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Dinner

Baked chicken parm + pasta

Post-match Saturday, or the night before a big day. Feels like a treat, is mostly protein.

Servings
4
Total
30 min
Skill
Easy

What you need

Ingredients

Making for

4 servings

  • Chicken breast0.5 lb
  • Marinara sauce0.5 cup
  • Cheddar slices1 each
  • Whole-grain pasta4 oz

Quantities scale linearly with servings. Round to the nearest practical amount when shopping.

Steps

  1. 1

    Flatten the chicken to an even thickness

    1.5 lb chicken breast, halved horizontally into thinner cutlets, then pressed to an even half inch under a heavy pan. Even thickness is the whole trick: a breast that is an inch at one end and a quarter inch at the other is always both dry and underdone at once.

  2. 2

    Bake it naked first, sauce comes later

    Cutlets in a dish, salt, into a 425F oven for 12 minutes. Sauce from the start steams the chicken and it never browns. This is baked rather than breaded and fried, which is most of the fat gone and none of the appeal.

    12:00

  3. 3

    Sauce and cheese, then just long enough to melt

    Two cups of marinara spooned over, a slice of cheddar or mozzarella on each cutlet, back in for 6 to 8 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbling at the edges.

    7:00

  4. 4

    Pasta underneath, not alongside

    Serve on whole-grain pasta so the sauce has somewhere to go. A cutlet on a bare plate leaves half the sauce behind.

Coach's notes

  • About 45 g of protein a serving, which is a lot, and it is the meal most likely to get finished after a match.
  • Baked and not breaded. The crumb coating is what turns this into a fried dish, and skipping it costs almost nothing in how much he likes it.
  • 165F in the thickest part is done. A thin cutlet gets there fast, so check early rather than late.
  • Works with leftover roast chicken too: skip to the sauce and cheese step and just heat it through.