Chicken with Eggplant and Fontina Cheese

In our attempt to eat better (my husband and I are both PRE-diabetic.) I have been searching for regular recipes that meet the standards for what we can have. We love Italian food. Heck we love all food. So watching our carbs is a little work. I started watching the daily morning talk show "The Chew". I know I'm very cruel to myself. If you don't know what this is it is a talk show with notable chefs as the hosts. They cook and laugh and cook. Did I tell you they cook? Uh yeah. Anyways.....one of my favorite Italian chefs is Lidia Bastianich. I didn't see the show she was on but they had this recipe of hers listed in their recipe files. It sounded so good. So I decided to give it a try and to serve it with a salad and spaghetti squash. The meal was a smash and this chicken is fantastic. I only changed a few things. I will write the recipe as she specifies and note if I did something different. They weren't huge changes. I just can't tell you how delish this was. Reminiscent of chicken Parmesan but not exactly the same. It is pure love on your plate.          

Chicken with Eggplant and Fontina Cheese: Serves 6 (I made more and doubled the sauce.)

1 med. eggplant  
6 (6oz.) boneless/skinless chicken breasts cut in half  on the bias as below. Then pound lightly to even thickness.

  Salt and Pepper
6 Slices of Prosciutto di Parma. *De Parma is the best. It is from Italy. You can get domestic but it is saltier. Both will work. Cut in half.
6 Tbl. olive oil. (I used much more.)
4 Tbl. butter (I used more.)
flour (this is just to lightly dredge the chicken and the slices of eggplant in. More of a dusting.)
6 peeled garlic cloves ( I used more than double the amount and I minced mine.)
1/2 Cup white wine (we used a Pinot Grigio because that was what we were drinking. Santa Margarita is our fave.)
1 Cup chicken stock
1/2 Cup canned good Italian tomatoes. San Marzano is the best. We just used the crushed all purpose tomato.
12 large fresh basil leaves ( we used more as I put two leaves on each breast piece.) Then I chopped the rest and sprinkled it all over the chicken when it was out of the oven.
6 oz. shredded Fontina cheese
1/2 Cup grated Grana Padano. Without a cheese lesson here. You can just use Parmesan cheese. Parm is a type of Padano. You can research it if your curious.

(I DOUBLED ALL THE INGREDIENTS FOR THE SAUCE. I WAS GLAD I DID)
Trim the ends off the eggplant and peel one inch strips of peel off ever inch all the way around. Slice into about 1inch pieces. Lay out and salt both sides and set aside.
Season pounded chicken breast with salt and pepper on both sides. Lay a piece of prosciutto on the stickiest side of the chicken and kinda mash in with your fingers to get the prosciutto to adhere to the chicken. The prosciutto is so thin it will stick pretty easily.
Heat a large pan with 2-3 Tbl. of olive oil in the fry pan and add 2 TBL. of butter. When this melted and blended take chicken and lightly dredge in flour and tap off loose flour. Fry in prosciutto side down first till light brown and slightly crispy (2-3 minutes) and turn and cook other side till lightly brown. Remove and drain on paper towels and then place prosciutto side up in an oven proof pan. I used glass cake pans. You may need to use more than one so you don't over fill the pans. Continue this step till all the chicken is fried. Sprinkle just a bit of Parmesan cheese on the chicken.
Now take the eggplant and in the same skillet fry it. You want to pat the eggplant dry as the salt will cause it to sweat some. Dredge lightly in flour and fry till golden in pan. Drain and place on piece on each piece of chicken. Then lightly sprinkle with just a bit of parm cheese (this is just to help the layers hold together. After you have completed this place one or two fresh, stemmed basil leaves on top of each piece of eggplant that is now on top of each piece of chicken (we are building a tower.)
Now to the sauce.
In the same skilled you cooked the chicken and eggplant add the minced garlic (if you need more olive oil or butter add a little. You don't need much. My pan had gotten kinda dark from the flour and I had to clean it out a little so not to have burnt flour. I didn't wash it as there was flavor in there but I did wipe out the too dark flour. Ok, so we now have a good pan with 2-3 Tbl. olive oil and 2 Tbl. butter approximately. Add the  minced garlic and cook till light brown (dont BURN the garlic as it will become bitter.) Add the the wine and bring to a boil and cook till the wine is almost evaporated. Add in the chicken stock and drop in 2 Tbl. butter and the chopped or pureed or however you like them tomatoes. Boil till slightly reduced and thickened. Add a little salt and pepper.  When the sauce is done take a spoon and spoon a little over the top of each tower. Then spoon the sauce around the chicken. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese and shredded fontina cheese. Bake at 350 till cheese melted and sauce bubbling. I think it cooked about 20-30 minutes.When you remove it from the oven sprinkle with remaining basil leaves that have been chopped or torn into small pieces.
You wont be sorry kids. It is pretty amazing. I served it with spaghetti squash that had olive oil and salt and pepper. I did add a dollop of butter to it when I reheated it in the microwave.
Enjoy!