Best Chicken Parmesan Casserole

Ingredients

• chicken breasts (however many you want/need)
• olive oil (just one dollop)
• minced garlic (a smattering…a little more than a smattering if you really like garlic)
• red pepper flakes (leave these out if you don’t like any heat)
• marinara sauce (probably won’t need more than one jar unless you are a marinara fiend)
• Parmesan cheese
• mozzarella cheese (you will need twice as much mozzarella as Parmesan)
• croutons (we used Italian-seasoned)

STEPS

1. We made a few changes to the original recipe when we made it. First of all, the original calls for 6 chicken breasts. Yeah right. I mean, we can eat, but we’re not adolescent boys who can vacuum through an entire casserole individually in one sitting. So we cut it back to 2 chicken breasts. (Mainly because we knew we couldn’t eat more than that, but also because that’s all Caroline had in the fridge.)
2. We also cubed the chicken instead of leaving them whole.
3. Please ignore the quality of the photos. We had to go the iPhone route instead of an actual camera
4. Then into the bottom of a casserole dish goes some olive oil, some minced garlic, and some red pepper flakes. And yes, those are the technical measurements. Use exactly “some.” No more, no less.
5. Then you cover the chicken with as much marinara sauce as you deem necessary.
6. Then you cover the marinara sauce with a 2 to 1 mozzarella to Parmesan ratio. The original recipe called for grated Parmesan, but we opted for shredded (again…because we had it in the fridge), and it was still delicious. As long as you use Parmesan, it probably doesn’t matter what kind.
7. You also cover the layer of cheese with a layer of croutons. The original recipe called for garlic croutons and keeps them whole. We opted for Italian seasoned croutons (because they were already in Caroline’s cabinet) and crushed them up.Image
8. Then another layer of 2 to 1 mozzarella to Parmesan goes on top of that. (We love cheese. Therefore, we love this part of the recipe.)
9. Then you bake it for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees.
10. At this point. You might want to just stay out of the kitchen. Otherwise, you might end up pressing your noses to the windown in the oven like we did. This will make your house smell HEAVENLY
11. No seriously. It is good. Ridiculously good.
12. A little Romaine lettuce with egg and blue cheese vinaigrette as a side dish. But honestly, this dish doesn’t even really need a supporting actor.
13. This is what was left after we finished eating.

This article and recipe adapted from this site