Not-Chicken Parmesan: Your Ultimate Comfort Food This Winter

This no-bake or fry crispy breaded Not-Chicken Parmesan cutlet is slathered is a homemade marinara sauce and covered in a golden brown crispy and gooey mozza, and all in a single pan in 25-35 minutes.

As the colder early evenings settle in during late fall, there’s something so comforting about this Not-Chicken Parmesan recipe that always reminds me of the holidays. Growing up, my family and visiting relatives would enjoy the occasional treat of dining out during these chilly months after exhausting days of shopping for presents or tackling other holiday errands. Usually, it meant Italian food.

Pasta As A Present – A Holiday Treat Growing Up

This dish brings back memories of rustic Italian restaurants or pasta houses, with their dim lighting, dark stained wood, and the ambient restaurant chatter mingling with the rich aroma of fresh Italian herbs.

With freezing hands and faces, we’d all squeeze into a large round booth with family and friends or relatives, heavy silverware in hand and white napkins on our laps, sharing laughter, stories, and each other’s warmth over a warm well-deserved meal. This dish is not just a recipe; it’s a celebration of those cozy moments that made the winter holidays special for me growing up.

Join me as we dive into this plant-based comfort food that’s a perfect addition to, or an escape from, the crazy holiday season!

Recipe Overview – Not-Chicken Parmesan

Short Recipe Video – Not-Chicken Parmesan

The Menu for Not-Chicken Parmesan

Directions at a Glance for Not-Chicken Parmesan

1. Grind all the dry ingredients separately for the cutlet, breading, and mozza.
2. In 3 separate bowls mix the dry with the wet for each of the cutlets, the mozza, and the marinara sauce ingredients.
3. Toast the dry breading ingredients in a seasoned pan to save time. Pour your cutlet mix on top half of the breading and cover the top with the other half of the breading mix.
4. portion your cutlets and start adding the wet mix to the breading and placing the cutlets on top so the breading sticks to them, do this for both sides.
5. Move the cutlets to one side and smear the marinara on the pan and slather your cutlets in the sauce, on one side only, then flip back over and pour on the mozza. Flip over again to melt the mozza directly on the pan. When it’s golden and melty remove from the pan and serve.

Why This Recipe for Not-Chicken Parmesan?

Not only did I want to recreate that feeling of visiting a rustic Italian pasta house of my youth, but chicken parmesan was always like the best two pasta house dishes combined: spaghetti and mozzarella sticks.

These two were my absolute favorites! (I usually ate everything but the actual chicken!) So recreating a healthy plant-based vegan version of this iconic dish was a must!

Low Cost

I also wanted it to be very affordable since chicken parm is usually so expensive, and vegan cheese and fake meat etc. are also super pricey. So I used the cheapest and healthiest items I could find: split-peas, oats, sunflower seeds, and some herbs and spices.

Breading Hack

Deep or shallow frying is messy, dangerous, and unhealthy, and baking in the oven is often just as messy—dry-hand-wet-hand battering is usually still the same—and it all just takes too long.

Much like the Mini Nuggets & Honey-less Mustard Salad I use the same trick to toast the breading before adding it to the veggie meat. This way you toast/bake the breading in half the time it takes to bake it, because it’s directly touching the cooking surface and exposing as much surface area to the heat at a single time.

After the breading is toasted we just have to “attach” it to the not-chicken. We do this by pouring the not-chicken cutlet batter directly onto the toasted breading and then covering the top. This will give us a nice light breading, but if we now get a cruispy breading for the cutlets we can get the breading to cluster and to stick to the cutlet by getting the breading or the cutlet wet giving us a crispier and crunchier thicker batter for our not-chicken parmesan, and in a fraction of the time and without the mess.

Have ideas for recipes or feedback? Let me know in the comments or connect with me on substack or Instagram!

If you’re looking for some festive holiday meals to pair with this meal then check out the Green Bean Casserole, Cranberry Dream Sandwich, Plant Based Pierogies, Simmer & Serve: Easy Chili, Creamy Broccoli Cheddar Soup, 3 WFPB Beverages, or checkout more of the Fall Recipes.

Blending Without a Spice/Coffee Grinder

The split peas are best either ground in a spice grinder or blended up with any blender or food processor, including an immersion/stick blender.

Without any equipment, you can just cook, mash, and reduce most of the liquid to get the same result, but I find this incredibly time-consuming.

(See the last protip for how to do this recipe without any equipment.)

To blend this with any blender or food processor simply add all the cutlet ingredients then blend all the ingredients with your blender or food processor until they are fairly smooth. The same goes for the mozza. For the breading blend the dry ingredients or see the stick blender hack video (below) if you want to try that. Otherwise, the directions remain the same.

Using canned or pre-cooked split peas will also work but you will need to blend or mash them well and remove most of the liquid.

