Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: it was ok (keep in mind he loves pasta and ordered this on our third date).
SHE SAID: not bad for a crock pot recipe, but nothing beats the real thing

Photo from Stephanie O'Dea's site.

We are still tweaking this recipe, but we rate it a 10 for easy recipe with a great taste.  We almost used our homemade marinara sauce (well, our friend Pam's recipe for marinara sauce) and hindsight, we should have went with our first instinct.  Also, we had 5 pieces of chicken thighs which came out very moist and tender...a little too moist and tender for Chicken Parmesan.  We thought we adjusted the time correctly for the 5 pieces of chicken, but our cheese was overcooked - we didn't even recognize it when it came out of the crock pot!

We used our 4-qt crock pot for this recipe and it was a bit overfilled.  Next time we will use the 6-qt crock pot which we haven't used yet!  Our chicken didn't look anywhere near as nice as Stephanie O'Dea's looked!   We used some gemelli and rotini pasta since we had 1/3 of a bag of each waiting to be boiled.

RECIPE:

serves 2 (plus one leftover meal), 4-qt crock pot

2-4 boneless chicken breasts (we used boneless skinless thighs, stick with breasts)
1/2 c Italian bread crumbs
1/4 c shredded parmesan cheese
1/2 t Italian seasoning
1/4 t black pepper
1/4 t kosher salt
1 T olive oil
1 beaten egg
sliced mozzarella cheese (we used fresh - it was on sale)
favorite jarred marinara (we used an organic one, we wished we used homemade)
your choice of pasta

Spread olive oil into the bottom of the crock pot.  Whip the egg in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients including the shredded parmesan cheese.  Dip the chicken into the egg, the coat with the dry mix.  Place chicken into crock pot.  Layer 2-3 slices of mozzarella on the chicken - we covered the chicken with the mozzarella.  Pour entire jar of marinara on chicken/cheese.  Cover crock pot and cook on low for 6-7 hours.  Serve over pasta...and some Luccio Moscasto d'Asti!

We cooked our chicken parmesan for 7 hours, will try 6 hours next time, hopefully that will help the mozzarella.  Again, we like the recipe, just need to tweak it a bit and use the homemade marinara!

Enjoy!