I make a mean Chicken Parm.  I really do.

It takes some effort though…pounding the chicken, coating it with just the right blend of breadcrumbs, cheese and spices, sautéing it gently, layering it up with tasty sauce and more cheese and baking it till it’s bubbly but not dry.

Not the kind of thing you can do very quickly, but the effort is most certainly worth it.

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I’m posting a series of slow cooker recipes to help out my sister who recently got her first crock pot.  When I saw this recipe, I thought of her right away because I know that she likes chicken parm, but I also know that her busy schedule wouldn’t leave her much time to make it the usual way.

I found this recipe to be easy and it tasted great!  You don’t get the crunch of the bread crumb coating like you do with traditional chicken parm, but all the flavors are there and I think it’s a great substitute for when you don’t have time for the real thing.

A few things to note about this recipe:

1. It was difficult to photograph (as are most slow cooker recipes).  I didn’t want it to just look like mush on a plate so I included the sides we ate with it to mix things up a bit.

2. The original recipe says you can cook it for 3 hours on high (which is what I did since I was home that day) or 5-6 hours on low (which would allow you to leave the house but isn’t long enough to span a full work day).

3. You may want to invest in a timer like this one which runs about $7 and can be set to turn  your crock pot on a few hours before you get home for work.

4. The full cooking time left the chicken a little too dry for my liking.  I reduced both the high and low cook times in the recipe below which I think will yield chicken that is cooked through but still moist.

All of that out of the way, here’s the recipe which has all of the flavors of the real thing without all the hassle!

Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan
from Recipe Shoebox via Full Bellies