What is a parma in Australia?

The parma in Australia is a chicken parmigiana. This ostensibly Italian dish has been highly Australianised, and the Australian parma is a classic Australian pub meal. For extremely non-traditional versions, such as the Mexican parma, try the Shamrock Hotel in Echuca, Victoria.

You’ll be hard-pushed to go into any Australian pub, club or RSL and not see a parma on the menu.

Granted, sometimes the pub will call it a parmi or a parmy – there’s fierce debate over how the dish should be abbreviated. But a parma with chips and salad is arguably the quintessential Australian pub meal.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Find something AMAZING to do tomorrow

Get queue-skipping, mobile-friendly tickets for the top experiences in Australia (and the rest of the world).

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Parma in Australia: Chicken and eggplant

The parma is a chicken parmigiana. The meal, as the name suggests, originated in Italy. Traditionally it would be served with baked eggplant rather than chicken, but don’t get too hung up on tradition here. The parma has undergone so much bastardisation it’s realistically an Australian dish rather than an Italian one.

Tick off 9 Australian bucket list experiences

Take Blue Mountains day tour from Sydney – with kangaroo-feeding at a wildlife park, Scenic World tickets and a Parramatta River cruise.
Snorkel or dive on the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns.
Do Australia’s most spectacular drive on a Great Ocean Road day tour from Melbourne.
Drive along the beach on a 4WD day tour of Fraser Island, the world’s biggest sand island.
Have a dune-top barbecue dinner and stargazing session in the shadow of Uluru.
See penguins on Phillip Island – and more native wildlife at the Moonlit Sanctuary – on a day trip from Melbourne.
Go snorkelling, sandboarding and kayaking on Moreton Island from Brisbane.
Meet gloriously cute quokkas on Rottnest Island near Perth with a ferry and bike hire package.
Kayak with dolphins in Byron Bay.

The classic chicken parma in Australia is fairly simple. Breaded chicken gets covered in tomato and cheese, rather like a pizza would be. The whole thing then gets oven-baked. It’s fairly simple to do, and that’s why so many pubs offer it. It’s up there with the burger and chips in terms of maximum taste for minimum effort.

Chicken parma, chips and salad in an Australian pub — A chicken parma, chips and salad is a classic Australian pub meal.

A general rule of thumb is that the less classy a pub is pretending to be, the bigger the parma will be. Some joints serve up absolute gutbusters that even competitive eaters would struggle to polish off.

The default is to serve the parma with chips and salad. Sometimes those chips are served under the parma, sometimes to the side of it.

Australian parma at Shamrock Hotel in Echuca

A simple dish sometimes has extra layers of complication, however. Mexican parmas, for example, get spiced up. For lots more examples, however, just rock up to the Shamrock Hotel in Echuca.

Echuca is one of the largest Victorian towns on the Murray River. A two-and-a-half hour drive from Melbourne, Echuca is the gateway to the Barmah National Park and Murray Valley National Park. It is also famed for its paddlesteamer cruises and river trade heritage, while the Port After Dark tour offers ghost stories and historic pubs.

The Shamrock Hotel is not the one that contains the most chilling stories, but it does have an alternative gimmick. The Shamrock Hotel in Echuca calls itself ‘the home of 101 parmas’, and it has an enormous parma menu.

Find the best Aussie accommodation deals before you set off.
And some incredible experiences!

Daintree parmas and dessert parmas

If you think doing a parma with chicken rather than eggplant is sacrilege, look away now. The Shamrock’s offerings include the Daintree, named after the crocodile-filled Daintree River in far north Queensland. This comes with prawns, mango, macadamia, avocado, basil and coconut creams.

There’s also a tuna mornay parma and a Porkarella parma. The latter comes with four different hams, bacon, salami, chorizo and melted cheese.

The Shamrock Hotel in Echuca also serves dessert parmas. The Banana Parma consists of pan-fried butterscotch banana topped with toasted almonds and vanilla ice creams. Sorry, Italians – don’t say you weren’t warned to look away.

If you found this guide useful, please consider booking your accommodation and tours through the links to Wotif and Viator below.
Australia Travel Questions earns a small commission from them at no extra cost to you.
This helps keep the site running and adding more guides.
The companies chosen are those usually used by Australia Travel Questions founder David Whitley when booking travel in Australia.
BOOK AUSTRALIAN ACCOMMODATION AND TOURS.