Italian Herb Chicken over Eggplant

I’m really enjoying coming up with simple, everyday Paleo meal ideas that for the most part do not require many ingredients at all (which is probably what really defines a Paleo eating lifestyle and makes cooking from scratch with raw ingredients easy).

Eggplant is a great vegetable when you cook it right. I tend to believe that people who don’ t like eggplant really haven’t experienced it being cooked in the right fashion. This purple garden gem is like a sponge that soaks up the flavors and liquid of whatever it is cooked in. And depending on the thickness of the cut it may need to cook for quite some time in order to get a texture that is nice to swallow. The skin of an eggplant can be rather tough and leathery so if the slices are not super-thin peeling the skin with a handheld peeler is a good option. If you are unsure about removing it I would suggest to remove it.

For this Paleo meal idea I cooked a couple of chicken breasts in a pan with garlic, chicken broth, garlic, dried oregano, rosemary, salt and pepper. I cooked them for at least an hour until they were fork tender. I sliced the eggplant into thin slices and coated a pan with oil. While the eggplant cooks I spoon broth from the cooked chicken in to the pan. You may need to have extra broth on hand depending on how much eggplant there is to be cooked (I only used one eggplant and 1 – 1 1/2 cups of broth was enough for me).

Once this is all done I just topped the eggplant with some tender chunks of chicken. My husband is not a huge fan of eggplant will eat it just the same so for him I spoon marinara over the eggplant before adding the chicken.

What you need:

1 eggplant
2 chicken breasts
Olive oil & dry herbs
Garlic