesar dressing, which is only 50 calories for two tablespoons and is really tasty. I definitely recommend it! If you can’t find that one of have another light Caesar dressing you prefer (like Ken’s), feel free to use that instead!
- Bacon: I pretty much always use Oscar Mayer Center Cut bacon in my recipes. It’s just a leaner cut of regular bacon, so it tastes delicious and easily cooks to a nice crisp.
- Parmesan: I buy a wedge of Parmesan cheese and shred it myself with a box grater for this recipe for maximum flavor. If you buy shredded Parmesan in a tub at your grocery store you can also use that and it should work fine. I do recommend shredding it yourself if you have the time though! It’s delicious!
- Salad: Even though you’ll use two cups of lettuce to make the salad topping, once it is dressed it will be more like a bit over 1 ½ cups. Dressing just weighs it down a bit. That’s why the recipe says to put a rounded 1/3 cup of salad topping on each sandwich. It’s more than 1/3 cup, but less than ½ cup per sandwich.
- Re-heating: If you’re not serving these all at once, only dress the amount of lettuce you’re using and store the remaining ingredients for the topping separately. To re-heat my chicken cutlets when there’s leftovers I usually just transfer a cutlet from the refrigerator right back into my air fryer and heat it up at 350 for about 5 minutes until it’s crispy on the outside and heated through again.
Chicken Cutlets
Thinly cut chicken cutlets are sold in the meat section of most grocery stores, so definitely feel free to just grab those for this recipe. I often buy big bulk packs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts at my grocery store and then use kitchen shears to trim them down into the shapes and sizes I use frequently in recipes. It’s cheaper to buy the breasts in bulk and since I use chicken breasts a lot in my recipes it makes sense for me! I generally cut the big chicken breasts widthwise into cutlets (usually 4 oz – 6 oz each) like the ones used in this recipe. Any chicken that is cut off to make those I then cut into small chunks to make chicken bites. It’s easy to weigh out 1 lb or more of chicken chunks or tenders and some 4, 5, or 6 oz cutlets and freeze them for later in quart size freezer bags. That way, I always have some cutlets and some chicken bites on hand to use in my recipes! I recommend cutting the chicken down using kitchen shears like these (affiliate link) rather than a knife, it just works more quickly and easily, in my opinion.
More Tasty Lightened Up Chicken Recipes:
Looking for more tasty, lightened up recipes using chicken breasts? Check out my Air Fryer Chicken Tenders, Cheesy Garden Vegetable Baked Chicken, Mexican Street Corn Chicken, Cheesy Broccoli Stuffed Chicken, Crispy Onion Dip Chicken, Nashville Hot Chicken Bites, Crispy Chicken Parmesan, Apple and Brie Stuffed Chicken, Strawberry Balsamic Grilled Chicken, Blackened Chicken Bites, Ricotta Stuffed Chicken Bake, Cream Cheese and Herb Stuffed Chicken, Tuscan Olive Chicken, Pimento Cheese Stuffed Chicken, Cream Cheese Stuffed Everything Chicken, and many more in the Chicken section of my recipe index!
Caesar Topped Parmesan Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 slices center cut bacon, (I use Oscar Mayer Center Cut)
- 4 (5 oz each) thin uncooked boneless skinless chicken breast cutlets, (20 oz total)
- 1 ½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1 ½ oz finely shredded Parmesan cheese, divided
- ½ cup plain panko bread crumbs
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley flakes
- 2 cups chopped romaine lettuce
- 2 tablespoons light Caesar dressing, (I used Marzetti Simply Creamy Caesar dressing)
Instructions
- Cook the bacon slices to crisp according to package instructions and then transfer to paper towels to drain. Chop into small pieces and set aside.
- While the bacon is cooking, place the chicken cutlets into a mixing bowl. In a small dish, mix together the flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika. Add the seasoning mix to the chicken cutlets. Stir the contents of the bowl until the chicken cutlets are coated with the spices.
- In a shallow dish, beat the egg thoroughly. In a separate shallow dish, stir together one ounce of the shredded Parmesan cheese, the panko bread crumbs, and parsley until mixed.
- One at a time, take the seasoning-coated chicken cutlets and coat them in the beaten egg. Allow any excess egg to drip off and then press the chicken cutlet into the bread crumb mix and flip so that both sides are coated in crumbs.
- Air Fryer (recommended): Transfer the crumb-coated chicken to the basket of your air fryer in a single layer without the cutlets touching each other. Lightly mist the tops of the chicken with cooking spray. Set the air fryer to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and cook for 6 minutes. Flip the cutlets over and mist the tops with cooking spray. Continue to air fry your cutlets for another 6-7 minutes until cooked through. Oven: Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. When the chicken cutlets are crumb-coated, transfer them to the baking sheet and lightly mist the tops with cooking spray. Place the tray in the oven and cook for 8 minutes. Flip the cutlets and mist again with cooking spray. Return them to the oven for another 8 minutes or until cooked through.
- While the chicken is cooking, place the chopped romaine lettuce into a mixing bowl with the remaining ½ ounce of shredded Parmesan cheese and the chopped bacon from step one. Drizzle the Caesar dressing over the top and then toss to coat the lettuce.
- When the chicken is cooked, scoop a rounded 1/3 cup of the Caesar salad lettuce mix onto the top of each chicken cutlet. If you aren’t serving all four pieces at once, keep the ingredients separate and build as needed,
Notes
301 calories, 11 g carbs, 1 g sugar, 10 g fat, 4 g saturated fat, 39 g protein, 1 g fiber, 415 mg sodium (from myfitnesspal.com) Weight Watchers Points Plus:
7 per serving (PP calculated using a Weight Watchers PointsPlus calculator and the nutrition information)
