On a day of thrilling ties, this fourth-round clash did not disappoint as Palace twice came from behind to eventually triumph 3-2 at St Mary's.
All five goals came in the first half, with Graziano Pelle opening the scoring after nine minutes - only for Chamakh to draw parity moments later.
Scott Dann's own goal put Saints back in the driving seat, only for Yaya Sanogo to score his first goal for Palace before Chamakh rounded the goalkeeper to slot home what proved a 39th-minute winner.
Those goals were the Morocco international's first for the club in 12 appearances, capping an impressive return from a six-week injury lay-off.
"I thought he was the best player on the pitch today," Palace boss Pardew said.
"When you think about (the) players Southampton have got, that's a real credit to him.
"He has been injured
The guys said to me 'you're going to get a lift in the team when you see him play'.
"I've not really seen a lot of Chamakh in my time.
"He did particularly well at the back end of last year, but I don't think even then he will put in a performance as good as a today
He really was very good."
Pardew also had praise for on-loan Arsenal striker Sanogo - "I think Arsene Wenger will be very pleased", he said - after what was a thrilling cup tie against his former club.
"We worked on our attacking play this week and it was great to see that we had that flamboyance in our play today," the Eagles manager said following a fourth straight win.
"We have good defenders so I was really pleased with the way we went about trying to attack Southampton because they are difficult to attack.
"They keep possession and they kind of get you drawn down
They got the first goal and I thought 'hmmm, this could be difficult', but we got the immediate equaliser, which helped us, I think, and increased our belief.
"Then it really was a great first half
Both teams I thought were terrific and we came out just on the right side of it.
"The second half was different
We locked it up a little bit and had to defend very, very well.
"In terms of a cup tie, I thought it was terrific
Both teams, really, deserved a lot of credit."
Southampton joined Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham in bowing out of the competition on Saturday - making this exit all the more frustrating for manager Ronald Koeman.
"Everybody will say the same - it's a pity because the big ones are out of the FA Cup," the Dutchman said
"You know it's difficult to beat every team, not about the level because everybody is fighting to win games in the FA Cup.
"It was a difficult one - we knew it before
Crystal Palace are doing well with a new manager and they punished the mistakes we did in the first 45 minutes
Now total focus (goes) to the Premier League for next week."
To make matters worse for Saints, their list of absentees grew further after substitute Shane Long had to be taken off following a collision with Palace defender Joel Ward.
"I spoke to the doctor and he thought he will have fractured one or two ribs and that's very painful," Koeman said of the striker, who was taken to hospital.
"It's a pity because we don't have that number of players to go with all the injuries that we have.
"I don't know (how long he is out)
Normally three, four, five weeks."
Source : PA
Source: PA