This Healthy Chicken Parmesan is a family favorite and one of the first freezer meal recipes I have ever put together. In this post, I’ll show you how to make this baked chicken ahead of time, and how to turn it into a freezer meal for an easy weeknight dinner or Sunday supper.
I recently made this baked chicken parmesan recipe and it was definitely a crowd-pleaser!
This is one of my favorite ‘lightened up’ Italian American recipes to make. In fact, I bet you can serve this at any dinner party and no one would ever guess it’s baked and not fried.
It has the perfect amount of seasoning, sauce, and cheese to make any die-hard chicken parm lover a believer. Trust me, I don’t mess around with Italian recipes.
My nonna would disown me!
I just want them tasty and satisfying, but that’s sometimes difficult when I’m on a time crunch.
Thank god for my freezer.
How To Turn Healthy Chicken Parmesan Into A Freezer Meal
Today, I want to show a couple of different ways to freeze this recipe for a future dinner. Because let’s be honest- As easy as this chicken parmesan is to make, I still don’t have the time, patience, or energy to cook up chicken during the week.
So, making this dish ahead of time to pop in the oven on a busy night is the perfect solution.
I’ll be showing you two different freezer meal methods.
However, they both start with baking the chicken breasts. So, the first thing you need to do is season, bread, and bake the chicken.
After that, you can either put everything together into a dinner freezer kit or assemble it to have a complete meal ready-to-go, and all you have to do is pop it into the oven.
Method #1: Dinner Freezer Kit
Let’s start with the dinner freezer kit!
With a freezer kit, all you need to do is place the cooked (and cooled) baked chicken breast into a gallon size freezer bag. Then, in the same bag, you will place a bag of marinara sauce (about 2 – 3 cups) and a bag of shredded mozzarella cheese (about 1-2 cups).
If you don’t want to add sauce to your kit, just make sure to have a jar of marinara sauce in your pantry. My favorite brand is Rao’s!
After you have everything put together, label the kit with what’s inside and the date it was assembled before putting it into the freezer.
How To Cook This Chicken Parmesan Freezer Kit
When you’re ready to cook the chicken parmesan, take it out of the freezer the night before and let it thaw in the refrigerator. If you can take this out 2 nights before, that will assure it’s completely thawed ahead of time.
If by some chance the chicken is not thawed completely, that’s fine. It can still be cooked frozen!
However, you’ll need to warm up the sauce so it can be spread over the chicken.
To cook this baked chicken recipe, assemble the healthy chicken parmesan in a casserole dish, cover with foil, and bake it for 30 – 40 minutes in a 375-degree oven.
Remove the foil after time is up and cook for another 5-7 minutes or until the cheese is completely melted and slightly brown and crispy.
The benefit of a chicken parmesan freezer kit is that you assure all the ingredients are available, but it doesn’t take up a lot of space in the freezer. So, you can easily make a few healthy chicken parmesan freezer kits, and have them have ready for dinners over the next couple of months.
Method #2: Assemble A Meal-Ready Casserole Tray
If you have the freezer space, my favorite way to assemble a healthy chicken parmesan freezer meal is to layer the ingredients into a casserole dish, cover it with foil, label, and then freeze. You can use a disposable pan or a glass casserole dish if you have one to spare.
With this freezer method, all you need to do is pop it into the oven and bake. If you cook it straight from the freezer, you’ll need to plan for 1 1/2 hours of cooking time. This isn’t ideal for a busy weeknight, but it could work just fine for a Sunday supper.
If you plan to make this during the week, then I strongly recommend taking it out of the freezer 2 days prior to cooking it and letting it thaw in the refrigerator. It still might need to cook for 45 – 60 minutes, but that’s much better than 90!
When I tested this recipe I cooked it straight from the freezer. After it baked in the oven for 90 minutes, I removed the foil and let it cook for another 10 -15 minutes until the cheese was melted and browned.
Cooking Tips For Casserole Freezer Method
This chicken parmesan came out perfect! The chicken was tender and delicious.
A couple of things to keep in mind when using this casserole freezer method:
- If you’re freezing in glass containers, don’t cook it straight from the freezer because the shock of the heat can cause the glass to shatter.
- You can use any size casserole dish when freezing chicken parmesan. If you want to make a smaller amount, using an 8-inch pan can work in your favor.
- You will need to adjust the cooking time if you use a smaller dish! If you are cooking it while it’s still frozen, leave it in for 20 – 30 minutes.
What To Serve With This Healthy Chicken Parmesan
Chicken parmesan freezer meals are great to have on hand for a busy week!
However, this baked casserole along with other freezer meals are also nice to give to new moms, elderly neighbors, or someone who just had surgery. Basically, it’s perfect for anyone who can appreciate the convenience of a ready-to-bake, home-cooked, healthy chicken parmesan dinner.
