Choosing the Right Substitute

• Most chicken parmigiana, or chicken Parmesan, recipes typically call for fresh or store-bought breadcrumbs. Traditionally, the chicken cutlets are breaded and pan-fried until crispy and golden, topped with marinara sauce and cheese, then baked. When looking for a breadcrumb substitute, keep in mind that its purpose is to give the chicken a crispy texture that can stand up to a hot bath in marinara sauce -- and therein lies the real challenge in finding a breadcrumb substitute. For this reason, avoid oats or other soft ingredients, and lean towards the dry, crispy alternatives for coating your chicken.

Gluten-Free Options

• If your challenge is to find a gluten-free replacement for the breadcrumbs, it may be as easy as picking up a package of store-bought gluten-free breadcrumbs. You can even find gluten-free panko breadcrumbs. Alternatively, you can make homemade gluten-free breadcrumbs by tearing up three slices of gluten-free bread and grinding them down in your food processor to make 1 cup of breadcrumbs. To keep these breadcrumbs from turning mushy when you bread the chicken, spread them in a thin layer on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until dry and crispy. Since flour contains gluten, and most recipes call for dredging the chicken in flour before breading, be sure to use an appropriate substitute there as well -- rice flour mixed with a little corn starch is a good option that lends extra crispiness.

Other Breading Substitutes

• There are a multitude of other breading options available if going gluten-free is not your goal; you may wish to try a few before you find the one that suits your tastes. Panko bread crumbs work particularly well and can be found in most supermarkets. You can even simply dredge the chicken in flour and pan-fry, skipping the breadcrumbs altogether, which gives you a crispy but thinner crust. For a little more flavor, season the flour with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning before coating the chicken. You can do the same with baking mix instead of flour. Unsweetened cereal flakes or crackers, crushed finely, make great, crunchy substitutes for breadcrumbs as well.

The No-Breading Option

• Since frying anything, whether floured, breaded or otherwise, adds a certain amount of fat and calories to a dish, you may want to skip that step altogether. In doing so, you will sacrifice the classic texture of chicken Parmesan, which makes good marinara sauce and great cheese all the more important. In this case, skip the breading and frying step and simply pour the marinara sauce into a baking dish and add the chicken cutlets, flipping to coat, then bake until cooked through. Top with the cheese during the last few minutes of baking.