Chicken with Pesto, Eggplant, and Mozzarella

So tonight's inspiration was my refrigerator. This happens often - with my work schedule and all there is hardly enough time to plan and prep during the week so I sometimes make things up on the spot.

This recipe came about by combining the ingredients that I had - from randomly buying things on the "what's good" section on Fresh Direct with items I already had in stock, dinner was created! Tonight, the fridge blessed us with thin cut chicken breast, baby Italian eggplant, fresh mozzarella, pesto (from a previous meal), grape tomatoes, and grey poupon mustard. YUM, how good do all these things sound? The meal was fabulous, I highly recommend trying this out!!! We devoured this with Imagery's Dragons Leaf Syrah, a perfect pair.

Ingredients:

• Thin cut chicken cutlet breasts
• 1 Baby Italian Eggplant, pealed and sliced long ways
• Handful of grape tomatoes, cut into halves
• 1 Garlic Clove, minced
• Fresh Mozzarella, Sliced
• Grated Parmigiano Reggiano
• Pesto Sauce
• Grey Poupon Mustard
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Black Pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Peal the skin off the eggplant and slice thinly, long ways.  Cut the grape tomatoes into halves. Chop up the garlic.

Saute the garlic in olive oil and immediately add the tomatoes and a pinch of salt. Once they are softened, add the eggplant and cook them until translucent, flipping them a few times. Set aside.

Rinse chicken and pat dry. Lay the cutlets flat on a baking tray and season each side with some salt and pepper. Evenly spread a load of pesto on each side. Click here for my pesto recipe.

Spread a tad of grey poupon mustard all over. Then, layer on a slice of eggplant on each piece of chicken breast. Put the tomatoes on each side of the chicken breast; they will give some extra flavor and we will use them on top for serving.

Add the slices of mozzarella on every chicken cutlet and top off with a sprinkle of grated parmigiano reggiano.  Bake in the oven for about 11-12 minutes - of course, if you use thicker breasts than I did, it will need to cook longer.

After cooking

Beautiful layers!