⭐The Full Not-Chicken Parmesan Recipe⭐

Not-Chicken Parmesan

Chef Rob

Crispy WFPB breaded cutlets slathered in marinara and covered in melted mozza, from scratch.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Course Comfort Food, Dinner, Leftovers, Lunch, Main Course, Sauce, Side Dish

Cuisine American, Italian

Servings 3 people

Calories 162.7 kcal

Equipment

• 1 Spice / Coffee Grinder
• 1 Seasoned Steel or Cast Iron Pan (How-to Season Steel Cookware)

Ingredients

  

CUTLET

• ½ cup split peas
• ¼ cup oats
• ¹/16 tsp poultry seasoning
• ¼ tsp paprika
• ½ tsp onion powder
• ¹/16 tsp celery seeds
• ¹/16 tsp sage
• ½ tsp garlic granulated
• ½ cup water

BREADING

• 4 tbsp oats
• 8 tbsp flax seed milled
• ¼ tsp paprika
• ⅛ tsp oregano
• ⅛ tsp onion powder
• ½ tsp parsley
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 8 tbsp water

MARINARA

• 4 tbsp tomato paste
• ¼ tsp oregano
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp balsamic vinegar
• 4 tbsp water

SUNFLOWER OAT MOZZA

• 3 tbsp oats
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• ¹/16 tsp celery seed
• ¹/16 tsp mustard powder
• ⅛ tsp onion powder
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 2 tbsp water

Instructions

 

• Grind all the cutlet ingredients and mix the dry ingredients with the water and let sit while you make the other ingredients.
  
• Grind up the dry ingredients for the breading except for the parsley. Add the dry breading to a seasoned pan on medium heat and toast lightly.
  
• Grind or add the mozza dry ingredients and add them to a bowl with the liquids.
  
• Pour the cutlet batter over half of the breading. Now use a spoon to cover the top side of the cutlet with the breading. Cook for about 5 minutes until the top of the cutlet feels firm. Slice the cutlet into portions, I usually get 3-4 large cutlets.
  
• Now take the cutlets out of the pan, or move them to one side, and begin dropping a tablespoon of the wet breading mix onto the dry breading (or onto the cutlet if you're unable to react in time) then placing the cutlet on top of the breading and liquid. Do this to all cutlets, on both sides, until all the crumbs have stuck to the cutlets.

  (This steams the cutlet from the inside while also crisping up the batter and making it thicker and crunchier.)
  
• Mix your tomato sauce, add it to the pan then place the cutlets on top of the sauce and mix and coat them well (I only coat one side so the other side remains crispy).
  
• Flip over your cutlets so they are marinara side up and pour on your mozza. Flip the cutlets over and toast the mozza on the pan on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes or until the mozza is golden. Serve it over spaghetti or try it with the Lentil Bolognese
  

Video

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🧂If you absolutely must add salt then try to add them to taste, to the top of the food, so you use less, and add in small amounts and only after tasting before adding any more. The same goes for other “less healthy” additions, but the idea should be to try to limit and eventually remove adding them, over time, when you are ready.

After a few weeks of not eating a SAD diet your tastebuds reset and you’ll notice the natural sugars in foods, check out the great article, and subscribe to, Michael Corthell on Substack.

💡Protips💡

For Stretchy Mozza

• You can add 1 tablespoon of tapioca starch if you must (I can’t find studies saying anything about it, but it is processed and a high gi and lacks nutrition, fiber, etc.) cassava flour is tapioca that is less processed but you need to add more to get the stretchiness and too much will add a stale potato-like flavor.
• You can also try glutenous rice flour (it’s gluten-free, it’s just named poorly) also known as sweet rice or sticky rice. This is made of whole white rice and although it doesn’t stretch as well it is amazing in cheese sauces to make them super gloopy and cheesy. For the mozza it will make them more chewy and add a bit of stretch.

Flax seeds

• If you can’t get flax seeds then you can use all oat flour. Flax seeds really makes the batter perfect and crispy though.
• I use brown flax but golden flax should work too. I use raw untoasted flax since I can toast it myself and I won’t be doing it with industrial equipment at high temperatures for short times.
• The measurements are for pre-ground / milled flaxseeds.

Nutritional Yeast

The best for this recipe is non-fortified nutritional yeast as it gives it a more mild flavor that is more like mozzarella. It’s also better for the color as it doesn’t add as much yellow/orange.

Use Fresh If You Have It

• As usual, I’m using a lot of cheap and dried or canned ingredients so you can see how cheap and easy it can be. Feel free to add fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, oregano, basil, and even things like some diced pepper will elevate this dish and boost the vitamin C (uncooked is better for vitamin C). Spinach is also a great source of iron, and calcium, and adds another texture and layer to this dish.

Wet Spatula For Easy Flipping

• I’ve mentioned this before, but if your spatula is a bit damp when you go to lift your food from a pan then the heat creates a layer of steam that keeps the food from sticking to the spatula.

Blenders, Food Processors, and Immersion Blenders

If you don’t have a spice or coffee grinder then check out the alternative blending section for how to create this recipe with almost any blending device.

No Equipment At All

• I mentioned in the blending without a spice grinder section that you can also just cook the split peas, mash them well, and cook out most of the liquid. You can also use oat flour and pre-ground flaxseed, and use sunflower seed butter instead of using a grinder—like when camping or in your van or RV—this way you can make this recipe almost anywhere that you have heat, water, and a seasoned pan.

Nutrition Facts Table – Not-Chicken Parmesan

The Science – Sources

Please tell me how it turned out! Did you: try it, like it, hate it, change it, or do something else unexpected???

If I’ve made any mistakes, or something doesn’t make sense, or if you want more/less details, please let me know in the comments.

Stay healthy and nourished! Happy cooking!

Chef Robert Leigh.

Not-Chicken Parmesan: Your Ultimate Comfort Food This Winter