HOMESTYLE LIVIN': Chicken and Eggplant Parmesan

Yesterday Carolyn requested we make Chicken and Eggplant Parmesan. So at work today I looked up some recipes. Here is what we did

1 eggplant
Kosher salt
5 chicken breasts(butterflied)
Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Pasta
Flour
breadcrumbs
garlic
tomatoes
marinara sauce
First cut the eggplant in 1/2 in slices. Put into a colander and sprinkle the kosher salt on the slices to help the slices weep out the bitter juices.

Let them sit for about an hour(minimum of 30 min). After you let them rest, rinse in cold water.
Next dry them with a paper towel until all the moisture is gone. This will allow the breading to adhere to the slices.

Next you will trim and butterfly your chicken and then we bread both eggplant and chicken.

To bread the chicken you need some flour in a bowl, eggs and milk in a bowl and then the breadcrumbs. In our breadcrumb mixture we added some salt, pepper, garlic and herb, and parmesan cheese.

So as you see he has it set up to first put the item in flour then in the egg mixture then in the breadcrumbs.

We decided to bake ours instead of fry and then finish it in the oven. We try and be a little healthy and not add too much extra fat.

As you can see we are putting them on a cookie sheet/jelly roll pan (depending who you ask) that has been foiled and pamed.

Once you finish breading make sure you spray pam on the tops of the eggplant and chicken. In doing this you won't have to flip them and both the top and bottoms will crisp up.

We decided to make ours with a pasta base and the eggplant and chicken on top, you can also make it like a lasagna where you would layer everything starting with sauce then eggplant/chicken then cheese and more sauce continuing until all of your eggplant/chicken had been used. We put both of our pans into the oven for 20-25 minutes until the chicken was cooked through, at 350.

So next we had to make our sauce. With this we did a semi-homemade sauce, we gave the sauce what it was missing. We started with 4 TBS of butter and then added 2 cloves of minced garlic and two diced tomatoes and some honey to help with the bitterness of the canned sauce. (It's the same as adding sugar just a healthier substitute)

Next we added some marinara sauce, we picked mushroom but any will do.

Doesn't that look good with the big chunks of tomatoes in it? It tasted delicious.

After your chicken and eggplant has finished baking you then add a small amount of sauce and then mozzarella cheese on top. We added goat cheese and mozzarella to give it a creamy taste and break up the flavors. Goat cheese is similar to cream cheese it just tastes slightly more sharp. After you have done that pour remaining sauce into noodles or keep separate depending on how much sauce your family prefers on their own dish. Put the pans back in the oven until cheese is melted.