Here’s a list of sides I like to serve with chicken parmesan:
- Whole grain or gluten-free spaghetti
- Zoodles
- Roasted broccoli
- Caesar salad
Next time you decide to meal prep some freezer meals, make a couple of portions of this Healthy Chicken Parmesan. That way you have an easy and delicious meal ready to cook. Share a picture and tag me on Instagram or Facebook if you decide to make it!
This sounds great! About the crushed tomatoes – they’re not listed in the ingredient list. Would that be a 28 oz can? Thanks.
Sorry I just added them. Yes it is a 28 ounce can.
Is there actually Parmesan cheese in the recipe? Would it go with the whole grain bread crumbs or just sprinkled on top?
Thanks for the recipe! I will definately try this. I love that you gave very clear directions for the freezing that included cooking it from the frozen or thawed state.
I think it’s funny that your husband was so proud of himself for heating this up for dinner. Aren’t husbands funny? 🙂
This sounds wonderful. I will try it next week. 9 points….good number for dinner. About your pan, it looks loved! It it works, don’t replace it…..there is too much family history in that pan to toss it aside. Have a great week and thanks for all you do…. Oh, my husband said to tell you that he loves the freezer breakfast egg muffins….He’s like Mikey….he doesn’t like anything. 🙂
Thanks for the recipe. I assembled it in mini loaf pans to send back to college with my boys after they return for a weekend. It made perfect single servings. Also great to pull out a single serving from the freezer on those rushed nights
That is a fantastic idea!! They will love it!!
In preparation for going back to work/school, I finally got a chance to make this recipe. I was able to freeze two dishes and cook one. The whole family loved the meal and my 6 year old was even more excited when I told her we’d be able to have it two more times (freezer meals). Thanks for such a great recipe and easy to follow freezer directions.
You are welcome! I have a bunch of extra chicken and sauce so I think I will put together a couple tonight. Good luck with back to school 🙂
Ok, I’m officially addicted to your site! I love how specific you are regarding freezing, thawing, and cooking times. I’m going to plan my whole weekly menu from your site alone! Thanks so much!
This was awesome! Thank you so much. My husband and I have a busy semester ahead of us, so I’m going to make a whole bunch of meals in advance and this one actually looks good!
you cover the dish with foil when you bake it?
Yes I do.
Question…would you recommend using the sauce recipe as a spaghetti sauce recipe as well? I’m doing some freezer cooking in a large batch and am thinking it would save major time if I could just double up on this sauce recipe and use it in multiple dishes. Can’t wait to try this! Sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing.
Yes you can. I have used this sauce on everything.
Hi, thank you for the recipe. I made this tonight and cooked two breasts for tonight and froze the other two. It was very easy and tasted like restaurant quality. My daughter and I liked it but my husband gets heartburn from sauce so he wasn’t a big fan but that won’t stop me from making it again 🙂
Sounds good, but did anyone else notice….. Its Chicken Parmesan with no parmesan cheese listed in the ingredients? Usually its added into the breading is it not?
I thought the same thing. Kept looking for Parmesan in the ingredients. ???
Could I assemble in disposable pan, without the plastic wrap and bake from there?
Is this meal a low cal meal? What are the nutritional value ? Thanks
Please provide nutritional value
Has anyone ever tried to reheat this in the slow cooker?
i have already made them but i was just wondering how long should it take to reheat them. (i froze them)
Awesome read! I’m bookmarking this and totally going to try it! Thank you. I was looking to see if marinated with bread crumbs can be frozen and came across your page. ❤️ love it. In your write up, you write that this can be done (freeze) with any Parmesean chicken recipe, does that include one’s with breadcrumbs?
Also, what’s the reason behind cooking it first? Solely for ease for later?
Like, for me, I buy raw chicken, I marinade it and then I freeze it. When I’m ready to use it, I bake it from frozen (or thawed). But, I don’t cook it first. Doesn’t that overcook it? And isn’t that a duplicate step? I’m sleepy, maybe that’s why I don’t understand it..
Thank you in advance 🙂
I do it to make life easier but you can certainly do it your way too.
For those Commenters wondering about the where the parmesan goes, it’s typically sprinkled on top of the grated mozzarella. Use fresh grated parmesan. My recipe for this dish includes a lot of veg in the sauce to increase the dish’s nutritional content. So I add green peppers, zucchini, mushroom, sliced carrots, and sliced celery to the onions and garlic in the sauce. These are all sauteed first before adding to the sauce. My recipe also has the chicken dipped in flour, egg and bread crumbs and then sauteed in 1/2 inch of oil This could be done a day in advance. Just let the chicken cool down before storing in the fridge. Similarly, I frequently make the sauce on a separate day and then combine them and layer just prior to baking, in order to retain the integrity of the chicken crust, so that it doesn’t get soggy sitting in the sauce overnight in the fridge.