The Cozy Cookbook is here! 
This Pizza Chicken has crispy breaded chicken that’s baked in marinara sauce with mozzarella cheese and your favorite pizza toppings! Your family will love the flavor of this fun, restaurant-quality meal!
Be sure to serve this with Garlic Bread with Cheese!
Pizza Chicken
When Chicken Parmesan meets Pizza, good things happen. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but loading this meal up with your favorite pizza toppings is seriously tasty, (and also pretty fun). 😉
Looking to go low carb? Skip the breading in this recipe and just season/sear plain chicken and proceed as outlined!
Scroll down to see how to make this, read through my PRO tips, storage information, and tons of pizza topping options!
How to Make It
See recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
Slice the chicken into 2-3 thinner slices and pat dry. Prepare 3 breading stations and dredge chicken in flour mixture, then egg mixture, then breadcrumb mixture.
Fry in oil over medium heat for about 4 minutes per side until golden brown and crispy, do this in batches. Set aside on a cooling rack until all chicken is cooked.
Add 80% of the marinara sauce onto the bottom of an oven-safe baking dish. Add the chicken and spoon remaining sauce over the top of each.
Add mozzarella cheese, pizza toppings, and Parmesan cheese. Bake at 450 for 13 minutes or so, until cheese is melted and toppings are cooked. Remove and serve!
See below for suggestions on what to serve this with.
Pizza Topping Ideas
- Meats: Pepperoni, Sausage, Ground Beef, Ham, Buffalo Chicken, Grilled Chicken.
- Other: Mushrooms, Olives, Peppers, Onions, Pineapple, Feta, Pesto, Caramelized Onions, Sundried Tomatoes.
What To Serve With Pizza Chicken
- Buttered Noodles, Alfredo Pasta, or Creamy Spinach Pasta
- Creamy Tomato Pasta or Garlic Parmesan Pasta (both one pot recipes!)
- Garlic Bread with Cheese
Pro Tips For Extra Crispy Chicken
- The oil temperature should be 350°.
- Ensure the oil has enough time to heat up before adding the chicken so ensure it doesn’t sit in the oil and get soggy. This also ensures that the breading doesn’t fall off.
- Adjust heat up or down slightly as needed during cooking.
- Don’t overcrowd the pan, fry in batches and leave space around each piece of chicken.
- Cast Iron Skillets conduct heat really well for a crispy, golden finish.
More Pro Tips
- Shred/Grate cheese from a block for best flavor and melty texture.
- Low moisture/whole milk mozzarella is best for pizza. Dragone is my preferred brand.
- If adding vegetables or raw sausage/beef, make sure they’re fairly small in size so that they have a chance to cook through.
- Rao’s Marinara or Pizza sauce is great on these. You can also try my homemade marinara sauce.
- For a low carb or lower calorie variation you can skip the breading and season the chicken with 2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning along with salt/pepper prior to cooking. Use 3 Tbsp. olive oil and sear for 4-5 minutes on each side, until a golden crust has developed.
Storage
- Store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months. This does freeze well!
- Reheat in a covered & lightly greased casserole dish at 350° for 15-20 minutes if thawed, or 25-30 minutes if frozen. (You can also microwave leftovers.)
Tools For This Recipe
(Amazon affiliate links)- Check out all of my kitchen essentials here.
- Cast Iron Skillet– Conducts heat really well for frying up the chicken for a crispy, golden finish.
- Cooling Racks– Allows for air circulation underneath the chicken after frying while also letting excess oil drip off, for extra crispy chicken.
- This is the Le Creuset skillet I used in this recipe, (and in 90% of my recipes). It’s pricey, but it conducts heat really well and is oven safe. The size is perfect and the quality is great.
- Meat Tenderizer – Using this tool really does make the chicken more tender, you’ll barely have to chew it!
- Kitchen Tongs– makes it easy to handle the chicken when frying and even easier to flip individual mushroom slices as they cook.
