It’s been a couple of years since I’ve revisited this, about one of the most popular restaurant dishes actually not just at Italian-themed establishments – where a nephew seems to order it every time and Ken Hoffman wanted my thoughts on the best local versions – but also at any type of restaurant. Chicken Parmesan is the most popular of any restaurant chicken dish, at least according to a recent poll.
The previous update was sparked by reading a piece about Ken Auletta, who had just written a biography of the horrible Harvey Weinstein (one of whose lawyers I very oddly happen to know). It seems that the longtime New Yorker writer has had an obsession in finding excellent Chicken Parmesan preparations, and part of a group of guys who have been foraging the Italian-American eateries of the New York area for years for it.
For Auletta, a “test of a good Southern Italian restaurant is whether their chicken or veal parmigiana had a good sauce, the breading is crisp and has not been drowned in sauce, and the chicken or veal is not so thin it tastes like cardboard.”
Chicken Parmesan is an American creation that grew from the eggplant parmigiana preparation from southern Italy and Sicily, with the meatier chicken substituting for the less caloric eggplant at its core. Veal Parmesan came first, at least by the 1930s while Chicken Parmesan debuted on restaurant menus at least a couple of decades later. Veal Parmesan is certainly a much better dish, and my favorite dish as a kid, but Chicken Parmesan is ubiquitous throughout the country, the veal version much less so.
Industrially produced, widely distributed, easily affordable, and easy to cook with, abnormally large, if typically fairly tasteless, chicken breasts provide the key reason for the popularity of Chicken Parmesan. The dish at restaurant is a chicken breast or two – rarely pounded very thin – breaded and pan-fried, sometimes baked, and topped with mozzarella and maybe some other Italian-inspired cheeses and melted in an oven, and served in a tomato sauce usually with a side of pasta, likely spaghetti, also in that tomato sauce. You know what it is. And even longtime New Yorkers and Italian-Americans like Ken Auletta might really like it if done well.
People like Italian-American food, in even the most minor key. And here is what Chicken Parmesan will currently cost at the bakers dozen of the biggest Italian-American restaurant chains:
The average price is just about $20 now, up 7% from when I did this in 2022. It’s up over 40% since 2010.
Chicken Parmesan is also a common menu item on local Italian-American menu. It will average about $4 more than the national chains, but will hopefully be tastier. Certainly at some of these:
A version at Maggiano's
The previous update was sparked by reading a piece about Ken Auletta, who had just written a biography of the horrible Harvey Weinstein (one of whose lawyers I very oddly happen to know). It seems that the longtime New Yorker writer has had an obsession in finding excellent Chicken Parmesan preparations, and part of a group of guys who have been foraging the Italian-American eateries of the New York area for years for it.
For Auletta, a “test of a good Southern Italian restaurant is whether their chicken or veal parmigiana had a good sauce, the breading is crisp and has not been drowned in sauce, and the chicken or veal is not so thin it tastes like cardboard.”
Chicken Parmesan is an American creation that grew from the eggplant parmigiana preparation from southern Italy and Sicily, with the meatier chicken substituting for the less caloric eggplant at its core. Veal Parmesan came first, at least by the 1930s while Chicken Parmesan debuted on restaurant menus at least a couple of decades later. Veal Parmesan is certainly a much better dish, and my favorite dish as a kid, but Chicken Parmesan is ubiquitous throughout the country, the veal version much less so.
Industrially produced, widely distributed, easily affordable, and easy to cook with, abnormally large, if typically fairly tasteless, chicken breasts provide the key reason for the popularity of Chicken Parmesan. The dish at restaurant is a chicken breast or two – rarely pounded very thin – breaded and pan-fried, sometimes baked, and topped with mozzarella and maybe some other Italian-inspired cheeses and melted in an oven, and served in a tomato sauce usually with a side of pasta, likely spaghetti, also in that tomato sauce. You know what it is. And even longtime New Yorkers and Italian-Americans like Ken Auletta might really like it if done well.
People like Italian-American food, in even the most minor key. And here is what Chicken Parmesan will currently cost at the bakers dozen of the biggest Italian-American restaurant chains:
- Bertucci’s– $23.99, served with spaghetti in tomato sauce – 23 locations
- Biaggi’s– $19.25, served with something called “Three-Cheese Alfredo Rigatini” – 16 locations
- Bravo! Italian Kitchen– $23.99, served with herbed linguini; – 26 locations
- Brio Italian Grille– $25.99, it is called the fancier, slightly Frenchified Chicken Milanaise, but it is Chicken Parmesan, served with herbed pasta – 31 locations
- Bucca di Beppo– $32.00 for a portion that feeds three, $10.67 per person – 69 locations
- Johnny Carino’s – $20.99, served with spaghetti with tomato sauce – 31 locations
- Carrabba’s (chain) – $22.49, Served with your choice of side – 219 locations
- Fazoli’s – $9.79, served with spaghetti with marinara sauce and two breadsticks – 208 locations
- Maggiano’s Little Italy – $22.50, served with spaghetti and marinara sauce – 52 locations
- Old Spaghetti Factory– $20.75, served with a side of spaghetti with tomato sauce – 42 locations
- Olive Garden– $19.49, served with a side of spaghetti – 918 locations
- Romano’s Macaroni Grill – $20, served with spaghetti and tomato sauce – 32 locations
- Spaghetti Warehouse – $18, served with spaghetti with tomato sauce, bread and salad or soup – 6 locations
The average price is just about $20 now, up 7% from when I did this in 2022. It’s up over 40% since 2010.
Chicken Parmesan is also a common menu item on local Italian-American menu. It will average about $4 more than the national chains, but will hopefully be tastier. Certainly at some of these:
- B.B. Italia – $26
- Carrabba’s, Original – $27.39, served with a side of fettuccine Alfredo
- Cavatore – $24, served with a side of penne with tomato sauce
- Coppa – $28, served with a side of fettuccine with a cheese sauce
- Damian’s – $27, served with a side of fettuccine with tomato sauce
- D’Amico’s – $23.99, served with a side of fettucine Alfredo or spaghetti with tomato sauce
- Fratelli’s – $16 (only on the lunch menu), served with a side of pasta with tomato sauce
- Marmo – $28
- Passarella – $17.95, served with a side of spaghetti with tomato sauce
- Piatto – $23.95, served with a side of fettuccine Alfredo
- Rocco’s – $16.50, served with a side of fettucine Alfredo
- Trattoria Sofia – $27
- Triola’s – $28, served with a side of rigatoni with tomato sauce
A version at Maggiano's
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