Chicken With Eggplant (lidia Bastianich)

Total Time: 1 hr 20 mins Preparation Time: 40 mins Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded
• 2 medium eggplants
• oil (for frying)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups tomato sauce (preferably homemade)
• 1/2 cup grated romano cheese
• 12 leaves fresh basil (we used parsley, we don't do basil)
• italian seasoning, to taste
• 1/2 cup wine
• 2 tablespoons butter

Recipe

• 1 preheat oven to 400ºf degrees.
• 2 trim the eggplants, and peel if you prefer. lidia stripes them,
• 3 slice on an angle, so that you have 12 good slices in all.
• 4 dredge the eggplant in flour that has been seasoned with salt, pepper & italian seasoning.
• 5 heat a large skillet (preferably with a lid), add enough oil to coat the bottom, and fry the eggplant on medium-high heat until caramelized on both sides.
• 6 set aside on paper towels to drain while you make the chicken.
• 7 lightly pound the chicken breasts and dredge in the seasoned flour.
• 8 reheat the same skillet on medium heat, add two tablespoons of oil and tablespoons of butter, swirling to mix.
• 9 cook the chicken until caramelized on the one side.
• 10 you want the chicken to brown--but do not try to hasten the process by cooking it on high heat.
• 11 you want to do it over gentle heat so as not to toughen the meat.
• 12 turn them over to caramelize on the other side, and top each breast with two slices of eggplant, then a spoonful of sauce, two basil leaves, and a good sprinkling of cheese, and as much italian seasoning as you want.
• 13 let cook for about two minutes, turn up the heat to medium-high, add the wine to the pan, then the remaining tomato sauce.
• 14 shake the pan a bit to mix, add in the last two tablespoons of butter and shake again to mix.
• 15 put the lid on the pan (if your pan does not have a lid, cover with foil that has been sprayed with cooking spray) and finish cooking in the oven--approx 20 minutes.
• 16 remove from oven and serve with a flourish.
• 17 try to use homemade tomato sauce, this is one of those dishes where you will be greatly rewarded for using the homemade sauce.
• 18 to cut down on the fat/calories, you can grill or roast the eggplant instead.
• 19 it is this final oven cooking that makes the chicken meltingly tender and the wine, tomato sauce and butter transform themselves into an incredible sauce.