Try These Next
-
- Tuscan Chicken
-
- Creamy Spinach Pasta
-
- One Pot Spaghetti
-
- Tuscan Chicken Pasta
-
- BEST Tomato Soup
-
- Creamy Lemon Chicken
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Tried This Recipe?
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Pizza Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
- ¼ cup vegetable oil, can sub canola or olive oil
Breading Station 1:
- ½ cup flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons seasoned salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Breading Station 2:
- 2 eggs, whisked until airy and frothy
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Breading Station 3:
- 1 ¼ cup breadcrumbs, plain or Italian
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
Sauces/Toppings
- 24 oz. marinara sauce
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
- 3 Tablespoons Parmesan, grated
- Pizza toppings of choice, see notes for suggestions
- Fresh parsley and red pepper flakes, to garnish
Instructions
Prepare Breading Stations and Preheat oven.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Combine ½ c. flour, 1.5 tsp. seasoned salt, and ¼ tsp. pepper for breading station 1.
- Combine 2 whisked eggs and 1 tsp. garlic powder for station 2.
- Combine 1 ¼ c. breadcrumbs and ¼ c. Parmesan cheese for station 3.
Bread the Chicken:
- Slice the chicken into 2-3 thinner slices. Pound with a meat tenderizer if needed, the chicken will plump up more when cooked. Aim for ½ inch thick slices. Pat completely dry.
- Dredge in the flour mixture and tap off excess. Briefly dip in egg mixture and allow excess to drip off the side of the bowl. Transfer to breading mixture and coat thoroughly.
Fry the Chicken:
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat until it reaches 350 degrees. Use enough oil to cover chicken by 1/3. A cast iron skillet is ideal.
- Fry 2 pieces of chicken at a time, leave room around the edges to ensure they get crisp.
- Fry for about 4 minutes per side, until golden brown. Use kitchen tongs to remove and transfer to a cooling rack. Repeat until all chicken is cooked.
Prepare Baking Dish
- Add 80% of the marinara sauce on the bottom of an oven-safe baking dish. Top with chicken and spoon remaining sauce over the chicken. Top with mozzarella, then with pizza toppings, then with Parmesan.
Bake
- Bake for about 13 minutes, check it after 10 minutes. Remove once cheese is melted and toppings are cooked.
- Garnish with fresh parsley and red pepper flakes if desired and serve!
Notes
- The oil temperature should be 350°.
- Ensure the oil has enough time to heat up before adding the chicken so ensure it doesn't sit in the oil and get soggy. This also ensures that the breading doesn't fall off.
- Adjust heat up or down slightly as needed during cooking.
- Don't overcrowd the pan, fry in batches and leave space around each piece of chicken.
- Cast Iron Skillets conduct heat really well for a crispy, golden finish.
- Shred/Grate cheese from a block for best flavor and melty texture.
- Low moisture/whole milk mozzarella is best for pizza. Dragone is my preferred brand.
- If adding vegetables or raw sausage/beef, make sure they’re fairly small in size so that they have a chance to cook through.
- Rao’s Marinara or Pizza sauce is great on these. You can also try my homemade marinara sauce.
- For a low carb or lower calorie variation you can skip the breading and season the chicken with 2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning along with salt/pepper prior to cooking. Use 3 Tbsp. olive oil and sear for 4-5 minutes on each side, until a golden crust has developed.
- Store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months. This does freeze well!
- Reheat in a covered & lightly greased casserole dish at 350° for 15-20 minutes if thawed, or 25-30 minutes if frozen. (You can also microwave leftovers.)
This was amazing! Thank you! My family loved it! So easy, used Rao’s Marinara from Costco. Served it over spaghetti. They couldn’t get enough!
I’m so happy the family loved it Kerri! Rao’s Marinara is the best!😋 Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review!
The family had a lot of fun with this one! My son even made a Hawaiian pizza with one of his chicken breasts. It was actually really good! I don’t have a cast iron skillet but it worked just fine without one.
I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed it Claire! I am dyiiinnngggg to try this with Hawaiian pizza toppings! Sounds like a great combo! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review! -Stephanie