Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan

   I love, love, love my crock pot. I used my crock pot almost daily when I was working, and now that I'm retired I still use it ~ even if I'm not planning to be out all day. Recently I made Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan for a Saturday dinner when we were having family over. Although I was home all day it was nice to be able to set up the crock pot and spend the day with my family. 
   Usually, when I make a spaghetti dish I use ground beef in the sauce. I've heard of using chicken breast and even tuna, but I never tried anything other than beef ~ until now. The recipe calls for chicken breasts, but I wanted to use what I had in the freezer so I used boneless skinless chicken thighs. I thought this dish might appeal to the littlest taste testers and I was right ~ but then, pasta is always a good choice with kids. I served this with garlic toast and a side salad to appeal to the grown ups.

This is how I did it.

 I gathered the ingredients: chicken thighs, eggs, bread crumbs, panko bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, Mozzarella cheese, and spaghetti sauce (our favorite is Ragu Chunky Garden Style).

 I started by trimming all the visible fat off the chicken ~ it's a yucky job, but I'd rather trim it than eat it!

 I mixed the two breadcrumbs, the Parmesan cheese, and some salt and pepper in a glass pie plate.

 I beat the two eggs in a separate dish and dipped the chicken in the beaten egg and then into the breadcrumb mixture. 

 I put some olive oil in the bottom of my crock pot and then put a layer of chicken in the pot.

 I put a handful of Mozzarella cheese on top of that layer and then added another layer of meat and another layer of Mozzarella on top of that. I was cooking for a crowd. If I was making a smaller batch I would have just done one layer of chicken and cheese.

Then I poured the jar of spaghetti sauce over the top and turned the crock pot on low for 6 hours. I'm not sure how it would do on high ~ it might burn on the edges. If someone risks it, let me know how it works out.

 And this, my friends, is the only mess I had to clean up before my company arrived...not too bad...but then I looked up and saw cob webs in my artificial flowers on the plate rack above my stove..."Why do you have artificial flowers on your plate rack?" You ask...Because at one time I had plates on my decorative plate rack and while we were out of town one fell off the rack and hit my glass top stove ~ destroying the glass top...so now I have artificial flowers on the plate rack above my stove.

So then of course I spent some of my spare time cleaning artificial flowers...sigh...

When the 6 hours was up I made some spaghetti on top of the stove (with freshly cleaned artificial flowers above) and I put the cooked spaghetti in a huge pasta bowl and then scooped the chicken and sauce on top. I sprinkled a little more Mozzarella on top because I can never have enough cheese.


I wondered whether the bread crumbs would stick to the chicken...not really...some of it did a little bit...but it tasted so good we didn't care. It came out more like a spaghetti with chicken dish with thick cheesy sauce. Since I have never had real Chicken Parmesan I wasn't hard to impress. If Chicken Parmesan is a favorite dish of yours you might still like this dish, you may just have to come up with another name for it, like Crock Pot Chicken Cheesy Spaghetti or something like that.


This is the recipe for Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan adapted from chef-in-training blog.

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs (or breasts) with all visible fat removed
1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 cup Panko Japanese bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
2 eggs
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese 
large jar spaghetti sauce (we like Ragu Chunky Garden style)


Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper in a shallow dish.
Beat 2 eggs in a separate bowl.
Dip chicken pieces in egg and then into the breadcrumb mixture to coat.
Put olive oil in the bottom of crock pot.
Put coated chicken pieces in the crock pot.
Put Mozzarella cheese on top of chicken.
Pour the jar of spaghetti sauce on top of everything.
Cover and cook on low for about 6 hours.
Serve over cooked spaghetti with additional Parmesan or Mozzarella cheese, if desired.


What was the taste tester's bottom line?
This was an easy, tasty dinner. One of the little taste testers loved it so much I sent the leftovers home with him. Not everyone raved about it, but no one disliked it. When I make dinner for 12 people (I doubled this recipe and had lots of leftovers) I expect some people won't like it, but that wasn't a problem with this dish.


The bottom line: I guess I can use something other than ground beef with spaghetti and tomato sauce. (oh, and I always need to check for cob webs in the artificial flowers before company arrives)