🥘 Carole’s – crispy chicken with aubergine and courgette parmigiana…

Ingredients:

• 1/2 a sourdough loaf (or pack panko breadcrumbs).
• 3 medium size chicken breasts
• 1 egg, whisked
• 2 tbsp olive oil (or spray if you have it)
• 1 large aubergine, cut into 5mm slices
• 1 large courgette, cut into 5mm slices
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• Grated parmesan (and mozzarella if you like, optional).
• Handful of chopped basil

Step by step:

1. Make your breadcrumbs using a food processor and place the whisked egg into a shallow dish. Set your oven to 200C.
2. Cut the chicken portions into thirds and dip them in the whisked egg bath, then cover them with the breadcrumbs. Place them on a baking sheet and spray with oil.
3. Sprinkle oil over the aubergine and courgette slices and lay them out on a separate baking sheet. Season well with salt and pepper.
4. Place the vegetables and the chicken in the oven.
5. Add 2 tbsp oil and the chopped onion to a pan, sauté until translucent. Add the tin of tomatoes, basil and splosh of red wine (optional). Simmer for about 10 minutes until reduced down to a nice thick sauce.
6. After 10 minutes, check the vegetables are ready (just softened) and pour over the reduced tomato sauce. Sprinkle over the parmesan (and mozzarella if using). Return the vegetables to the oven and cook for another 10 minutes.
7. In ten minutes, check that the chicken is cooked,(it will have been in the oven for 20 minutes). Serve it on top of the parmigiana and vegetables of your choice with some lemon wedges.

We made the breadcrumbs with sourdough, but a similar crusty bread will do fine. Panko breadcrumbs are a time saving alternative.

We used Mutty chopped tomatoes but any supermarket brand is ok, especially if you are adding the red wine.

We haven’t used garlic in this recipe, but adding a few cloves to the vegetable baking tray is nice if you like garlic.