Chicken parmesan is fried, saucy and covered in melted cheese, so serve it with two things it lacks: a sharp, crisp salad to cut the richness, and a starch to catch the sauce. The classic American plate is chicken parm with spaghetti. Without pasta, crispy roast potatoes or garlic bread and a lemony salad make a complete dinner, and the order further down gets all of it out of one oven while the chicken is still crunchy.
Is chicken parmesan served with pasta?
In the United States, usually. Food historian Jan O'Connell told ABC News in 2019 that the dish started to appear in America in the 1940s and is "always served with spaghetti" there. Restaurants put it either on top of the pasta or next to it.
In Italy, there is no chicken parm to serve. "You won't find chicken parmigiana in any Italian cook book," O'Connell said in the same interview. Parmigiana in Italy is made with eggplant, and the chicken version is an Italian-American dish. An Italian meal would also keep the two apart. Pasta is a primo, a first course, and meat is a secondo that arrives after it with a vegetable side dish called a contorno, as Understanding Italy explains.
In Australia, where it is a pub staple usually called a parma or parmy, it comes with chips and salad. O'Connell calls that the classic Australian version, and the ABC article notes that pubs disagree on whether the chips go under the chicken or beside it.
So you can serve pasta with it, serve pasta before it as an Italian meal would, or leave pasta out and do what an Australian pub does.
What pasta goes with chicken parmesan?
Spaghetti in a plain tomato sauce is the restaurant default, and it is the gentlest choice: the chicken already carries cheese and sauce, so the pasta doesn't need much more.
A short tube shape holds a thicker sauce better. The chicken parm with spicy rigatoni on this site uses rigatoni in a tomato and cream sauce with red pepper flakes, oregano and Parmesan, and spoons a little of that same sauce over the chicken before the mozzarella goes on, so the pasta and the chicken taste like one dish. The recipe notes that penne or ziti catch the creamy sauce just as well.
One thing to decide before you plate: on top or beside. Pasta under the chicken looks generous, but the steam and sauce soften the breadcrumb crust. If the crunch matters to you, serve the chicken next to the pasta. The secret to crispy chicken parm explains why sauce and crust are kept apart until the last minute.
What to serve with chicken parmesan besides pasta
Swap the pasta for another starch and add something fresh.
Crispy roast potatoes
Roast potatoes are the closest thing to the Australian pub plate, and they suit the dish better than mash because they bring crunch rather than more softness. The crispy parmesan roasted potatoes are halved baby potatoes tossed in a garlic and herb butter, pressed cut side down into grated parmesan and roasted at 400°F until the cheese forms a crisp lid. That is more parmesan on a plate that already has some, so pair them with a sharp salad rather than another cheesy side.
Garlic bread or focaccia
Bread does the job pasta does: it mops up the sauce. Same-day focaccia is made from a wet dough with a few stretches and folds, rises in a well-oiled pan and bakes until the bottom is almost fried. The recipe's own garlic bread version is the obvious partner for chicken parm: brush the warm baked top with garlic-infused oil straight out of the oven.
Fries
Fries are the Australian pub pairing, and they work for the same reason the potatoes do: crunch next to a soft, saucy cutlet.
Rice
In Argentina and its neighbours, a similar breaded cutlet with tomato sauce, ham and cheese is called milanesa a la napolitana and often comes with rice or fries, according to Wikipedia's parmigiana entry. Plain rice is a neutral bed for the tomato sauce and needs no attention while you fry.
What vegetable goes with chicken parmesan?
Green ones, cooked simply. Understanding Italy lists the usual contorni as salad, grilled vegetables, roast potatoes, sautéed greens, beans and spinach: plain vegetables cooked well, there to support the meat rather than compete with it. For a lighter dinner, skip the pasta and serve one of these with a salad.
- Broccoli or broccolini, roasted until the edges brown or sautéed with garlic and a pinch of chilli. If the oven is already on for the potatoes, put them on a second tray.
- Green beans, blistered in a hot pan and finished with lemon.
- Spinach or chard, wilted in olive oil with garlic. It takes a few minutes and adds no extra richness.
- Roast zucchini or peppers, if you want something softer and sweeter.
Whatever you choose, finish it with lemon or a little vinegar. The chicken brings fat and salt, so a vegetable dressed only in more butter and cheese makes the whole plate heavier.
What salad goes with chicken parm?
A crisp one with an acidic dressing. On most chicken parm plates nothing else is sour, and that sourness is what cuts through fried breading, cheese and cream sauce. The chicken parm recipe itself suggests serving it with "a simple green salad and some garlic bread."
Caesar salad
Caesar is the American classic: romaine, lemon, garlic and croutons.
Fattoush
Fattoush does the same job with Levantine flavours. The fattoush salad on this site is romaine, cucumber, radish, tomato, red pepper, mint and parsley, with za'atar-crisped pita in place of croutons and a dressing of lemon juice, sumac, garlic and pomegranate molasses. It is sharper than a Caesar and has no dairy in it at all, which helps next to a cheese-topped main. The recipe calls it a make-and-eat salad, so chop the vegetables and mix the dressing ahead, then toss it with the pita just before serving.
Arugula with lemon
The fastest option is arugula tossed with lemon juice, olive oil and salt. The leaves are peppery enough that it needs nothing else, and it is better here without the usual shaved Parmesan.
A starter, if people are coming over
For a dinner with guests, a tomato starter fits the Italian-American theme without competing with the main. The boursin and bruschetta dip is Boursin garlic and herb cheese under a fresh tomato, garlic and basil bruschetta mix, with balsamic glaze, served with crackers or toasted baguette. It takes about 15 minutes. It is cheesy, so keep the portions small and let the salad come with the main.
What to serve with a chicken parm sandwich
A chicken parm sandwich already has its bread, so skip the pasta and serve fries or crisp potatoes with a sharp salad or something pickled. For the bread itself, the same-day focaccia is good split for sandwiches, as its recipe says, and its oiled, crisp base holds up under tomato sauce better than a soft roll.
How to cook it all in one oven
Chicken parm, crispy potatoes and focaccia all want the oven, and the cheese on the chicken needs the broiler at the end. This order keeps the chicken crisp and gets everything to the table hot:
- Bake the focaccia earlier in the day. The same-day recipe needs about three and a half hours of resting and rising before its 23-minute bake at 430°F, so it is not a weeknight-dinner job. Bake it in the morning or afternoon.
- Put the potatoes in first. They need 30 to 40 minutes at 400°F, which is long enough to make the sauce, boil the pasta, and bread and fry the chicken while they roast.
- Warm the focaccia with the potatoes. The recipe reheats it in a hot oven, around 200°C, for 5 to 8 minutes. That is roughly the potatoes' temperature, so slide it in for the last few minutes of their roast.
- Take the potatoes and bread out and switch to a low broil. Spoon a little sauce over the fried chicken, add the mozzarella and Parmesan, and broil only until the cheese melts and bubbles.
- Let the potatoes rest while the cheese melts. The potato recipe says to leave them on the tray for 3 to 5 minutes so the parmesan crust firms up and lifts off cleanly. The cheese needs two or three minutes under the broiler, so the timing lines up.
- Toss the salad last, so the pita or croutons are still crunchy when it reaches the table.
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