Last updated on May 9th, 2025
A tasty chicken recipe that is kid-friendly! What makes it kid-friendly? There are just a handful of ingredients, so it is super simple! And kids love simple food with no fancy ingredients, generally speaking right?! This dish made it to my collection of easy, family-friendly weeknight meal ideas for good reason!
I created this chicken recipe after a hiking trip. One of our hiking meals was a creamy parmesan chicken “dish” which is basically a freeze-dried meal that you re-constitute with hot water. My kids were eating 2-minute noodles for dinner that night and they caught a whiff of our meals and immediately dived in. Polished them off as one does. My husband and I were left with the remains of their noodles.
It got me thinking though! As soon as we returned home from our hike, I tried to re-create this Chicken Parmesan meal that they had wolfed down so ferociously!
It is essentially a mix of chicken strips, creamy chicken sauce, rice and parmesan cheese. There is a micro sprinkling of herbs and other flavours too, but I really tried to keep it simple so the little thugs would eat my version of the hiking meal…
So the end result was that they ate it (all of it), hooooray, but not with the same degree of fervour as on our hike, which I guess was because your’re always a little hungry on a hike and food is eaten with more intention and fervour and purpose.
Serve with a green salad for adults and for the thugs, serve chopped up cucumber, carrots or cabbage.
Grab the recipe below..
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Creamy Parmesan Chicken Bake
Prep Time: 10 mins- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 40 mins
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Pin RecipeDescription
A kid-friendly tasty chicken dish, mixed with a creamy sauce and rice. Delicious and kid-approved!
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups rice, uncooked
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 5 medium chicken breast fillets, cut into small strips
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tsp thyme, dried or fresh
- 1 tsp parsley, dried or fresh
- salt and black pepper
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ cup chicken stock
- 2 cups cream
- 1 cup parmesan
- fresh herbs / greens for garnish (such as Italian Parsley or baby spinach)
Instructions
- Cook the rice according to packet instructions and set aside.
- In a medium-sized pan, add the butter and olive oil. Once the butter has melted and the pan is hot, add the onions and cook for 3-4 minutes until soft.
- In the meantime, sprinkle the flour over the chicken breast fillets, making sure to coat both sides.
- Now add the chicken, garlic, herbs and a sprinkling of salt and pepper to the pan with the onions. Don’t overcook the chicken, 2-3 minutes a side should be perfect!
- Now add the lemon juice and cook for another minute.
- Stir in the chicken stock then add the cream. Allow to thicken a little and then add 3/4 of the parmesan cheese (leave the remaining 1/4 for the topping).
- Now once the parmesan cheese has melted, mix in the cooked rice little by little. You want to make sure that there is enough sauce for the rice ie. you don’t want the rice to be dry so you might leave a little out according to your preference.)
- Transfer mixture to a casserole dish, sprinkle with remaining Parmesan Cheese and pop under the grill for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese has browned slightly.
- Sprinkle with fresh herbs and enjoy!
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