Here’s your quick and easy chicken dinner win! Make breaded, crispy gluten-free chicken cutlets in only 20 minutes using almond flour, parmesan, and simple pantry spices. Without bread crumbs you can turn breaded chicken into gloriously golden and tender, all hands off in your oven or air fryer.
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Easy Baked Gluten-Free Chicken with Almond Flour Breading
Hands down, this is one the most versatile gluten-free chicken recipe ideas I turn to again and again. When I need dinner on the table fast, and don’t want to mess around with frying or a fussy breading process (just dip and bake), this is what I turn to.
The coating uses no bread crumbs, just almond flour, which I always have on hand because I love baking gluten-free recipes with almond flour, and grated parmesan cheese, which bakes up crispy in the oven. Instead dipping the chicken cutlets in egg, it’s tossed in a simple olive oil coating, dipped in the breading, and then baked or popped in an air fryer.
We serve GF baked chicken with either a simple squeeze of lemon, alongside an equally quick 10 minute gluten-free Alfredo sauce, on top of greens for a filling dinner salad, or with mashed potatoes and buttery steamed veggies.
If you aren’t feeling cutlets, you can use the grain-free breading for chicken nuggets, tenderloins, or chicken breasts with a slightly longer baking time. With only a few ingredients needed, 5 minutes prep, and 15 minutes oven time – this is great gluten-free dinner option when you want to make something delicious, but don’t want to have to spend hours in the kitchen.
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(Below shows step-by-step photos and modified instructions. For the complete recipe, along with ingredient amounts, scroll down to the recipe card.)
Prep your chicken cutlets
To get dinner on the table fast, I like to use chicken cutlets because they bake, or air fry, super quick. If you have breasts, make a deep slit in the middle, lengthwise, and cut in half so you have two thinner pieces. Another option is to take a meat mallet and flatten the breasts thin and even.
Easy peasy breading technique (no egg!)
Place the chicken on a plate, drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat all the sides. Then season both sides with salt and pepper.
In a separate bowl combine the almond flour, parmesan breading with seasonings. Place the chicken in the dry mixture, flip over, and transfer to a olive oil greased baking sheet.
Bake in a 425ºF oven for 10 minutes, flip, and bake about 5 minutes longer. If you’d like to air fry the cutlets, I love how it makes the breading even crispier. I include those directions in the recipe below.
Can I Use Something Instead of Almond Flour?
Yep, if you’d rather bread the cutlets with something besides almond flour, you have some options that are still gluten-free and readily available.
- Bread crumbs (Panko, Italian or plain to name a few. If you want to make your own homemade gluten-free bread crumbs, this is the technique I use.)
- Almond meal or finely ground nuts
- Crushed potato chips
- Crushed cereal, like corn or rice Chex or Cornflakes (Please note, most cornflake brands are not gluten free, so read label carefully.)
- Gluten-free pretzels (Instead of crushing, process them in a food processor until they are a fine consistency.)
- Crushed gluten-free crackers
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Did you make this recipe? I love hearing from you! Leave a star rating and comment below the recipe card. It helps others when searching for recipes and I appreciate feedback from our community. You will always hear back from me! -Melissa
Quick, Crispy Gluten-Free Chicken Cutlets (Baked)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- ½ cup almond flour
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
- ¾ teaspoon dried tarragon
- ¾ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¾ teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ¾ teaspoon paprika
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- pinch pepper
- 1 ½ pounds chicken breast cutlets, about 5
- optional lemon wedges, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. (See recipe notes for air fry directions.) On a baking sheet spread ½ tablespoon olive oil to grease pan. Set aside.½ tablespoons olive oil
- In a medium bowl mix together, almond flour, grated parmesan, tarragon, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, paprika, salt, and pepper. Mix together breading with a fork.½ cup almond flour, ½ cup grated parmesan cheese, ¾ teaspoon dried tarragon, ¾ teaspoon garlic powder, ¾ teaspoon Italian seasoning, ¾ teaspoon paprika, ¼ teaspoon salt, pinch pepper
- Drizzle remaining 1 ½ tablespoons olive over the cutlets and toss to evenly coat chicken with oil. Season both sides with additional salt and pepper. Place cutlet, one at a time, in the breading mixture. Press down slightly and flip over to coat other side. Transfer breaded chicken to greased baking sheet and repeat with remaining chicken. If there is leftover breading, sprinkle that on top of the chicken.1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
- Spray the tops with an olive oil mister or nonstick cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes, flip chicken, and then continue cooking for 5-10 minutes more, or until internal temperature reaches 165°F. Serve immediately with lemon wedges.
Notes
Air Fryer Directions
- Preheat air fryer to 390ºF. Spray the air fryer basket with cooking spray. To avoid overcrowding the chicken and keeping the breading crispy, you may have to work in batches.
