Bobby Flay's Pro-Tip For Truly Excellent Chicken Parm

Chicken parm (aka chicken parmigiana) is always a good time — how could crispy pieces of breaded chicken, topped in rich tomato sauce and gooey melted cheese, ever not be? In fact, this dish has been delighting our taste buds since the 1950s, when it was first introduced to the Northeast of the United States by Italian-American immigrants. Since then it's become a staple of Italian-American restaurants (and even those outside of this cuisine) – this version from Carbone is particularly popular — while also being on high rotation in our own kitchens. It's even inspired other dishes, like this cheesy chicken Parmesan spaghetti bake.

That said, your household probably already has a version of chicken parm it knows and loves. We strongly recommend you expand your repertoire, however, with the help of Bobby Flay — who has put together a recipe that rethinks this classic dish in a truly game-changing way. The famous chef and Food Network star makes his chicken parm by topping it with cheese only (leaving plenty of space around the edges for the meat to get crunchy and golden), before baking it and serving it on a bed of tomato sauce (as opposed to adding the tomato sauce to the chicken, prior to baking). This makes for an ultra crispy version that will have your original one eating metaphorical dust.

Bobby Flay broke down the exact mechanics of making this truly excellent chicken parm, which he describes as "a little bit of a cleaner version of the classic," in a segment for "Today Food." As is presumably the case for any chicken parm recipe, he starts out by coating chicken cutlets in seasoned flour, egg, and panko style breadcrumbs. Flay then fries the cutlets off in some oil, before taking some torn buffalo mozzarella and placing it strategically over the top. "You see I leave some of the crispy bits uncovered, because we want that good contrast of texture," he explains, before popping the chicken in the oven to bake.

Next, he plates up some homemade tomato sauce (his version combines onions, garlic, and crushed tomatoes) for the chicken to sit on. "Instead of dousing it all over the chicken and then ruining that crispiness, I put the tomato sauce on the bottom," he says.

The piping hot chicken is then plated up, covered in fresh basil and copious amounts of Parmigiano-Reggiano, fresh arugula, and a drizzle of olive oil. "The really nice thing about it is you get obviously the acidity and the sweetness of the tomatoes, you get that crispy contrast of texture on the chicken, and of course that fresh mozzarella is beautiful," Flay concludes. Give it a whirl, and see if you don't agree.