Chicken and Eggplant Parmesan with Roasted Parsley Potatoes

Credit: Catherine Roscoe Barr

This chicken schnitzel and eggplant with roasted potatoes was inspired by Aussies

Talk about easy-to-make comfort food! Chicken schnitzel and eggplant, drizzled with garlicky pasta sauce and topped with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese is one easy and affordable dinner to add to your repetoire

It’s no secret that I love food or that I delight in finding a good deal, so when my dear friend Kelly introduced us to The Shakespeare Hotel Pub in Surry Hills while we were living in Sydney last year, I was over the moon.

There are so many things I love about Australians, one of them being the jaunty way they shorten words: The Shakespeare is “The Shakey,” Christmas is “Chrissy” (my politically correct Canadian upbringing caused me to gasp when I first saw the word published in mainstream publications), and while I was interning at Real Living magazine I was referred to as a “workie.”

The Shakey is a great little neighbourhood pub, always packed with a hip after-work crowd who come for the cheap drinks and eats. The menu has over 20 mains for $12.50 (they were only $10 when we were regulars) and one of my favourites, the chicken parma (Australian for chicken Parmesan), inspired the following meal.

I gussied up my regular roasted potato recipe (which you can see here, here and here) with some leftover parsely I had in the fridge. It frustrates me to no end that you can only buy large bunches of parsley and I never seem able to use up more than half of it before it goes bad, so I was very pleased at finding a new, and tasty, use for it.

For the full pub effect, wash this tasty dish down with a nice lager. The Russell Brewing Company’s extra special lager lives up to its name and is locally brewed.

Chicken Parma

Ingredients

• 3 crumbed chicken schnitzels
• 1 large eggplant, sliced lengthwise into 6 pieces
• 1 jar pasta sauce
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
• 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a large roasting pan, lay schnitzels flat so they aren’t overlapping.
3. Top with eggplant, pasta sauce, garlic and cheese.
4. Cook for 1 hour, or until chicken is no longer pink and eggplant is soft.

Roasted Parsley Potatoes

Ingredients

• 1 small bag baby potatoes, quartered
• 1 tsp canola oil
• 1 tsp coarse sea salt 
• 1 large handful parsley, chopped

Instructions

1. On a large baking sheet, combine potatoes, oil, salt and parsley, stirring well to combine.
2. Cook, uncovered, for about 1 hour in 350F oven, stirring halfway through.