- Place breaded chicken in prepared basket and spray the tops with cooking spray. Air fry for 5 minutes. Flip chicken over and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the chicken.
- Remove and keep warm while the remaining chicken is cooked.
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I have been trying to get almond flour chicken right for so long. Unfortunately when I have tried frying it the almond flour burns so fast, the inside isn’t cooked, and the coating falls off 🙁
I made this in my air fryer and it came out so good! Flavourful and moist. Thank you! It didn’t come out crispy but I think that’s just the nature of almond flour maybe.. it’s hard for it to crisp up. But amazing and easy Low carb alternative. Thank you!
Thank you, Nadia! I love the air fryer tip! Thanks for taking the time to share!
Best,
Melissa
Hi! Thank you for the information! My store did not have cup 4 cup, so I used Pillsbury Best gluten free all purpose flour blend. It worked out great and it tasted delicious! Next time I think I will try your gluten free breadcrumb idea just to compare! The chicken was delicious! Laurie
You’re welcome! Glad you enjoyed it, Laurie!
Best,
Melissa
Hi! Thank you for your response!
My question was specifically for which flour to use instead of the almond flour, where my son is allergic to nuts.
Thank you!
Laurie
Hi Laurie,
I use Cup4Cup, which doesn’t have nuts. You can take a look at my gluten-free flour guide, which has the ingredients and allergens listed for the top 4 flours.
Best,
Melissa
Hi! I want to make this for my son who needs to try a gluten free diet for stomach reasons – it sounds delicious. He is allergic to nuts, so can I use regular gluten free flour instead of the almond flour? Thank you! Laurie
Hi Laurie,
I’d be happy to help! I would follow the breading and cooking instructions on this gluten-free chicken parmesan recipe. You don’t have to add the extra seasonings to the breading, if you are looking for more lightly seasoned chicken. Hope this helps!
Best,
Melissa
Good but not crispy
Some of the recipes have cornstarch as an ingredient. Since we are allergic to this product, what can we substitute, or should we just omit cornstarch?
Hi Sheila,
The little bit of cornstarch acts as a binding agent for the breading. If you can’t have it, I would just eliminate it from the recipe as it won’t affect the taste at all.
Best,
Melissa
Great recipe! Easy, my husband and I loved it, will make again!
So happy to hear!
Best,
Melissa
This recipe is probably the most tasty oven fried chicken that I’ve ever made and I love that it’s gluten free! I followed the recipe almost exactly. The only things that I changed were: I used Nutritional Yeast instead of Parmesan Cheese making this dairy free. I also used boneless skinless chicken thighs instead of chicken breast only because I prefer dark meat. Just those 2 personal preferences that I changed, but otherwise this recipe is perfect as is! Moist, healthy, crispy chicken… What more could you ask for!?!? I’ll definitely make this recipe again 🙂
This makes me so happy! Thank you, Jennifer! I love that you shared your adaptations. Sounds wonderful!
Best,
Melissa
your recipe sounds neat, but I can’t read it for the pop ups and the distracting f p yum envelope scrolling along as I page down making it very hard for me to concentrate. I usually exit sites like these soon as possible. If you want more people to hang around, delete the pops and the ad and the facebook crap.
Hi Mary,
Thanks for writing. I know these things can be distracting, but I do want to give you a little background for why they are there. Running this website is my full-time job. I put about 30 hours into each recipe, from researching, recipe development, testing, shooting images, content creation, and promotion. While the recipe is free for you, I get compensated through ads and enticing people to become regular visitors. If you find these things annoying (and totally get it), that’s where bookstore cookbooks come in. I think you be hard-pressed to find any “free” resource on the internet that doesn’t have these distractions, though. I’d be happy to send you a print version of the recipe or you can hit the “jump to recipe” at the very top, click print, and have a print copy with no pop-ups!
Best,
Melissa
This was delicious! Seriously, pleasantly surprised. I’ve tried other baked chicken recipes breaded and fried in a skillet, and while mine didn’t crisp up nicely like your pictures, the chicken was moist, tender and juicy and not dry! I also loved the almond flour as an alternative GF breading. I’ve never tried it before and now I’m in love with it. Super easy recipe too! I didn’t have tarragon, so that was the only thing I left out but it was still delicious. Thank you for this recipe idea!
Hi Whitney,
This seriously makes me so happy! I’m so glad you found this recipe such as success. We make it all the time, adapting it with different toppings and spices, so it’s definitely fine to leave out the tarragon and play with the seasonings. Thank you so much for taking the time to write!
Best,
Melissa
Instacart brought me 4lbs of chicken because the store was out of 1lb. So this post came at just the right time, I needed to start making lots of chicken. The chicken is delicious and can be added to salads and is a great meal on its own. Thanks for posting!!
You’re so welcome. I’m glad you enjoyed it and continue to for 4 more pounds!
Best,
Melissa