Known as Melt-in-Your-Mouth Chicken, Mayo Parmesan Chicken is oven-baked, skinless boneless chicken breasts coated with garlic, Parmesan, mayonnaise, and a sprinkle of Panko bread crumbs. A fast and easy-to-make recipe that's crunchy, moist, and tender baked mayo chicken breasts for a perfect weeknight dinner.
🐓Ingredients
Chicken breasts
Mayonnaise
Parmesan cheese
Italian Panko bread crumbs
Pantry ingredients—seasoning salt, garlic powder, black pepper
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Featured comment from Katherine:
"Five-stars. This recipe has been a go-to since you first posted it. Comes out melt-in-your-mouth perfect every time!"
You can never have too many great chicken recipes; this one has everything. It's extraordinarily moist, has a great taste of Parmesan, and a slight crunchiness. Plus, it has a skill level of 2/10. Anybody can handle this easy dinner recipe.
Sometimes called "melt-in-your-mouth" chicken, this baked garlic Parmesan chicken is perfect for a healthy low-calorie. And since it is a lightly breaded, it is also a great low-carb chicken recipe.
👨🍳How to Make Mayo Parmesan Chicken
Preheat the oven to 375° convection or 400° for a regular oven. Trim and pat dry skinless boneless chicken breasts. If thick, thin it to ¾ inch with a meat mallet.
Mix mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese (freshly shredded or grated preferred), seasoning salt, garlic powder, and black pepper.
Prepare a cooking sheet with aluminum foil (to help clean up) and a rack (not required).
Dry the chicken with paper towels. Dip the chicken in the mayonnaise Parmesan mixture.
Lightly sprinkle with some Italian bread crumbs on both sides.
Bake until an internal temp of 165°—about 40 minutes. At 20 minutes into baking, flip the breasts with a fork.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
Baked Chicken Recipes
Check out some of my favorite chicken breast recipes, like How to Bake Chicken Breasts in a Convection Oven, Baked Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breasts, and Pan Seared Oven Baked Chicken Breast.
🐓Ingredients options and variations
Chicken options
This recipe uses skinless boneless chicken breasts. You can use skinless chicken thighs, chicken cutlets, or tenders, but the cooking time varies.
TIPS: Try to use breasts of about the same size and thin if over ¾ inches thick. For other forms of chicken, cook to 180° for thighs for tenderness, but 165° for other chicken.
Mayonnaise options
Use good quality since cheaper versions may be more watery and not stick as well.
Other possible bases for the coating are Miracle Whip®️, Greek yogurt, sour cream, or even cream cheese. People worry about the mayonnaise taste, but even the "mayo haters" love it in this recipe—see the comments.
TIP: DO NOT apply the mayo layer too thick. It will lead to the coating not sticking well and "melting" off. A light coat only, please.
Cheese options
Parmesan cheese is the most commonly recommended cheese. Other cheeses like Ramono, cheddar, or Asiago may be used.
TIP: Grated cheese is usually used, but I prefer shredded cheese for added texture.
Bread crumb options
Panko-type bread crumbs will add some crunch. I prefer the Italian spiced bread crumbs, but use what you want.
TIP: Keep the bread crumbs light. You are not making "Panko chicken."
Seasoning options
Seasoning salt, garlic powder, and black pepper, but modify to your taste.
↕️How to make this a "for two" or "family size " recipe
The recipe is now set for two chicken breasts. But this is a very easy recipe to scale to any size. Make it for one, two, or a crowd.
- Use the recipe card and adjust the number of servings to the number of breasts you are cooking.
- Use the amount of ingredients in the ingredient list, not the instructions—those do not adjust.
- Cooking instructions remain the same.
🍴Serving
Serve with rice, potatoes, or noodles as a starch—hot vegetables like broccoli, brussels sprouts, or asparagus. A side salad and some crusty bread will round out a complete meal.
Check out these recipes for ideas: Roasted Asparagus with Parmesan, Oven Roasted Baby Potatoes, and Easy Dinner Rolls.
👨🍳How to get the coating to stick better
- Nothing sticks well to wet chicken, so dry the chicken before coating.
- The mayonnaise needs to be of good quality. Cheap mayo will have more liquid.
- The mayonnaise coating must be thin—too heavy of a coat will melt off the chicken.
- If the chicken is still partly frozen, it will release fluid, and the coat will fall off.
- Never pick up coated or breaded meat with tongs—it will rip off the coating.
❄️How to store leftovers
Store leftovers in an airtight container for 4 days refrigerated or 4 months frozen, but the crunchiness will suffer.
Reheat in a convection oven or an air fryer for best results.
❓FAQs and Tips
I'm adding a suggested flip of the chicken halfway through the cooking. Some (not me nor many others) have problems with a soggy bottom.
A couple of possibilities occur to me. First, previously frozen chicken or older chicken can release more fluid. Also, too much or thinner mayo could contribute. Or nothing they did.
Either way, the flip should help those cases and won't hurt. Use a fork for the flip. Tongs may remove some coating.
