Besides spaghetti and meatballs, no other dish is as wildly popular as Chicken Parmigiana, or chicken parm. This comforting meal can be found in every pizzeria and red sauce joint in the New York metro area but is also available across the country at various chain restaurants. Chicken parm is so synonymous with Italian-American food that many may find it hard to believe it is almost impossible to find anywhere in Italy. So where exactly does chicken parm come from?

If you prefer video, watch the full episode 17 YouTube video version.

Chicken parmigiana, also known as chicken parmesan or just chicken parm combines thinly sliced breaded and fried chicken cutlets with tomato sauce that's topped with mozzarella cheese and baked until the cheese is melted, bubbly, and lightly golden.

It's loved by all...well, at least by those here in the US.

Chicken parm, while synonymous with Italian-American food, does not originate in Italy and the Italians who are aware prefer to deny its existence and may even find it offensive.

In this episode, we explore the origins of chicken parm, how it stems from melanzane alla parmigiana, also known as eggplant parm, and its importance to the Italian-Americans who proliferated its popularity.

We discuss its ingredients, how it's made, and variations such as our layered eggplant and chicken parm.

Most importantly, we pay respect to a dish that's often looked down upon for seemingly no good reason. We're not ashamed to say we love chicken parmigiana!

Resources

Sip and Feast Chicken Parm Recipe

How to Make Chicken Milanese

How to Make Pasta Bolognese

The Story Behind Chicken Parmigiana

The Origins of Chicken Parm Have Nothing to Do With Chicken

Legacy of Chicken Parmigiana

The Untold Trust of Chicken Parmesan

Chicken Parm and spaghetti and Meatballs are not Real Italian Food

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Transcript

Intro

James (00:00):Welcome back to the Sip and Feast podcast. Today we're going to talk about chicken parmesan or chicken parm. This is everybody's favorite, I would think, especially if you're listening to this content. Before we get into that, I just want to let you know that we're going to be uploading the podcast either on Monday or Tuesday. Now, we're going to leave it to you to tell us which would be your preferred day. Those are the only two choices you have. That's it, but it could be morning or at night. Also, for all your questions, email us at podcast@sipandfeast.com.

Why should you like it?

(00:32):So before we get into it, I just want to sell you on why you should like chicken parm, why you should be thinking about chicken parm the way we think about chicken parm. Chicken parm really simply is a breaded cutlet that is fried, never baked. It has a delicious sauce. Often it's a fresh sauce, mozzarella cheese melted on top of it. It is comfort food. It is Italian American comfort food. It is uniquely Italian American. It is not an Italian thing, and it is a great thing. It's an amazing thing, and I would go out on a limb and say Italians, people in Italy, wish they could take ownership of it, but they can't. They just can't. So what they do then is-

Tara (01:17):They don't want to take ownership of it.

James (01:19):What they do then is bash it.

Tara (01:21):I actually just read an article, and I was going to save this to talk about later, but this is a good time for me to interject. I read an article saying that Italians try desperately to forget that chicken parm exists in the w...