Chicken Parmesan Casserole

Chicken Parmesan Casserole

Comfort food season is upon us, and in celebration I am offering up this cheesy, tomatoey*, garlicky Italian casserole that’s a perfect balance of gooey and saucy with a crunchy topping. You’d never know from tasting it that each serving is only around 300 calories and 8 Green, 6 Blue or 6 Purple Weight Watchers SmartPoints. To view your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here! Serve this as a main course with a side salad and some light Italian dressing and you have a family-pleasing, company-ready meal that comes together with only around 10 minutes of prep time. That’s it! Who doesn’t have ten minutes to put dinner in the oven?

Chicken Parmesan has always been a favorite of mine, and this is definitely my favorite new way to capture all the flavors with the least amount of effort. Now that is comforting.

*Merriam-Webster says it’s a word! Take that, spell-check.

Chicken Parmesan Casserole


Chicken Parmesan Casserole
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4.80 from 5 votes
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Chicken Parmesan Casserole

This Chicken Parmesan Casserole is perfect comfort food: saucy and cheesy with a crunchy topping!

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs raw boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or more to taste if you want it hot
  • ¼ cup fresh basil, finely chopped
  • 2 cups marinara/pasta sauce, I used Wegmans Tomato Basil
  • 1 ½ cups 2% reduced fat shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
  • 2 oz Parmesan cheese, freshly grated (I used the smallest holed side of my box grater), divided
  • 3.5 oz garlic croutons, roughly crushed, leaving some larger pieces (I used New York Texas Toast brand Garlic & Butter)

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly mist a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray.
  • Spread the cubed pieces of chicken across the bottom of the baking dish in a single layer. Sprinkle the minced garlic, red pepper flakes and basil evenly over the chicken. Spread the sauce evenly across the top. On top of the sauce layer, sprinkle ¾ cup of the Mozzarella and one ounce of the Parmesan evenly across the dish. Sprinkle the crushed croutons across the top and follow with the remaining cheese.
  • Bake for 40-45 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Notes

To view your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!
Nutrition Information:
303 calories, 15 g carbs, 4 g sugars, 11 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 37 g protein, 1 g fiber (from myfitnesspal.com)
MyWW SmartPoints per (1/8th of the recipe) serving: (SP calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)
Green: 8 SmartPoints/ Blue: 6 SmartPoints/ Purple: 6 SmartPoints
Weight Watchers Points Plus:
8 per serving (P+ calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)
adapted from Food.com