Mrs. Parker's Chicken~ chicken breast recipe
Mrs. Parker’s Chicken
prep time: 10 mins
cook time: 20-25 mins
total time: 30-35 mins
When I was young, we had some friends named the Parkers, and their Mom made some bomb parmesan chicken! She made it one night and had my whole family over for dinner(quite a feat since we were a family of 9!)and made this dish, and we kids bugged my mom about it for the next week until she finally asked for the recipe. I’m not sure what the name for the original recipe was, where it came from, or if it was something she came up with, but long after they moved away, and we lost touch with them, “Mrs. Parker Chicken” has continued to be a staple in our home! I like to make this with rice or potatoes, as well as sautéed broccoli or green beans. Mac and Cheese is also a winning side dish for this chicken because who doesn’t love some cheese on cheese action? You can either use chicken tenders or cut up breasts for this recipe. I use the cut up breasts since we don’t offer tenders here at the farm, but if you want to save yourself a step, then by all means buy some tenders! You can also use this breading for whole breasts but you’d have to adjust this cook time a bit longer. This chicken goes excellent over pasta as well! Honestly, this chicken is great, and you should eat it with everything…seriously! Lets get cooking!
You’ll need:
4 chicken breasts
1/2 cup saltine cracker crumbs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 a stick of butter
Thats it. It's that simple. You can make this right now, and don’t lie to me and tell me you don’t have those ingredients in your fridge….everyone has those ingredients…always. If you live in NC and don’t have a constant supply of butter, saltine crackers, and chicken, then I’m pretty darn sure you aren’t originally from here!
First up, lets make the breading. I use about half a sleeve of saltine crackers to make about 1/2 a cup of coarse crumbs. The good thing about this recipe is you don’t really need to measure anything… it’s all equal parts of each other! I put them in a ziplock bag and use a rolling pin to make the crumbs. If you have kids that want to help make dinner, this is an excellent job for them! My three year old niece, River, approves! Mix in 1/2 a cup of parmesan cheese, and you’re done with the breading!
Melt your butter and mix in the soy sauce. Next, slice up your chicken breasts into tender sized pieces. 4 breasts worth is enough to fill a cookie sheet and feed 4-6 people. To assemble, dip the chicken into the butter mixture, and then coat it in the breading. Place on a greased cookie sheet.
You’ll need to bake these for about 20-25 minutes on 350 depending on the size of your chicken. Don’t let the chicken get crispy. It tends to take too long and dry the chicken out! Once your chicken is done serve immediately.
I’m not saying loaded mashed potatoes are the best thing in the world, but they are for sure in my top ten, and they are awesome with this chicken! To make them, just cook your chopped potatoes regularly(I use my Insta pot for this because I don’t have an hour to cook them on the stove top) and add heavy whipping cream(or plain milk if you want it to be less fattening), sour cream, butter, sharp cheddar cheese, garlic salt, and chopped crispy bacon. My GOODNESS I could eat the whole pot, probably wouldn’t be able to fit in my jeans afterwards, but holy cow it would be worth it!
One of the main things I hear from friends and family about cooking is that they don’t have the time, or they don’t know how to cook. While this might be the case for some people, cooking isn’t hard! Its so fun and doesn’t have to be a long drawn out process. Nothing compares to gathering around a table with your friends and family and sharing a meal that you made for them. It doesn’t have to be fancy, and it doesn’t need to take 27 steps to do… it just needs to be good! Those are the memories that last the longest.