You can cook directly on PAM-covered foil, but it will have a soggy bottom. A rack will help prevent this.
I love cooking my chicken on a rack. You really need to get a rack. For a few dollars, you will become a much better cook. But get one that is "oven-safe." Some racks are cooling racks only and have a coating.
If your local store does not have them, Amazon will. I list a few in Cooking for Two Shop, but others will work.
If you have time, brining it will make the chicken more moist and tender.
The ratio for a brine is 2 cups of water and one tablespoon of table salt. Some people will add some brown sugar equal to the salt. Remember that all salt is not identical, and 1 teaspoon table salt = 1 ¼ teaspoon Morton kosher salt = 2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt.
As little as 15 minutes makes a big difference. But you can brine for up to 2 hours if you want. This is a "heavy brine" in the amount of salt and matches the Cooks Illustrated suggestions. You may see longer brine times suggested, but please limit it to 2 hours maximum.
If you brine, be sure to wash off the salt gently. Also, instead of seasoning salt, use paprika in the coating.
Food safety
Raw chicken and other poultry should be considered contaminated and handled with care. Wash your hands carefully before and after touching raw chicken.
We do NOT wash raw chicken routinely due to water splatter. See Chicken... To Rinse or Not To Rinse? for more information.
You must cook chicken to an internal temperature of 165° for safety—see the USDA for more information. You need to check this with an instant-read thermometer.
Most recipes (including this one) include estimated cooking times. These are provided for planning purposes. You can not cook safely by time—you must use a thermometer.
📖 Recipe
Mayo Parmesan Chicken
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Ingredients
- 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts trimmed
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese - grated - fresh preferred
- ¼ teaspoon seasoning salt - Lawry’s
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ cup Italian Panko bread crumbs - Very light coat
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375° convection or 400° for a regular oven. Trim and pat dry 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts. If thick, thin it to ¾ inch with a meat mallet.
- Mix ½ cup mayonnaise, ¼ cup Parmesan cheese (freshly shredded or grated preferred), ¼ teaspoon seasoning salt (I used Lawry's), ½ teaspoon garlic powder, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper.
- Prepare a cooking sheet with aluminum foil (to help clean up) and a rack. The rack will help crispness all around. You can do without the rack, but the bottom will not be crispy. Give the rack a good spray of PAM. If you don't have a rack, they can go directly on PAM sprayed foil.
- Dry the chicken with paper towels. Dip the chicken in the mayonnaise Parmesan mixture. Be sure to get all surfaces coated. Finger use is allowed, but wash well before and after. Note: keep the coating light.
- Lightly sprinkle with some Italian bread crumbs on both sides. You are not coating them but just adding some crispy flavor—about ¼ cup for two breasts.
- Bake until an internal temp of 165°. This will vary by oven but mainly by the size of the chicken. At 20 minutes into baking, flip the breasts with a fork. The total cooking time of about 40 minutes for medium to large. 45 minutes for huge. Let rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- Try to use chicken of about the same size. If over ¾ inch thick, flatten it out a bit with a meat mallet.
- Be sure to pat dry the chicken. Very dry. The coating will stick better.
- Keep the coating light and bread crumbs light. You may not need all the coating.
- I added a flip in the middle of the recipes. Some appear to need it. Use a fork, please. Not mandatory.
- Miracle Whip, Greek yogurt, sour cream, or even cream cheese may be used.
- Obviously, an easy recipe to adjust.
- Common problems: Not drying enough, too much coating, too many bread crumbs, cheap mayonnaise, previously frozen chicken will release more fluid.
- Be sure to cook to the final internal temperature of 165°. Or cook to 180° if using chicken thighs for tenderness.
- Storage for 4 days refrigerated or 4 months frozen, but the crunchiness will suffer.
- Reheat leftovers in a convection oven or air fryer.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
© 101 Cooking for Two, LLC. All content and photographs are copyright protected by us or our vendors. While we appreciate your sharing our recipes, please realize copying, pasting, or duplicating full recipes to any social media, website, or electronic/printed media is strictly prohibited and a violation of our copyrights.
The "inspired by" for today goes to Melt in Your Mouth Chicken Breast at Food.com.
Editor's Note: Originally published December 12, 2012, it has been buried on the blog for a while and needs to see the light of day. The pictures are re-edited. The text is rewritten and buffed up.
Brandi says
This is in the oven as we speak, what type of fish would this go on?
DrDan says
Assuming you mean wine and got done in by spell check. I like a nice Sauvignon blanc.
Linda L. says
This recipe was easy and delicious!! Mayo and chicken go really well together.
DrDan says
Hi Linda,
Thanks for the note. It is one of our favorites.
Dan
Justin says
Would suggest flipping chicken atleast once even with rack it did not crisp up on bottom it was very soggy
DrDan says
Hi Justin,
With the mayo, the coating doesn't stick the best so if you flip, use a fork and be careful.
