Chicken Parmigiana vs. Piccata vs. Marsala vs. Francese: What's Actually the Difference?

The difference is in the coating and the sauce. Chicken Parmigiana is a breaded cutlet fried and then baked under tomato sauce and melted cheese. Chicken Milanese is the same breaded cutlet served with no cooked sauce at all. Chicken Piccata is dredged in flour, pan seared, and finished in a briny butter and caper sauce. Chicken Marsala is pan seared and finished in Marsala wine with mushrooms. Chicken Francese is dipped in egg batter and finished in lemon and butter.

Comparison at a glance

All five preparations start with a boneless chicken breast pounded thin, and all five are cooked in a pan. What separates them is what goes on the outside of the chicken and what goes in the pan afterward. Parmigiana and Milanese share a breadcrumb crust. Piccata, Marsala, and Francese have no crust and are defined by their pan sauces.

Dish	Coating	Sauce or finish	Flavor profile	On the Chef's Roma Kitchen dinner menu
Chicken Parmigiana	Breadcrumbs	Tomato sauce and melted mozzarella, baked	Rich, cheesy, tomato forward	$30.00
Chicken Milanese	Breadcrumbs	None cooked, finished with raw garnishes	Crisp, dry, peppery from the arugula	$28.00
Chicken Piccata	Flour only	Butter with capers, plus lemon or white wine	Bright, salty, briny	$30.00
Chicken Marsala	Flour only	Marsala wine, mushrooms, butter	Savory, faintly sweet, earthy	$28.00
Chicken Francese	Flour, then egg batter	Lemon, butter, white wine	Soft, buttery, citrus forward	$28.00

What is Chicken Parmigiana?

Chicken Parmigiana is a breaded chicken cutlet that is fried and then baked with tomato sauce and melted cheese on top. It is the only one of these five preparations finished with cheese, and the only one built on a tomato sauce rather than a pan sauce. The same treatment is applied to veal and to eggplant, which is why those versions read almost identically on a menu.

At Chef's Roma Kitchen, Chicken Parmigiana (mozzarella and pomodoro, served with choice of penne pasta or vegetables and potatoes) is $30.00. Veal Parmigiana, listed as bread crumbs, pomodoro, and mozzarella, great for sharing at 14 oz., is $65.00, and Eggplant Parmigiana is $28.00.

What is Chicken Milanese?

Chicken Milanese is a breaded chicken cutlet pounded thin and pan fried, then served without a cooked sauce. That absence is the entire difference between Milanese and Parmigiana: same crust, no tomato sauce and no melted cheese baked over the top. It is usually finished with raw garnishes instead, most often arugula, chopped tomato, shaved cheese, and a squeeze of lemon, so the crust stays crisp.

At Chef's Roma Kitchen, Chicken Milanese (tomato, parmesan, and arugula) is $28.00. The menu notes that it excludes sides.

What is Chicken Piccata?

Chicken Piccata is a thin chicken cutlet dredged in flour, pan seared, and finished in a sharp pan sauce built on butter and capers, typically with lemon, white wine, or both. There is no breadcrumb crust and no cheese. Capers are the defining ingredient: a lemon butter chicken with no capers in the sauce is generally not called piccata.

At Chef's Roma Kitchen, Chicken Piccata (spaghetti, butter, white wine, and capers) is $30.00. The kitchen's version is built on white wine rather than a lemon-only sauce and comes plated over spaghetti, so it excludes the standard sides.

What is Chicken Marsala?

Chicken Marsala is a pan seared chicken cutlet finished in a sauce of Marsala wine, usually with mushrooms and butter. The wine is what separates it from the others. Marsala is a fortified wine produced in western Sicily, and it gives the sauce a savory, faintly sweet depth and a darker color than any lemon pan sauce. No breadcrumbs, no cheese, no capers.

At Chef's Roma Kitchen, Chicken Marsala (butter, marsala wine, and mushrooms, served with choice of penne pasta or vegetables and potatoes) is $28.00.

What is Chicken Francese?

Chicken Francese is a chicken cutlet passed through flour and then through beaten egg, pan fried so the egg sets into a soft golden coating rather than a crisp crust, and finished in a lemon, butter, and white wine sauce. The egg batter is the distinguishing feature. Piccata uses flour alone and adds capers, while Francese uses egg and leaves the capers out.

At Chef's Roma Kitchen, Chicken Francese (lightly battered in egg, lemon, and butter, served with choice of penne pasta or vegetables and potatoes) is $28.00.

Which one should you order?

Choose by texture and by sauce, not by price, because all five sit within two dollars of each other. If you want crisp and cheesy, order Parmigiana. If you want the same crust without the sauce weighing it down, order Milanese. If you want something bright and salty, order Piccata. If you want a savory wine and mushroom sauce, order Marsala. If you want lemon and butter with a softer coating, order Francese.

A useful shortcut: Parmigiana and Milanese are the crunchy pair, Piccata and Francese are the citrus pair, and Marsala is the only one of the five whose sauce is built on wine rather than lemon or tomato.

Try all five in Las Vegas and Henderson

All five dishes appear on the same dinner menu at both Chef's Roma Kitchen locations: Southern Highlands, at 10420 S Decatur Blvd #100 in Las Vegas, NV 89141, and Henderson, at 1550 W Horizon Ridge Pkwy Ste P in Henderson, NV 89012. Executive Chef Ricardo Romo runs the kitchens, with more than 30 years in Las Vegas restaurants including Michael Mina at MGM Grand, STK at the Cosmopolitan, and Mastro's Ocean Club at Aria. See the full dinner menu.

Frequently asked questions

Is chicken parmigiana the same as chicken parmesan?

Yes. Chicken parmigiana, chicken parmesan, and chicken parm all describe the same dish: a breaded chicken cutlet baked with tomato sauce and melted cheese. The names are regional habits of speech rather than different recipes. The origin of the word parmigiana itself is disputed among food writers, so treat any single confident explanation of it with some caution.

Which is healthier, chicken piccata or chicken marsala?

Neither is breaded, so both are lighter than Parmigiana, and the honest answer depends on how much butter goes into the pan. Piccata is finished with butter, capers, and an acidic element. Marsala is finished with butter, mushrooms, and fortified wine, which carries more residual sugar than a lemon sauce. Chef's Roma Kitchen does not publish nutrition figures for either dish.

Does chicken francese have egg?

Yes. Egg is the defining element of Chicken Francese. The cutlet is dipped in flour and then in beaten egg before it hits the pan, and the egg sets into a soft golden layer around the chicken. That is the clearest way to tell Francese from Piccata, which uses flour only. Diners with an egg allergy should avoid Francese.

What kind of wine is in chicken marsala?

Marsala wine, a fortified wine made in and around the city of Marsala in western Sicily. It is produced in both dry and sweet styles, and savory cooking generally uses the drier styles. Because it is fortified, it brings more concentration and a nuttier, deeper character to a pan sauce than an ordinary dry white wine would.

Where can I get chicken piccata in Henderson, NV?

Chef's Roma Kitchen Henderson serves Chicken Piccata at $30.00 on its dinner menu, at 1550 W Horizon Ridge Pkwy Ste P, Henderson, NV 89012, phone (702) 331-6300, open daily from 4 PM to 2 AM. The Henderson location holds a 4.7 star rating across 304 reviews on Google. More detail is in our guide to Italian dining in Henderson and on our Henderson Italian restaurant page.