Chicken Imperial Recipe

Top your salad or create a baked chicken main dish with this chicken imperial recipe. Using Parmesan cheese in a crumbly mixture with other dried pantry seasonings, you’ll have dinner on the table in no time!

If not making this your chicken main dish, I highly recommend adding it to a spinach salad with cranberries or a fresh salad with bacon.

This is one of those recipes I shared years ago with you but somehow got shoved back in my recipe binder. After reviving it, I soon wondered why I hadn’t made it more recently. With its crispy edges and moist chicken middle – this is one of those great go-to recipes to top salads, use as leftovers in chicken casseroles, or simply served up as the main dish.

How to Use This Recipe for Dinner

• Main Dish. This recipe stands on its own. It’s the perfect side to go along with maple glazed carrots or your favorite side dishes.
• On Salad. I love the flavors and the crispy baked chicken on top of my favorite salads.
• In casseroles. I take any leftovers and cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces to store in the freezer until making a casserole.

Key Ingredients

Incorporating Parmesan cheese in the crumb mixture makes Imperial Chicken feel decadent even though it’s baked instead of fried.

• Dried parsley and garlic powder. I tend to love using fresh parsley, but I don’t always purchase it at the grocery store. This recipe is made with a base of pantry ingredients that I always keep on hand. (Feel free to use fresh parsley if you have it!)
• Parmesan cheese. I keep my shredded Parmesan in my freezer to keep it fresh for months to easily pullout recipes like this.
• Boneless chicken breasts. The main star of the show! Whipping this recipe together when chicken is on sale and saving the leftovers for the future – makes me feel like super mom!

How to Make This Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 325˚ F. In a bowl, combine Italian bread crumbs, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and parsley flakes. Set aside.
2. Melt butter and soak chicken breasts in it for 3-5 minutes.
3. Roll each chicken breast into the bread crumb mixture. Press mixture on each side. Roll the chicken breast into itself and place into 13×9 baking dish. Repeat until all chicken breasts are placed into baking dish.
4. Pour remaining butter over the dish. Bake at 325˚ F for 45 minutes or until chicken reaches and internal temperature of 160˚ F.

This easy chicken recipe is a family favorite.  We pulled this chicken recipe out last weekend. I hadn’t made it for a while and had forgotten how good it was! My favorite thing about this recipe is that it’s made with items I usually have on hand. Enjoy!

Recipes Tips

Adaptations. In terms of ingredients, you can swap out fresh parsley for the dried parsley flakes. Also, you can cut this recipe in half if buying only one package of chicken. The only downside is no leftovers!

Make-Ahead. I do not recommend making this recipe ahead of time as the breading mixture gets a bit soggy.

Store Leftovers. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Freezer. Freezer after the chicken has fully cooled in an airtight container for up to 3 months.

More Baked Chicken Recipes

• Chicken Enchiladas with White Sauce
• Baked Maple Glazed Chicken
• 30 Minute Baked Chicken Parmesan

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This recipe was originally published in 2012. It has been updated with new pictures and tips but the recipe remains the same.