Chicken Michaelena

Also stolen from Restaurant Tony Pappa in Cranston RI, this is a version of chicken and eggplant Parmesan. At Tony Pappa the chicken was breast meat. I prefer thigh meat [Double entendre alert!] in almost all applications. Tony Pappa used spinach. A fan of all things bitter, I used broccoli rabe [broccolini]. A rich slightly spicy tomato sauce covered the other ingredients. I used a Bolognese style sauce, light on the meat.

serves 4

4 chicken thighs, skinned and boned
1 medium eggplant [melanzane, aubergine...]
good olive oil
fresh mozzarella
good Italian hard cheese [Parmesan, Romano, Asiago]
broccoli rabe.

sauce
28 oz pureed tomatoes
1 medium onion, minced
1 small slightly hot pepper
2 oz hard salami [It's what I had on hand.]
1 small clove garlic
1 T dried oregano
1/2 c dry white wine

Saute the onion, pepper, and salami in olive oil, or butter. I use both.
Add the garlic, 30 seconds max.
Add the tomato, wine, and oregano
Simmer.


Pound the thigh meat flat. Season with salt and pepper and dust with flour. Pan fry until just browned.
Peel, slice, salt, and drain the eggplant. Fry it in olive oil.
Steam the broccoli rabe briefly. It should be bright green. Dump it into cold water and drain. Chop it roughly.
Oil a baking dish. Assemble the servings, chicken, cheeses, broccoli rabe , cheeses, eggplant.
Ladle the sauce over the servings.
Sprinkle generously with grated hard cheese.
Bake in a low oven, 300 or so, for an hour.

Eat it up friends.
I love you.
We will dine together.
Until then...
Martin