Dan
David says
Funny I just saw the no mirical wip comment. I have made it 15 times now with it and love it.
DrDan says
Hi David,
Thanks for the note and test driving Miricle Whip for us.
Dan
Warrior_mouse says
I realized that I bought chicken breast strips. Didn't have seasoning salt so used some dried savory and basil as substitute. (We try to avoid too much salt) Baked on foil covered baking pan and flipped with tongs carefully about halfway through. Because the chicken pieces were smaller I baked them for less time. Ohhh sooooo goood and moist! Thanks for a delightful new way of cooking chicken breast meat. Mr Rat is kind of a picky eater but rates this at 5 stars :)
DrDan says
Hi Warrior_mouse, great handle.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Jx says
Just baked and cooked mine! I am now a believer and follower of this site! this is officially my new recipe...T
hat cooking rack 👍. Family loved it.
Daphne says
I agree that it is easy. However, I have made it twice and it is definitely something I will not make again.
Maybe I am not a chicken breast fan, but the chicken was NOT tender, either time I prepared it. There was not enough coating or wetness to make the chicken interesting. So it was just another big tough chicken breast. Perhaps it would have worked better if the instructions were to flatten the breast to about 3/8" or less, but they weren't, and I'm not going to try it again. See next point!
I set my oven to 400F as instructed and the smell and mess in my oven and kitchen were just horrible. Burnt oil smell lasting again the next day. I literally had to clean my oven because of baking this recipe. The smoke wasn't only near the end of the cooking process, it was from early on, so it wasn't as if I overcooked the mayonaise mixture.
Laura says
Some people just can't cook
Another Cooking Dad says
Hi, Daphne:
Chicken breasts can be tricky to not turn out dry (especially boneless skinless). Whenever I end up with tough and dry chicken breasts the culprit is always overcooking. The trick I've learned with any chicken dish is to not let the internal temperature of the meat exceed 170 degrees (F). 165 is the sweet spot. I purchased an inexpensive digital instant-read thermometer and it has made all the difference in my cooking skills.
3/8 inch-thick breasts will definitely require much less cooking time. I'd guess as little as 15 to 20 minutes. I'm also thinking you might want to check the temperature of your oven--it might be running too hot.
Also, the Mayo sauce shouldn't be placed on the chicken in a thick layer. A very thin layer will do. It sounds like there was so much sauce that it boiled off and spattered all over the inside of your oven.
Give it another try. With some changes in technique my bet is you will create a perfect dish.
Good luck!
Rodney Hobbs says
Excellent and extremely easy:)
Kristi Huckabee says
This recipe looked so good I had to try it right away. It is in the oven right now with 30 minutes to go. I can't wait to try it. Thank you for an idea of something a little different.
Brandon says
Thank you so much for this recipe! I followed it to a tee and it came out amazing. I made it for a second time last night and my wife and children can't get enough of it.
DrDan says
Hi Brandon,
I still do this recipe frequently.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Twila says
I replaced the Lawry's Seasoning Salt with Adobo (because we're a spanish household lol) and it was absolutely divine.
A good shake up from always making porkchops or ham or our usual chicken recipe.
Served with some Puerto Rican style rice and beans- my gradma's recipe- and pan fried yucca root with a little olive oil drizzled on top.
Got demands to make more!!
Suzanne says
I made this last night and it was so yummy! After I finished getting the chicken ready to go in the oven, I tossed about 3/4 cup of quartered baby bella mushrooms in a tablespoon of the mayo/parm mixture I set aside, then baked them in a little foil boat on the side of my baking rack. Good heavens, the whole thing was ridiculously good!
Larry says
Roger that,
Thanks DrDan !
Larry says
Will cooking the breasts at 400 for 40 mins be too long? I normally bake them at 400 for 22 mins.
DrDan says
Hi Larry,
Exact cooking time varies. The endpoint is a safe internal temperature of 165. If your chicken breast is smaller and thinner plus your oven runs a bit hot, then 22 minutes might be right for you but it seems very short. I have done this recipe with smaller (about 8 oz) breast and they still took a little over 30 minutes in my oven which is right on for temperature.
So to sum up, internal temperature not time is the important number.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Patty gustafson says
Love the recipe. But you didn't mentioned in the recipe, if you should turn the chicken over half way through cooking.
DrDan says
Hi Patty,
I don't flip but I suggested to De that it might crisp up the bottom some. I think I would lose coating and not affect it much. I use a very light coat of mayo and don't think it is much of an issue. Monica has a suggestion that sounds reasonable.
Dan
De says
Just made this and it was AWESOME! I used a rack but it didnt get crispy on the bottom but it didnt matter. I used a spatula to place the mayo mix on each side and then sprinkled the parmesan and bread crumbs. AWESOME! Thank you for sharing.
DrDan says
Hi De,
Thanks for the note. I don't think it is possible to get the bottom equal to the top. We could try flip halfway through but I think I would lose some coating.
I do love the flavor of this one and it is so easy.
Thanks for the note.
Dan